HAPPY 200TH BIRTHDAY CHARLES DICKENS

[Lady Cop]

MY FAVORITE AUTHOR IS REMEMBERED TODAY on his 200^th Birthday.

the Prince of Wales today paid tribute to Dickens as ‘one of the greatest writers of the English language’ at a service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey.

He was joined by the Duchess of Cornwall, the Archbishop of Canterbury and luminaries from the worlds of literature and theatre at the a service during which wreaths were laid at Dickens’ grave in Poets’ Corner.

Charles laid a wreath of white roses and snowdrops on Dickens’ grave before two of the writer’s descendants, great-great-great-grandson Bob Dickens and great-great-great-great-granddaughter Rachel Dickens Green, made their own tribute on behalf of the family by laying two posies.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

I find it amazing that none of his books have ever gone out of print

[Lady Cop]

I find it amazing that none of his books have ever gone out of print

they are timeless classics.

children are taught Dickens' works in schools, and any generation that loves literature will continue to buy and read them.

[Lady Cop]

can't wait, can't wait, CANNOT WAIT!!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/grea...index.html




An orphan boy meets an escaped convict, a crazed rich woman, a bewitching girl, and grows up to have great expectations of wealth from a mysterious patron, on Great Expectations, Charles Dickens' remarkable tale of rags to riches to self-knowledge, starring Gillian Anderson (The X-Files, Bleak House), David Suchet (Hercule Poirot), Ray Winstone, and Douglas Booth.

Anderson appears as one of Dickens' most haunting creations: Miss Havisham, a bride-to-be who was jilted at the altar years before. Newcomer Booth stars as Pip, the promising young man who is snared in Miss Havisham's lair.

Great Expectations airs during the bicentennial of Dickens' birth and marks the fifteenth Masterpiece adaptation of the great novelist's works.

[Lady Cop]

(CNN) -- Charles Dickens, who was born 200 years ago this week, created some of the best-known and most loved figures in English literature, from Oliver Twist and David Copperfield to Pip, Miss Havisham and Magwitch.

But of all the characters he wrote about, none played as important a role in his work as that of London itself: its hustle and bustle, its glittering promise and grimy streets and the extremes of poverty and wealth experienced by those who lived there.

Alex Werner, the curator of the Museum of London's "Dickens and London" exhibition, says the city was "absolutely central" to Dickens' work.

"It triggered his imagination," he told CNN. "He called it his 'magic lantern', and would spend hours pacing the streets, drawing inspiration from what he saw around him."

As Britain -- and literature lovers the world over -- celebrates Dickens' bicentenary in 2012, what better time to explore the city he knew and loved best?

Dickens moved to London as a child, but the family soon ran into financial trouble: His father was sent to debtors' prison, and at the age of just 12, Dickens was forced to work in a shoe polish factory -- Warren's Blacking Warehouse, at Hungerford Stairs -- to support his mother and siblings.

"It was a crazy, tumbledown old house, abutting of course on the river, and literally overrun with rats... the dirt and decay of the place rise up visibly before me, as if I were there again," he later told his biographer, John Forster. Both the warehouse and the stairs, near what is now Embankment tube station, are long gone.

The Charles Dickens Museum is housed in Dickens' former family home, in Doughty Street. It was here that he wrote "Oliver Twist" and "Nicholas Nickleby."

Opened in 1925, the museum holds the world's most important collection of Dickens items, including his pens, letters, and furniture. It is to close for much of 2012 as part of a 3.1 million redevelopment project, but is expected to reopen before Christmas.

The offices of All The Year Round, one of the magazines Dickens founded to publish his stories, are on Wellington Street, just off the Strand. At the height of Dickens' popularity, crowds would gather outside to wait for the latest episode. Today the Charles Dickens Coffee House is on the ground floor.

Dickens is buried in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner, alongside other literary greats including Geoffrey Chaucer, Alfred Tennyson and Thomas Hardy.

Many of the other members of the Dickens family, including his parents, John and Elizabeth -- the models for Mr Micawber and Mrs Nickleby -- his ex-wife Katherine, sister, and nephew -- the inspiration for Tiny Tim in "A Christmas Carol" -- are buried in Highgate Cemetery. To mark the Dickens bicentenary, the cemetery is hosting Dickens tours.

Dickens' ties to London, and the role that the city played in his novels, are celebrated in the Museum of London's "Dickens and London" exhibition, which runs until June 10, 2012. The show features items from the author's own life -- his desk, and manuscripts -- as well as those evoking the city as he knew it.

