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Zooks! Time to read some Robert Browning.
Robert Browning Bicentenary

Zooks! Time to read some Robert Browning.

by Edward on May 7, 2012 • No Comments
A couple months ago I read this piece in the Telegraph by Thomas Marks, reminding readers that Dickens is not the only writer celebrating a bicentennial this year.  Robert Browning, Victorian master poet of the dramatic dialogue, also was born 200 years ago this year (May 7, today!).  I am...
May is David Copperfield at the FLP
David Copperfield / FLP Boz Bicentenary Speakers / FLP Dickens Literary Salons

May is David Copperfield at the FLP

by Edward on May 6, 2012 • No Comments
Our novel for the month at the Free Library of Philadelphia is David Copperfield, or to be more precise, The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account.  Copperfield  is the most autobiographical of Dickens’ novels,...
The Trials of John Jasper
Mystery of Edwin Drood

The Trials of John Jasper

by Edward on Mar 15, 2012 • No Comments
SPOILERS AHEAD In Dickens’ final incomplete novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, when Drood goes missing it is assumed that he has been murdered.  Edwin’s uncle and guardian, John Jasper, is the choirmaster of the Cloisterham Cathedral, but Jasper is also secretly in love with Edwin’s fiancée, Rosa Bud.  To...
A little touch of Dickens in the night
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...
Clark Park Celebration
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...
And so it begins with Pickwick
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 of a Year Reading Order
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...
The Dickens of a Year Plan
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...
Latest entries
Dickens Events

Dickens of a Day

by Edward on May 17, 2012 • No Comments
The Monmouth County Library in Manalapan NJ is having a Dickens of a Day as part of their CeleBritain program in June.  A full slate of events on Sun June 3, features a Dickens performance, readings and a talk by me. A Dickens of a Day events Charles Dickens-Live! with Actor Joe Plummer 1:00 PM ...
Robert Browning Bicentenary

Reading Browning Part 3: “This world’s no blot for us”

by Edward on May 15, 2012 • No Comments
So many short poems by Browning.  My head is swimming in his characters.  I’ll close my readings with “Fra Lippo Lippi” although I’m still hoping to read “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” aloud to my youngest children. I read the poem with the rain pouring down outside my window, pipe-smoke filling the air of my...
Robert Browning Bicentenary

Reading Browning Part 2: Porphyria’s Lover

by Edward on May 11, 2012 • No Comments
When I first discovered that Browning was having a bicentenary this year, it happened that the first poem I read was “Porphyria’s Lover.”  And boy was I knocked for a loop.  A very unsuspecting denouement.  I’m dubbing “Porphyria’s Lover,” Victorian Noir. Porphyria’s Lover The rain set early in tonight, The sullen wind was soon awake,...
Robert Browning Bicentenary

Reading Browning Part 1

by Edward on May 8, 2012 • No Comments
Some thoughts on the first few Robert Browning poems I’ve read this week.  I’ve linked to the text of each poem.  My comments are full of spoilers if you haven’t yet read the poems. “My Last Duchess”  Ferrara’s casual indifference to his wife’s fate (that he has probably murdered her), is it feigned?  Is he...
David Copperfield

Reading David Copperfield Part 1

by Edward on May 8, 2012 • No Comments
As I’ve been reading David Copperfield, I’ve been taking notes which I had originally intended to post while I was reading the book, a kind of progressive log book for my reactions.  However, other commitments and the death of my computer at the start of April (my computer use is now relegated to my daughter’s...

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