Dickensblog

Spotlight on 'The Cricket'

The Dickens Museum is displaying some of John Leech's sketches for The Cricket on the Hearth, to remind visitors that Dickens wrote more than one Christmas book! The Guardian has an article about the exhibit and the book, with quotes from Lucinda Dickens Hawksley about this and her ancestor's other Christmas books. 

Dickens's other Christmas tales

Happy Thanksgiving! In case you're looking for a little reading material for the break and you've already gotten in another Christmas Carol reading, Cemetery Gates Media has a new review of Dickens's other, lesser-known Christmas books. 

Dickens in color

Flavorwire is featuring some beautiful vintage color illustrations from various works by Dickens, by various artists.

A Dickens freebie

As a Christmas special, Audible.com is offering its members a brand new audiobook for free: Dickens's "The Cricket on the Hearth," narrated by award-winning actor Jim Dale.

Dickens on Screen: A Retrospective

by Rachel McMillan, guest blogger

One of the highlights of my year was the Dickens on Screen festival at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. This particular event, organized to coincide with the bicentenary, had several stops and was curated by Adrian Wootton, the chief executive of Film London  and an avid Dickensian and film historian in his own right.

Borrowed from Dickens

Joseph Bottum, author of what's probably my all-time favorite essay about Dickens, has written a delightful little Christmas tale in which he uses the names of many characters from Dickens's Christmas stories, such as Toby Veck (The Chimes), May Fielding (The Cricket on the Hearth), and Clemency Newcome (The Battle of Life). Bottum's Wise Guy is available on Amazon as a 99-cent e-book.