A century and a half of modernization has meant that many of the locations in Dickens' novels no longer exist -- but eagle-eyed visitors can still catch a glimpse of the city as Pip or Oliver would have recognized them.

"There is very little left," says Clare Pettitt, Dickens specialist at King's College London. "You can track Dickens' London, and see where things were, but they aren't necessarily still there."

One site that Dickens returned to again and again, both in real life and in his novels (it features in "Oliver Twist" and "The Pickwick Papers"), is Covent Garden -- though in his day, it was a proper working market, rather than the touristy shopping area it is today.

Just around the corner, Bow Street Magistrates' Court -- now a police station -- is mentioned in both "Oliver Twist" and "Barnaby Rudge."

As a young man, Dickens worked as a solicitor's clerk, and the Inns of Court, which in his day were home to many of the city's legal professionals, feature heavily in his works.

Lincoln's Inn and Chancery Lane both feature heavily in "Bleak House", and nearby is The Old Curiosity Shop, one of the oldest shops in London. Gray's Inn is used as a location in both "David Copperfield" and "The Pickwick Papers".

The tranquil square at historic Staple Inn, Holborn, is mentioned in Dickens' final, unfinished novel, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," where he reports that it "imparts on the relieved pedestrian the sensation of having put cotton in his ears and velvet soles on his feet."

The bells of the clock tower in St Dunstan-in-the-West Church, Fleet Street, are the ones which wake Scrooge to his new life at the end of "A Christmas Carol."

Pubs and taverns featured heavily in both Dickens life and his work, and several of those mentioned in his stories and letters are still serving today.

Pettitt says one of his favourites was Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, just off Fleet Street. The pub features in "A Tale of Two Cities," and has a wider literary pedigree, having also been a haunt of Samuel Johnson, W.B. Yeats and Mark Twain.

Pettitt also recommends The Grapes pub in Limehouse, east London. "It features in 'Our Mutual Friend,' and feels very 'Dickensian', overlooking the river, which was so important in his works, though of course these days it's not as full of boats as it was in his day."

And across the river in Greenwich, Alex Werner suggests the Trafalgar Tavern, which was famed, in Dickens' day, for its whitebait suppers.

"Dickens' letters are full of suggestions for various excursions along the river," explains Pettitt. "He was always writing to people saying 'Let's go down to X and stop for dinner at Y' -- there was always a culinary target to his expeditions."

An insomniac, Dickens spent many hours walking London's streets in the dead of night.

"He knew its alleys and streets better than anyone," said Werner, explaining that some of Dickens' greatest works came about as a result of these lengthy strolls.

"We know from his letters that in October and November 1863, for example, he was walking 10 to 15 miles a night, while working on his book."

In the spirit of the man himself, several Dickens walking tours take place around the city.





First edition of "Bleak House," the ninth novel by Charles Dickens, published in 20 monthly installments between March 1852 and September 1853. It is held to be one of Dickens's finest novels.

a dozen artworks and photos here:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/07/world/euro...index.html

[Lady Cop]

very cool! the film is only one minute, at link.






link to film--->
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...ntury.html


The oldest surviving film based on the works of Charles Dickens has been discovered after lying unnoticed in an archive for more than 50 years.

The Death of Poor Joe dates from 1901 and is thought to have been filmed in Brighton.

The minute-long movie was made by British film pioneer G.A. Smith and was given to the British Film Institute (BFI) in 1954 by a collector who had known Smith, but it was catalogued under a different name and incorrect date.

The film was made 111 years ago, 31 years after Dickens died.

The BFI’s silent film archivist, Bryony Dixon, who found the film said: 'It’s wonderful to have discovered such a rare and unique film so close to Dickens’ bicentennial.

The film depicts Joe freezing to death in the winter snow.

The snow is falling heavily at night as Jo appears in tattered clothes against a churchyard wall, struggling against the cold.

A watchman shoos him on, but then captures the boy just as he falls to the ground dying. The watchman holds Jo as the boy puts his hands together in prayer before taking his final breath.

Joe is played by Smith’s wife Laura Bayley who came from a family of pantomime performers from Brighton.

The character is thought to be inspired by Jo, the crossing sweeper from Bleak House.

In the novel, Jo did not die in the snow, but rather died of pneumonia and was led in prayer before his death by a character called Woodcourt.