Rent it here...watch it here!


Dickens pared down A Christmas Carol for his public readings. Read an annotated version of Dickens' own reading text that can be read in a single sitting!

Visiting Dickens
Places in London that have associations with Charles Dickens that you can still visit today. Powered by Google Maps.

Bits of Dickens...
Dickens in a single sitting:
Oliver Asks for More
Cratchit's Christmas
Steamboat Trip
Omnibuses
American Notes
More...

Dickens at the Movies

Dickens' visual style of writing lends itself easily to the stage and screen. The Internet Movie Database lists over 200 films made from Dickens' novels.


Help save a Dickens landmark!

Charles Dickens: the name conjures up visions of plum pudding and Christmas punch, quaint coaching inns and cozy firesides, but also of orphaned and starving children, misers, murderers, and abusive schoolmasters. Dickens was 19th century London personified, he survived its mean streets as a child and, largely self-educated, possessed the genius to become the greatest writer of his age.

Learn more  about this...

Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, the son of a clerk at the Navy Pay Office. His father, John Dickens, continually living beyond his means, was imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea in 1824. 12-year-old Charles was removed from school and sent to work at a boot-blacking factory, earning six shillings a week to help support the family. This dark experience cast a shadow over the clever, sensitive boy that became a defining experience in his life, he would later write that he wondered "how I could have been so easily cast away at such an age."

This childhood poverty and feelings of abandonment, although unknown to his readers until after his death, would be a heavy influence on Dickens' later views on social reform and the world he would create through his fiction.

Dickens would go on to write 15 major novels and countless short stories and articles before his death on June 9, 1870. He wished to be buried, without fanfare, in a small cemetery in Rochester, but the Nation would not allow it. He was laid to rest in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, the flowers from thousands of mourners overflowing the open grave. Among the more beautiful bouquets were many simple clusters of wildflowers, wrapped in rags.

Dickens 2012

• Official Dickens 2012 site
• Charles Dickens Museum London
• Dickens and London - Museum of London
• Dickens on the BBC
• Dickens on Screen - British Film Institute
• Charles Dickens at 200 - The Morgan Library and Museum

Dickens' Life

• Charles Dickens: The Life of the Author - Kenneth Benson
• Dickens Family Tree (17k pdf file)
• Dickens Biography - David Cody, Associate Professor of English, Hartwick College
• Where was Dickens? A fascinating chronology compiled by Phillip Currah
• A Journal of the Life of Charles Dickens - Kirk Witmer's very interesting year by year timeline of Dickens' life
• Great animated Life of Charles Dickens by the BBC

Dickens Places

• The Charles Dickens Museum - Located at 48 Doughty Street, London. Dickens and his family lived here from April 1837 to December 1839
• Charles Dickens' Birthplace Museum - Dickens birthplace in Portsmouth
• Dickens at Westminster Abbey
• The Cleveland Street Workhouse

Dickens info and blogs

• Dickensblog - Gina Dalfonzo
• Dickens' Journals Online
• Charles Dickens - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Photos

• Dickens Photo Gallery

More Dickens Links

This site is dedicated to the memory of my wife of 30 years who passed away in 2008. I miss you Sandy...

Last Updated:
February 1, 2012

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