Charles Dickens was
enormously popular around the world during his lifetime, and it’s no surprise
that a veritable wealth of information exists on his life and writings.
I’d suggest
starting with at least some of his books. Every one of his novels and
collections of his articles are still in print, testifying to the man’s
enduring literary legacy. I first started reading Dickens in high school for
class assignments, and of course we read paperback editions. You can find them
at the local bookstore or on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Book Depository
(which, based in the UK, has free shipping worldwide). If you have an Amazon
Kindle, you can buy the entire
collection of his works for $1.99, via Doma Publishing House.
I’ve been
reading Dickens’s novels using the Oxford
Illustrated Dickens edition. It was first published more than 20 years ago,
and my copies still look brand new.
Biographies
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One of the best
biographers of Dickens was G.K. Chesterton,
whose Charles
Dickens: The Last of the Great Men was first published in 1903 and
reprinted many times. For a publication of Dickens’s works in 1911, Chesterton
also wrote the introductions for each of the volumes, and these were later
collected and published separately as Appreciations
and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens.
Another notable
biography is Dickens
(1991) by Peter Ackroyd. It’s mammoth – almost 1,200 pages, including more than
100 pages of notes and index. Ackroyd also wrote Dickens:
Public Life and Private Passions (2002). Michael Slater has also
written a fine biography, Charles
Dickens (2009), in addition to several other books on the author. More
recently Claire Tomalin published Charles
Dickens: A Life (2011).
Online Resources
The Dickens Fellowship maintains
an online site, and it also publishes The Dickensian.
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The Charles Dickens Museum in Bloomsbury |
The University
of Buckingham maintains the Dickens Journals
Online project, which includes the various journals Dickens edited and
wrote for.
BBC Radio has a
relatively short broadcast (about six minutes) on “Charles Dickens: Campaigning
Reporter.” And BBC maintains a biographical
entry for Dickens, as does Biography.
I’ve reviewed
several books here about Dickens and various aspects of his life and writings,
including Becoming
Dickens by Robert-Douglas-Fairhurst;
Charles
Dickens by Simon Callow; God
and Charles Dickens by Gary Colledge;
and reviews of A
Christmas Carol, The
Chimes, and The
Cricket on the Hearth. I also reviewed David
Copperfield and Oliver Twist at Tweetspeak Poetry.
Dickens Walks in London
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If you go to
London, several books are available that explain how to “walk the London of
Charles Dickens.” Two published in 2012 and still in date are Walking
Dickens’ London by Lee Jackson and A
Guide to Dickens’ London by Daniel Tyler. A collection of Dickens’s own
descriptions of walking London at night can be found in Night
Walks, published by Penguin.
The City of
London and the Charles Dickens Museum have collaborated on a brochure guide
entitled “Chickens’ ‘Magic Lantern,’” a walk-it-yourself tour of the key areas
in the city associated with Dickens. The brochure is available at the Tourist
Information Office on Cannon Street across from St. Paul’s Cathedral.
There are also
several guided Dickens walks and tours available: one with Richard Johnson, author of Walking Dickensian London; Walks of London; and one
hosted by the Charles Dickens Museum.
The Charles Dickens Museum in London
The Charles Dickens Museum in London
Top photograph: a studio portrait of Charles Dickens.
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