Celebrating Charles Dickens on his 200th birthday
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 8:12AM Today the world is celebratrating the birthday, and the life and work of author Charles Dickens.
Two hundred years on from his birth and one hundred and forty two years after his death, Dickens 2012, an international collaboration of programmed events and activities around the world, is leading the way in commemorating the bicentenary and remarkable works of Charles Dickens.
Of the author, Dickens 2012 says: ‘Although a writer from the Victorian era, Dickens’s work transcends time, language and culture. He remains a massive contemporary influence throughout the world and his writings continue to inspire film, TV, art, literature, artists and academia.’
Years ago, I would have felt the same fear if I contemplated reading a Dickens classic, as I would one of Shakespeare’s plays. I always wanted to read them but found the prospect too daunting. I worried they might be too slow, and to old fashioned to enjoy and so I never braved it.
In the past couple of years, once I’d started researching the Victorian era reading a Dickens novel became compulsory for me. Only then did I realise my error of judgement, recognised how much valuable reading time I had wasted.
I’m now, slowly (they’re chunky novels!), working my way through the many novels of Charles Dickens and find I become increasingly smitten with each one I read. To my surprise his novels are engaging, relevant to our current times in many different ways, have fantastically memorable characters and can be funny too!
That I would laugh out loud at a Dickens novel has astounded me the most. It shatters my preconceptions about the work of a Victorian author who strove hard in his life and career to document the injustices of his times: the hardships suffered by the working class and the need for social reform.
Just the other week, reading an early chapter of David Copperfield, I was reminded of the humour in Dickens’s work and found myself reading the scene aloud to Steve that evening. And like me he was surprised at the comedic timing, the humour buried within such a small scene of the novel.
That’s why the work of Dickens remains so popular because it is readable, meaningful, relevant and yet still manages to be entertaining.
If like me you’ve been reluctant in the past to read a Dickens classic, why not, in celebration of his 200th birthday, give one a go today. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.
Or if you’re keen to find out more or get involved in one of the many celebratory events happening around the world then visit the Dickens 2012 website to find out more: Dickens 2012
‘Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried to do with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest.’
Charles Dickens