Charles Dickens’ life was celebrated world-wide Feb. 7, marking the 200th anniversary of the English writer’s birth when, today, it’s still the best and worst of times.
It was the best of times, and the worst of times; while that line from Charles Dickens certainly describes today’s world situation, it also sums up the theme of many Dickens books and stories that delve into the human condition on a high art level that’s still timely today, some 200 years after the birth of Dickens on Feb. 7, 1812. Dickens’ legacy is so huge that his 200th birthday was marked with a special Google logo, a grand turn-out of Royals and 200 of his descendants in London, a big Dickens bash in Philadelphia, new books and films about the famous writer’s life and even a Dickens’ marathon in Africa with fans reading Dickens’ books all day long on his 200th birthday.
Who was Charles Dickens?
A Japanese exchange student asked this reporter “who was Charles Dickens?” The reply was easy: Dickens created the characters Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim, and there’s Fagan and Oliver Twist, and hundreds of other clever names from his books that are still considered the best books in the English language, and right up there with William Shakespeare.
In turn, BBC News and other international TV news media carried the big birthday party for Dickens in London Feb. 7; while literary experts called Dickens the “first global celebrity” back some 180 years ago when a 20-year-old Dickens was already making a name for himself with his unique story telling.
At the same time, the AP and other media noted on his 200th birthday, Feb. 7, how Dickens was the first “chronicler of a world of urban inequality that looks a lot like the one we live in today;” while quoting Dickens’ biographer Claire Tomalin as saying: "You only have to look around our society and everything he wrote about in the 1840s is still relevant," said Dickens' biographer. The great gulf between the rich and poor, corrupt financiers, corrupt Members of Parliament ... You name it, he said it."
In turn, the reports noted how “Dickens' mistrust of the wealthy and compassion for the poor haven't stopped him being embraced by Britain's high and mighty.”
Royals praise Dickens in London
Today’s Dickens birthday in London was an impressive sight, with Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, joined Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, actor Ralph Fiennes, a host of dignitaries and scores of Dickens' descendants at a memorial service Tuesday in London's Westminster Abbey.
Also, the AP and other media reported how a simultaneous event was also held in Portsmouth, southern England, where Dickens was born, the son of a navy pay clerk, on Feb. 7, 1812. In a message read out there, Charles called Dickens "one of the greatest writers of the English language, who used his creative genius to campaign passionately for social justice."
At the same time, Prince Charles -- the heir to the throne laid a wreath of white roses and snowdrops on the writer's grave in Poet's Corner - resting place of national literary icons - and two of Dickens' youngest descendants added a pair of small white posies, during the London celebration.
"Dickens said in his will that he wanted no public ceremonies, no statues, no public acknowledgment," stated details from a forthcoming new book "Dickens' London,” that also explains that Dickens wanted to be buried and die as a private man. He wanted his books to stand as his monument.
Moreover, the BBC News and other TV media featured experts who explained why Dickens is so important so English literature: "The quality of the writing is part of why we still relate to him today," said Jo Robinson, a graduate student at King's College London who is researching Dickens. "He's an incredibly vivid writer.
He has such an array of characters and there's so much to get out of him ... Each generation sees it in their own way."
Dickens is beloved for his powerful stories
Back here in the U.S., National Public Radio (NPR) featured an all-day Feb. 7 tribute to Charles Dickens — “one of the most beloved storytellers in the English language — was born 200 years ago Tuesday. He was a comic genius and a social reformer whose novels made him famous in his own time, and continue as classics in ours”
NPR also noted “at the Morgan Library in New York, the Dickens bicentennial celebration is in full swing with an exhibition of the largest collection of Dickensiana outside England — documents, letters, illustrations and artifacts from the author of David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and more.”
Life for this English writer was never easy. For instance, NPR stated that “Dickens began his literary career with almost no formal education. He was born in Landport, on Feb. 7, 1812, the second of eight children. When he was 12, his father was sent to debtor's prison. Dickens was forced to quit school and work in a London blacking factory, sealing pots of shoe polish and pasting labels on them. He would rework that hellish experience into his fiction for the rest of his life.”
"He was a social reformer who knew whereof he spoke," says actor Simon Callow, author of a new biography called Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World. "He knew what poverty was. He knew what it was to be rejected, to be cast aside, to live in squalor."
Romney’s poor remarks mirrors Dickens’ concerns
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s recent remarks about not caring for the very poor in America would probably get a rise from Dickens’ say historians, since Dickens’ was “all about helping the poor and needy during his life, and with this writing.”
