Dickensblog

Another look at a little-seen Dickens musical

Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, creators of Annie and Bye Bye Birdie, also wrote a musical based on The Old Curiosity Shop, titled A Pound in Your Pocket. The musical never played New York, but now it's getting a one-night-only concert performance there at Feinstein's/54 Below on January 24. Go here and here for details!

Eating with Dickens

The title of Laura Freeman's recent article in the Telegraph, "How Charles Dickens stopped me from starving myself to death," is slightly misleading. It wasn't just Dickens whose writing about food made this anorexic young woman realize that "food could be a pleasure"; it was also Siegfried Sassoon, Thomas Hardy, Marcel Proust, and several other writers. However, Dickens was one of those who played a part in her recovery, and that makes perfect sense -- he always had a special gift for writing about the simple joys and pleasures of life, and making them sound extra appealing.

In short, as Freeman puts it, "Never read Charles Dickens without a well-stocked larder. His novels can make a reader very hungry."

'Dickensian' may shoot in Eastern Europe

In Variety, Tony Jordan says that they're having trouble finding studio space for the show and that it may have to shoot in Eastern Europe, though he acknowledges, "It just doesn't feel quite right. It should be in the U.K." The piece also mentions some of the buildings and characters that are going to appear on the show. 

New details on 'Dickensian'

Tony Jordan spoke at the London Screenwriters' Festival and gave new details about his upcoming show for BBC One, Dickensian. He said, "We’re building 40,000 square feet of Dickensian London in a warehouse, with smoke and fire and horses." He also said that we'll see Little Nell in the first episode, and hinted that he might have a different fate for her than Dickens did! The Times has the story (subscriber-only).

Is 'The Boxtrolls' Dickensian?

by Steven D. Greydanus, guest blogger

"Dickensian" is a word cropping up in reviews of the new animated film The Boxtrolls. Is The Boxtrolls "Dickensian"?

Partially. The town of Cheesebridge is full of nasty people akin to Dickens's rogue's gallery: a town full of Squeers, Quilps, Fagins, and Havishams.

But what about the other side of the ledger?

A peek into 'Dickensian'

At last, Tony Jordan gives us a few details about what his upcoming series Dickensian is going to be like! His teaser, from an article in the Independent, is under the cut . . .

Twenty memorable characters

Clive Baugh's essay "Twenty of Dickens's Most Memorable Characters" is a couple years old, but I just now came across it, and it's so good I had to share it. In addition to his thoughtful take on characters from various Dickens's novels, there are also lots of great illustrations, many of which I'd never seen before.

Away with melancholy

Herb requested a quote from The Old Curiosity Shop.

"Some men in his blighted position would have taken to drinking; but as Mr Swiveller had taken to that before, he only took, on receiving the news that Sophy Wackles was lost to him for ever, to playing the flute; thinking after mature consideration that it was a good, sound, dismal occupation, not only in unison with his own sad thoughts, but calculated to awaken a fellow-feeling in the bosoms of his neighbours. In pursuance of this resolution, he now drew a little table to his bedside, and arranging the light and a small oblong music-book to the best advantage, took his flute from its box, and began to play most mournfully.

"The air was 'Away with melancholy' -- a composition, which, when it is played very slowly on the flute, in bed, with the further disadvantage of being performed by a gentleman but imperfectly acquainted with the instrument, who repeats one note a great many times before he can find the next, has not a lively effect. Yet, for half the night, or more, Mr Swiveller, lying sometimes on his back with his eyes upon the ceiling, and sometimes half out of bed to correct himself by the book, played this unhappy tune over and over again; never leaving off, save for a minute or two at a time to take breath and soliloquise about the Marchioness, and then beginning again with renewed vigour. It was not until he had quite exhausted his several subjects of meditation, and had breathed into the flute the whole sentiment of the purl down to its very dregs, and had nearly maddened the people of the house, and at both the next doors, and over the way -- that he shut up the music-book, extinguished the candle, and finding himself greatly lightened and relieved in his mind, turned round and fell asleep."

Chapter 58

Dickens in color

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

Revisiting 'The Old Curiosity Shop'

Random Reads, a blog at Random House India, is doing a series about "forgotten" classics. This month, The Old Curiosity Shop is featured. It's odd to think of this one as "forgotten," when it was so immensely popular in its time -- but there's no doubt that tastes have changed since then. Makes you wonder which Dickens novels will be considered the best, and which will be "forgotten," in another century or so.

(Elsewhere, Simon Riley, reviewing an updated dramatic version, reminds us how relevant The Old Curiosity Shop still is.)