GREAT EXPECTATIONS: London's gone wild with 200th Charles Dickens' Anniversary

Oliver Twist

Charles John Huffam Dickens, 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic novels and characters. Dickens's novels were, among other things, works of social commentary. He was a fierce critic of the poverty and social stratification of Victorian society. Dickens's second novel, Oliver Twist (1839), shocked readers with its images of poverty and crime and was responsible for the clearing of the actual London slum, Jacob's Island, that was the basis of the story. In addition, with the character of the tragic prostitute, Nancy, Dickens "humanised" such women for the reading public; women who were regarded as "unfortunates", inherently immoral casualties of the Victorian class/economic system.Bleak House and Little Dorrit elaborated expansive critiques of the Victorian institutional apparatus: the interminable lawsuits of the Court of Chancery that destroyed people's lives in Bleak House and a dual attack in Little Dorrit on inefficient, corrupt patent offices and unregulated market speculation.

Dickens 2012 seems to aim an international celebration of the life and work of Charles Dickens to mark the bicentenary of his birth, which falls on 7 February 2012. Institutions and organisations from all over the world are partners of Dickens 2012 and deliver a programme of events and activities to commemorate this anniversary.

More info on:

DICKENS2012.ORG  Official website

Charles Dickens Primary School Celebration (cute)

IN THE MEDIA

BBC (video)

Daily Mail

Of course, Prince Charles&Camilla got involved. BBC

New Yok Times

TO ENJOY HIS WORK (ONLINE READING, free downloads):

Fiction  (Click on the names)

• • A Christmas Carol
  • A Message from the Sea
  • A Tale of Two Cities
  • All The Year Round
  • American Notes
  • Barnaby Rudge
  • Bleak House
  • David Copperfield
  • Dombey and Son
  • Great Expectations
  • Hard Times
  • Holiday Romance
  • Hunted Down
  • Little Dorrit
  • Martin Chuzzlewit
  • Master Humphrey's Clock
  • Mudfog and Other Sketches
  • Nicholas Nickleby
  • Oliver Twist
  • Our Mutual Friend
  • Reprinted Pieces
  • Sketches by Boz
  • Stories About Children Every Child Can Read
  • The Battle of Life
  • The Chimes
  • The Cricket on the Hearth
  • The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain
  • The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices
  • The Mystery of Edwin Drood
  • The Old Curiosity Shop
  • The Pickwick Papers
  • The Uncommercial Traveller

• Non-Fiction

  • A Child's History of England
  • Miscellaneous Papers
  • My Father as I Recall Him
  • Pictures From Italy

• Plays

  • No Thoroughfare

• Short Stories

• The Child's Story
• A Christmas Tree
• Nobody's Story
• The Poor Relation's Story
• The Schoolboy's Story
• What Christmas is as we Grow Older
• The Wreck of the Golden Mary
• Doctor Marigold
• George Silverman's Explanation
• Going into Society
• The Boots at the Holly Tree Inn
• The Holly Tree
• The Lamplighter
• The Haunted House
• Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy
• Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings
• Mugby Junction
• The Perils of Certain English Prisoners
• The Seven Poor Travellers
• Sketches of Young Couples
• Sketches of Young Gentlemen
• Somebody's Luggage
• Sunday Under Three Heads
• To Be Read At Dusk
• Tom Tiddler's Ground
• The Signal-Man
• The Trial For Murder
• The Christmas Goblins
• The Poor Traveler

Courtesy: http://www.online-literature.com/dickens/

Have a nice week-end and happy reading,

Inma.