Thus, Dickens is best remembered for what he wrote with great compassion for the suffering of innocent and vulnerable children — characters like David Copperfield, Little Dorrit and the orphan, Oliver Twist:
“With his slice of bread in his hand, and his little brown parish cap on his head, Oliver was now led away from the wretched home, where one kind word or look never lighted the gloom of his infant days," wrote Dickens. "Yet he burst into an agony of childish grief as the cottage gate closed after him. Wretched as were the little companions in misery he was now leaving behind him, they were the only friends he had ever had.”
Dickens’ a writer’s writer
He wrote with pen and paper.
And, NPR explained that “Dickens wrote all the time. He traveled with a portable inkwell and a supply of quill pens.”
Dickens died in 1870, after a stroke at age 58. Dickens' achievement was extraordinary, says novelist T.C. Boyle, who earned a doctorate in Victorian literature.
"He achieved what any great artist achieves — a body of work that has entertained and delighted and instructed people down through the ages. That's what we all hope for," says Boyle.
Dickens’ focused on being human
A recent tribute in the Christian Science Monitor notes how “Dickens appreciated the endless foibles of humanity as perhaps no one since Shakespeare. With great affection, he loved to tweak our pretensions and contradictions.”
"Charity begins at home," one of his characters declared in a trademark bit of Dickensian wit, "and justice begins next door."
"He didn't advocate grand schemes to improve the world," says Mike Quinn, a former New York City parole officer who founded The Friends of Dickens New York.
"He simply showed how each individual can make a difference by noticing, by caring, by encouraging."
“As today marks the 200th anniversary of Dickens's birth, the question of society's obligations is on many lips, from those of presidential candidates who want to trim the American safety net to protesters who decry the dominance of the 1 percent,” added the Christian Science Monitor report; while also pointing to Dickens’ visit to America.
For instance, “during a fact-finding trip to the United States in 1842 broadened his perspective on social justice,” says Diana Archibald, an associate professor of English at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell who is helping to organize an exhibit in Massachusetts about what he found.
While Dickens was disappointed and complained that the US "is not the republic of my imagination," Ms. Archibald says, "he also found some institutions a source of inspiration and hope."
"He loved to make people laugh," she says. "That can be a rare thing in someone so earnest." And so very powerful, too
Dickens knew Scrooge and predicted his death
A new book that marks this 140th anniversary year of the passing of Charles Dickens reveals “he was David Copperfield,” and he knew “Ebenezer Scrooge,” and he lived the life of “Oliver Twist.”
“It’s almost come ‘round again, the Christmas season. And none too soon, either, to judge by the face I see on my accustomed jaunts through our streets. Poor souls, they do need brightening. Ever since I penned my “Christmas Carol,” a few years back, the Spirit of Christmas has been present. Mr. Scrooge learned from his ghostly visitor to follow one’s heart and the kinder the merrier, the better the dance of life,” wrote Dickens in an 1845 London newspaper.
“Charles Dickens,” the new book by Michael Slater notes that the famed author was described by friends as compassionate, charming, creative, and curious and bewitched by “spirits.”
He believed in ghosts, demons and love as the only real power on Earth, writes Slater.
Slater’s new book also reveals “the darkest hours in the life of Charles Dickens,” and why he could dig deep into the psyche of man to expose the demons that haunt man.
At the same time, the book has been a best seller here in Eugene and other major book markets, says Martin Palmer who sells vintage and historical books.
“We sold out of Dickens in this week, and that’s grand for my business and for the sake of books. I’m told even the local libraries have a waiting list that’s been put on hold because there’s so many who are interested in this personal Dickens.”
Dickens suffered the worst of times
For example, when Dickens was just 12 his father John Dickens was arrested and thrown into deters prison for his debt. In turn, Dickens was forced to work in a shoe factory for a “Scrooge” type of character. While working in this dank factory, he met “Bob Fagin,” who would later be featured in “Oliver Twist.”
“Dickens was deeply hurt and traumatized by this poor life, and instead of speaking about it, he simply wrote about it to exercise the demons. Dickens was, in fact, David Copperfield,” states Slater.
The following lines from the first page of Dickens’ “David Copperfield” are considered some of words ever written in English about being human.
“I am born. Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To being my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.”
Remembering his life
Dickens was born on Feb. 7, 1812 and died on June 9, 1870 at the age of 58. This year marks the 140th anniversary of his passing, and during the month of December in England it’s Dickens’ month at both Cambridge and Oxford Universities where Dickens’ work is read and remembered.
Palmer also thinks Dickens is the tops when it comes to classic literary figures such as Robert Louis Steven and Mark Twain.
“You take ‘A Christmas Carol,’ by Charles Dickens, for example, and you have one of the greatest holiday stories ever written by one of the top authors of all time. Nobody can touch Dickens when it comes to lasting book sales, with the exception of the Bible,” he explained.
Image source of Charles John Huffam Dickens born on Feb. 7, 1812. Photo courtesy Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens
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