Charles Dickens ~ February 7, 1812

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19th century, Charles Dickens, English Literature, Masterpiece Classic, Victorian England

 

 

 

There is so much written about Charles Dickens, I can only here convey Happy Birthday wishes, a few pictures, a few links and a reminder to watch the Masterpiece Classic Dickens extravaganza beginning February 15 [check your PBS listings]

 

 

 

 

Further Reading: [with endless links to biographies, works, criticism]

• David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Page
• Charles Dickens at the Literature Network
• Charles Dickens at the Victorian Web
• Dickens Museum in London
• The Dickens Project at the University of California
• Dickens Timeline at Google

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Masterpiece Classic is hosting its Dickens tribute beginning on Sunday February 15.  Here is the lineup and the PBS commentary on each of the adaptations:

Oliver Twist
This bold adaptation breathes new life into the Dickens story about the young orphan Oliver who is sent to the workhouse where children are raised on a diet of hard work and thin gruel. Starring Timothy Spall as Fagin the cutpurse king, Tom Hardy as Bill Sikes, Fagin’s accomplice and Sophie Okonedo as Nancy, Oliver’s guardian angel.

David Copperfield
Charles Dickens’s beloved novel gets all-star treatment in this encore presentation of David Copperfield. An event for the entire family, the cast includes Maggie Smith, Ian McKellen, Bob Hoskins – and an irresistible ten-year-old Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) as the young boy against the world.

Little Dorrit
One of Dickens’ greatest love stories also has the timely theme of financial collapse. Matthew Macfadyen (Pride and Prejudice) stars as hero Arthur Clennam, with Claire Foy as Amy “Little” Dorrit and Tom Courtenay as her father, who has been incarcerated for 25 years for insolvency. Scores of other great actors appear in this moving tale.

The Old Curiosity Shop
A teenage girl and her grandfather lose everything to a maniacal moneylender and flee his relentless pursuit. The saga of Little Nell, Grandfather, and their tormentor, Daniel Quilp, is one of Dickens’ most heart-rending tales. Derek Jacobi stars as Grandfather, with Sophie Vavasseur (Northanger Abbey) as Nell and Toby Jones (W.) as Quilp.

 And for those of you who like your literary heroes sitting upon your bookshelf, here is the must-have Dickens Action Figure:

Happy Birthday, Mr. Dickens!!

Dickens ~ “A Christmas Carol”

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A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, Christmas Stories, English Literature, Victorian England

Today we celebrate Dickens A Christmas Carol , first published on December 19, 1843.  Illustrated by John Leech, it was the first of Dickens’s Christmas stories, instantly successful, selling over 6,000 copies in a week.  It also stimulated a revival of the Christmas traditions that we associate with Victorian England, many of which we still practice today.  But it is the enduring story and character of Ebenezer Scrooge that remain with us through the years.  I remember as a child the excitement of every Christmas Eve listening to the story and then watching the 1951 movie version on a 12″ black & white TV screen starring Alastair Sim, and can STILL get frightened even thinking about those dragging chains of Jacob Marley’s Ghost!

 

"A Christmas Carol" - First edition

 

Dickens was very involved in the production of the book, an elaborate volume far superior to other works published at the time selling for only five shillings.  The first edition, published by Chapman & Hall, had a russet binding blind-stamped with the title in gold, yellow endpapers, and a title page printed in blue and red [see above] (the latter has been changed after a “trial” printing, as Dickens was displeased with the original green endpapers and green and red title page….[I do, however see some discrepancy in the sources regarding this description and need to do further research...]

What is a first edition valued at today?  A copy [see above image] just sold at the December 17, 2008 London Sotheby’s auction for 20,000 GBP.  There are copies listed online for $14,500 – $37,500.

There are so many editions of A Christmas Carol, and so much written about Dickens and this, the first of his Christmas Stories, that I cannot do any justice to the resources.  So I append only a few, along with several online links for more information:

Books ~

THE MAN WHO INVENTED CHRISTMAS: How Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits, by Les Staniford. Crown, 2008.  The newest book on the subject…

Hear, Michael Patrick, editor.  The Annotated Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, illus. by John Leech. Avon, 1977.  A facsimile text of the first edition, with reproductions of the hand-colored engravings and additional illustrations by Cruikshank, “Phiz,” Tenniel, and others; an extensive introduction by Hearn, notes, and bibliography.  [reprinted in 2004]

Osborne, Allen. Facts about A Christmas Carol. London, Bradley, 1937.

