Reading Charles Dickens | A Dickens of a Year

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

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,...

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...

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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The Reading Life

Plodding on

by Edward on May 6, 2012 • No Comments

Eight months into my Dickens Reading Project and I’m still plodding along. Some weeks I read a lot, some not so much. There are days when my mind seems to relax, sitting in my study, reading by the sunlight shining in the window, and the pages just breeze by. But there are also nights when I...

FLP Dickens Literary Salons / Old Curiosity Shop

Literary Salon: The Old Curiosity Shop

by Edward on Apr 19, 2012 • No Comments

Tonight in the Rare Book Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia, our Dickens Literary Salon will focus on The Old Curiosity Shop. Little Nell and Quilp. Now that’s a great evening of talk. For more on Old Curiosity Shop check out David Perdue’s Dickens site. I find Daniel Quilp, the manical, anarchic, demonic villain...

Dickens Events / FLP Dickens Literary Salons / General / Mystery of Edwin Drood

Dickens Literary Salon: The Mystery of Edwin Drood

by Edward on Mar 2, 2012 • No Comments

For our next Dickens Literary Salon, we’re skipping to the end for Dickens’ last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Warning: Drood spoilers ahead. If you haven’t yet read the novel, this post will reveal some of the plot. When Charles Dickens died in 1870 he had only written half of his novel The Mystery of...

Dickens Events / FLP Boz Bicentenary Speakers / Mystery of Edwin Drood

Boz Bicentenary Speakers: Matthew Pearl

by Edward on Mar 2, 2012 • No Comments

When Charles Dickens died suddenly of stroke in 1870 he had written half of a novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Dickens published all of his novels in serial format and wrote the chapters sometimes just weeks before they were published. So when he died with Drood only half written, it really was just that,...

Dickens Events / FLP Dickens Literary Salons / The Pickwick Papers

Dickens Literary Salon: Pickwick Papers

by Edward on Jan 8, 2012 • 2 Comments

All year long the Free Library of Philadelphia will be holding Dickens Literary Salons. We’ll be meeting on the third Thursday of every month to discuss a different novel by Dickens in the Elkins Room of the Rare Book Department. A full schedule can be found here. The Salons are free and open to the...

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