Reading Charles Dickens | A Dickens of a Year

Christmas Drinking with Dickens

by Edward on Dec 2, 2012 • No Comments

Our final Drinking with Dickens event of the season will be a special Christmas event. Drinking with Dickens Dark Horse Pub (formerly the Dickens Inn) 421 S. 2nd St Philadelphia, PA Monday December 10 7-9 PM The bar will be serving Smoking Bishop and Wassail Punch. We’ll toast the memory of Dickens...

Dickens and Drinking / Dickens Events

“Bottle stands— pass it round”

by Edward on Sep 18, 2012 • No Comments

“Bottle stands— pass it round—way of the sun—through the button hole—no heeltaps.” -Mr. Jingle in The Pickwick Papers What larks! Our first night of celebrating Dickensian conviviality was a big success. Below are the drinks enjoyed by our guests (all recipes from Convivial Dickens, the Drinks of Dickens and...

Dickens and Philadelphia / Dickens Events

Philadelphia is the place to be for Dickensians in September

by Edward on Sep 9, 2012 • 1 Comment

A very busy month at the Free Library of Philadelphia in September to celebrate the Charles Dickens Bicentenary: Paint the American Eagle One-Shot Productions will give three performances of their show, Paint the American Eagle, on Mon Sept 10 at 7PM, Tue Sept 11 at 7PM and Wed Sept 12 at 2PM:...

Dickens Events / Dickens on Film and TV / Great Expectations

David Lean’s Great Expectations

by Edward on Aug 24, 2012 • No Comments

Very excited to introducing one of the greatest Dickens’ film adaptations, David Lean’s Great Expectations (1946) at the County Theater in Doylestown PA on Sept 13 and at the Ambler Theater in Ambler, PA on Sept 19. More info here. If you’ve never seen it, check out the opening sequence above. One...

Dickens and Theatre / Illustrated Dickens

Dickens was glorious as Captain Bobadil

by Edward on Jun 11, 2012 • No Comments

Today is the 440th birthday of Ben Jonson. Dickens performed as Captain Bobadil from Jonson’s play Every Man in His Humour in a few productions with the Amateur Players, including 1847 benefits for the author Leigh Hunt. One audience member wrote, “Dickens was glorious. He literally floated in braggadocio. His air of supreme...

Dickensia

Death of Dickens

by Edward on Jun 9, 2012 • No Comments

Today is the anniversary of Charles Dickens’ death. He died on June 9, 1870 (142 years ago) after suffereing a stroke the day before. I’ll be raising a toast to his memory. Here is John Forster’s account of Dickens’ last days: The few days at Gadshill had been given wholly...

Dickensia

A little touch of Dickens in the night

by Edward on Mar 11, 2012 • No Comments

Dickens is omnipresent in my life now. Not only does my study have shelves full of books by and about Dickens, but paraphernalia has been increasing as I attempt to fully immerse myself in a Dickensian world. A print of the The Old Curiosity Shop is perched amidst the clutter...

Dickens Events

Clark Park Celebration

by Edward on Feb 7, 2012 • No Comments

A statue of Charles Dickens with Little Nell looking up at him has resided in Clark Park in Philadelphia for over 100 years. The statue was sculpted a couple decades after Dickens’ death in 1870, however, since the author had requested no public memorials to his memory, the sculptor, Frank Elwell, had a hard time...

Reader's Forum / The Pickwick Papers

And so it begins with Pickwick

by Edward on Oct 3, 2011 • No Comments

In which your humble Dickens reader discovers what Pickwickian means . . . I’m beginning my Dickens of a Year with The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club because I like the idea of beginning where his serial readers began. Sketches by Boz was published in book form (two volumes)...

Dickens Reading Project

Dickens of a Year Reading Order

by Edward on Sep 24, 2011 • 1 Comment

My order of reading will be as close as possible to the publication dates, meaning I’ll try to discover Dickens (in a compressed fashion) as his original readers did. I’ll make an exception for the Christmas books, which I’ll read this December. Here’s the order including some of the journalism, but...

Dickens Reading Project

The Dickens of a Year Plan

by Edward on Sep 24, 2011 • 1 Comment

For the next 365 days I’ll be reading ALL of Dickens (or at least as much as humanly possible). Here’s my Dickens of a Year plan: 1. I’ll read all the published works of Dickens: novels, short stories, journalism (all that has been identified), as well as many Dickens letters...

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Dickens and Drinking / Dickens Events

Drinking with Dickens

by Edward on Sep 17, 2012 • 1 Comment

DRINKING WITH DICKENS A celebration of the Victorian conviviality of Charles Dickens “May we never want a friend in need, nor a bottle to give him!” –Captain Cuttle in Dombey and Son Join the Free Library’s Charles Dickens Ambassador Edward Pettit for an evening of conviviality in Dickensian style. Bars will be serving Victorian drinks featured...

American Notes / Dickens Events / Martin Chuzzlewit

Reuben Wade’s Paint the American Eagle

by Edward on Sep 11, 2012 • No Comments

An excellent and interesting show last night at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Reuben Wade’s play, Paint the American Eagle, was given a stripped down reading by four actors: Steven Wright as Professor Franklin Harris; Miriam White as the eldest Dickens child, Kate; Amanda Schoonover as Catherine Dickens; Brian McCann as Charles. There will be...

FLP Boz Bicentenary Speakers / FLP Dickens Literary Salons / Tale of Two Cities

Tale of Two Cities

by Edward on Jul 10, 2012 • No Comments

July at the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Year of Dickens celebration is all about A Tale of Two Cities. Tonight (Tuesday, July 10 at 7PM), as part of the Boz Bicentenary Speaker series, Sandra Sokowski will be linking Philadelphia with Dickens’ Tale: “Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities: Dr. Manette and the Prisoner at Eastern...

Barnaby Rudge

Some things never change

by Edward on Jun 16, 2012 • No Comments

Dickens on the power of demagoguery in Barnaby Rudge. Interesting that Dickens is writing in 1840 about how leaders in 1780 who unscrupulously pervert the will of the ignorant masses and in 2012 it is still all too true: To surround anything, however monstrous or ridiculous, with an air of mystery, is to invest it...

Barnaby Rudge / The Reading Life

The Devil’s Wages

by Edward on Jun 13, 2012 • No Comments

Immensely enjoying listening to Simon Vance reading Barnaby Rudge (Blackstone Audio 1998). I follow along with the text as I listen because the words help anchor me. Often, when I listen to radio dramatizations or lectures, I find my mind wanders easily. The speaker says something that triggers an idea or a memory and the...

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