Smith, Walter E.  Charles Dickens in the Original Cloth. A Bibliographical Catalogue.. Part II. The Christmas Books and Selected Secondary Works. Los Angeles, Heritage Bookshop, 1983.

Online links ~ Text

• A Christmas Carol - full text at Stormfax, Inc.
• A Christmas Carol - full text with illustrations at Elegant ebooks
• A Christmas Carol - full text at Internet Archive
• A Christmas Carol – text as condensed by Dickens for his public readings [with annotated links], at David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Page
• A Christmas Carol - audio at LibriVox

Online Links ~ Select Sources

• Dickens & Christmas at the Charles Dickens Page, with many additional links, including the printing costs and profits
• The Charles Dickens Gad’s Hill Place site, on A Christmas Carol
• The current exhibit of the manuscript at the Morgan Library
• A Christmas Carol on YouTube – there are MANY from the various film adaptations!
• Images of A Christmas Carol - book covers, illustrations, etc.
• Timeline for A Christmas Carol at Google
• A Christmas Carol quiz on The Literature Network
• The Real Ghosts in A Christmas Carol , and A Christmas Carol, Pt. 2 Astral Travel and A Christmas Carol, the Facts at Hollow Hill.com
• The Astrology of A Christmas Carol at Astrology Explored
•  Wikipedia entry, including plot summaries, analysis, characters, adaptations, bibliography

Have yourself a very Merry Christmas!

Disney's Scrooge McDuck

On the Block ~ Byron’s Hair, etc…

Tags

Auctions, Beatrix Potter, Byron, English Literature, Keats, Milton, Shakespeare, Sothebys

Sothebys has just published the results of today’s auction [December 17, 2008, Sale L08411, London] of English Literature, History, Children’s Books and Illustrations, with a final take of 901,913 GBP!   Literature by the likes of Shakespeare, Byron, Milton, Dickens, and Beatrix Potter seems to be alive and well.  Here are a few of the results:

Lot 26.  John Milton.  Paradise Lost: a poem in ten books.  Simmons, 1669.     16, 250 GBP

small 4to (176 x 130mm), first edition, Amory’s no.3 issue (traditional 5th title page), “Angel” in imprint in roman, with note from the printer to the reader on ^[P]A2^r (first state, second variant, in five lines), contemporary calf, upper and lower covers with blind double fillets, red speckled edges, neat repairs to hinges and joints, T4 slightly torn at outer margin and lower corner, Ff 1 slightly torn at lower corner, slightly browned, a near fine, unsophisticated copy

 

Lot 28.  SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM.

A COLLECTION OF LEAVES FROM THE FIRST FOLIO EDITION (1623) AND THE SECOND FOLIO EDITION (1632) OF SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS.       33,650 GBP

 

 Lot 35.  A Lock of Byron’s hair: 

cut from his head after his death at Missolonghi, coiled and tied with a pink ribbon, with an accompanying wrapper inscribed in the hand of Byron’s intimate friend John Cam Hobhouse (“a lock of hair cut from the head of Lord Byron after his death by Dr Bruno”), and with a later envelope recording that the lock was later presented “by Miss Leigh to Miss Marianne Gidely”    3,000 GBP

Lot 45. Charles Dickens.  THE WORKS. EDITED BY ARTHUR WAUGH, HUGH WALPOLE, WALTER DEXTER, AND THOMAS HATTON. THE NONESUCH PRESS, 1937-8.   5,625 GBP

 Lot 49.  John Keats.  LAMIA, ISABELLA, THE EVE OF ST. AGNES AND OTHER POEMS. TAYLOR AND HUSSEY, 1820.   5,250 GBP

12mo, first edition, one of 500 copies, half-title, without advertisements at the end present in some copies, contemporary smooth calf gilt, spine in six compartments, black morocco labels, marbled edges, slight wear to edges of binding.

 Lot 132.  Virginia Woolf.  MRS. DALLOWAY. LONDON: LEONARD & VIRGINIA WOOLF AT THE HOGARTH PRESS, 1925.   6,250 GBP

Lot 192.  Beatrix Potter.  Illustration of Mouse with a Spinning Wheel:  120 by 76mm., fine ink and watercolour drawing, signed and dated lower right corner “HBP. 1890.”, slight browning with minor spotting, mounted on card.  39,650 GBP

 

This is just a small sample…. there are works by Ian Fleming, Siegfried Sassoon, a Steinbeck photograph, George Eliot letters,  Kelmscott Press books, Milne, Sendak, other Potter illustrations, and much more…