Wednesday, February 8, 2012

My Thanks To Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was born two hundred years ago this past Monday.  There was a ceremony to honor him at Westminister Abbey.  You can read about it on the BBC website or any of the British newspapers.  Most of everything that I read was quite nice and respectful except for an article in The Guardian which was titled "Enough of the Charles Dickens hero worship".  You may read it here:   http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/06/charles-dickens-hero-worship-bicentenary   Well, there ain't no pleasing you, darling.    It is true that Charles Dickens wrote for money.   He knew what it was to be poor  and once you have known poverty, you never forget it.  It is true that he married again but so what, he seemed very happy so I say good for him.   Of course there are wonderful writers from England that we can also honor, but it wasn't the anniversary of their births, was it?  Besides, how on earth can anyone NOT like Charles Dickens?  He only created characters that seem as real to me as people that I have known all my life.  My favorites are "A Christmas Carol" and "David Copperfield".    It pleased me greatly to read that "David Copperfield" was his personal favorite of all the books that he wrote.

Charles Dickens began his writing career as a journalist.  I personally can always tell a journalist's writings simply because they are such good writers!  Even if they go on to write novels, they never lose that mantra which was written by Rudyard Kipling but which all good journalists follow:
"I keep six serving men,
they taught me all I knew,
their names are what and where and when
and how and why and who".

Many of his novels were written in serialized form and I have read that crowds of people would wait at the docks in NYC and Boston for the next installments to come in by ship from England.  These books were meant to be read aloud.  On Feb. 9, 1858, Charles Dickens gave a reading from "A Christmas Carol" at St. Martin-In-The Fields Church hall to raise money for the then struggling Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.  Not only was this a great success and raised a good deal of money but it also brought much needed attention to the hospital so they were able to buy more property and the hospital was doubled in size.

"Without his commitment, there may not have been a Great Ormond Street Hospital, filled with descendants of those first patients".   

That is a quote from the Historic Hospital Admission Project.  My husband spent a lot of time in that same hospital in early 1960's as a young boy and his mother has always credited the hospital and his doctors with saving his young life.  So, I am very grateful that Charles Dickens helped to save Great Ormond Street Hospital and thereby, all the children who have benefited from that wonderful place, my husband being one of them.  Thank you, Charles Dickens, for writing books that act as mirrors upon mankind and thereby help to make us better people and for saving the hospital that saved my husband.  


I would like to think that Charles Dickens would appreciate Chas and Dave.  He seemed to enjoy good times.
    

24 comments:

  1. I was reading my Smithsonian Magazine and read about Charles Dickens' life. It's very interesting! Then there was that thing about his affair with Nelly Ternan.

    http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Dickens-Secret-Affair.html

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    1. Dear Kay,
      Thanks, I will go to check it out!
      It won't change my opinion of him though. I have never considered him a saint but a man with faults just like us all who happened to be a wonderful writer.

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  2. Silly Guardian article! We know there were/are many other great writers, but as you say it isn't their anniversary.
    I'm reading a book called Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin. It is a good read, and you can see how his own experiences gave him ideas for his stories.

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    1. Dear Tracey,
      Thank you for telling me about that book. Biographies are my favorite., along with non-fiction and history.

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  3. I have not read the Guardian article. While I generally very much appreciate their position of NOT following the masses in everything and anything, but offering a different point of view on most current topics, sometimes they are maybe just overdoing it a little with the "we are so different"-act. All great artists deserve what the Guardian calls hero worship; they enrich our lives and there is nothing wrong with commemorating them on their anniversaries. Their personal lives should take a backseat; what counts is their art.
    How lovely that you have such a touching connection to Mr. Dickens through your husband's being alive today thanks to his stay at the Great Ormond Street hospital!

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    1. "What counts is their art", I couldn't agree more!
      All of us have faults and make mistakes in life, it is called being human.

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  4. My favourite author.

    I read that the British cabinet had been given books by Dickens.

    The PM got Hard Times and Great Expectations and Nick Cleg got Oliver Twist!

    SP

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    1. Dear SP,
      Thank you for your comment! So happy that a wonderful writer like yourself appreciates him so.
      In another article that I read, the author quoted the entire first sentence of "A Christmas Carol" and then wrote this word after it: "SNORE"!
      I mean, please, where he says that Marley is as dead as a doornail rather than a coffin nail? As a child, I remember thinking...he's right, why do we say that, but that is what is expected so he is right and how funny to begin the story that way...but it is full of humor like that. HUMOR AND KINDESS, sadly lacking these days, in my opinion.

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  5. Bah. The writer is just jealous. Charles Dickens is a great writer. What would Christmas be without 'A Christmas Carol'? What I don't understand in the article is why the author's personal life comes into play. It has nothing to do with his writing.

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    1. Dear Martha,
      Apparently, it is trendy to go back and disect the lives of famous authors who cannot defend themselves.
      That newspaper reporter is a SCROOGE! The fact that everyone knows who I mean by that should prove a point!

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  6. Really enjoyed this post :) I like to think of the people waiting at the docks for his next installment - how exciting, imagine the buzz in those crowds! I can see them clasping his book to their chests as they scurried back to their homes :)

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    1. Dear Jane,
      Oh, thank you! Like you, it gave me a little thrill to think of them waiting for the latest as to what was happening with these characters that Charles Dickens created.

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  7. What Charles (I'm saying Charles in my snooty, upper-crust English accent!) did in his private life is frankly none of my business. It's his writing that is my business. Like Jane above, my favorite part of this post was imagining those people at the docks ~ that is too fun. Although, I have to say, I am grateful to live in this day and age when I don't have to wait for books like that!!!

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    1. Dear Audrey,
      We are so lucky to be able to enjoy books. At one time in our history, they were only for the wealthy. And we can now get them so quickly, as you pointed out!
      The excitement of the kids waiting for the Harry Potter books is the only thing lately that reminded me of the folks waiting on the docks...

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  8. I don't understand why the Guardian must focus on some faults or weaknesses of a great writer born 200 years ago. His writing has left such a mark on this world and is appreciated by millions - that is what is being commemorated.

    I was first introduced to Dickens at school when we had to read the book "Hard Times". I found it hard going back then, and unfortunately it turned me off Dickens for some years. I picked up a Dickens novel, Little Dorrit, again in my twenties, only to discover what I had been missing. Through his writing we gain so much insight into the Victorian way of life, and that enduring lesson is only possible because he drew upon his own life experiences for his writing.

    Thanks for a great post.

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    1. Dear Mairead,
      Thanks for your comment. Like you, I also find some of his fiction challenging but that's just me, it is hard for me to keep up with a book with lots of characters! He did live a full life and he OBSERVED people around him and they are in his books. My favorite books are written by journalists.

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  9. I enjoyed your post very much. Charles Dicken's books were/are translated to many languages. In my opinion he is iconic. Thank for posting. Happy Valentine's Day.

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    1. Thank you! It pleases me that you liked this. Happy Valentine's Day to you!

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  10. A great post, Kay. And it makes me want to read some Charles Dickens! Somehow, in all my years of reading, I never read Charles Dickens. My daughter Ariel, who minored in Creative Writing at UNC-Chapel Hill, read Dickens for the first time in college and told me how much she loved his writing.

    I really love the personal connection you have to Dickens and the Great Ormond Street Hospital. I'll bet Dickens would be quite pleased to hear your story!

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    1. Dear Beth,
      Thanks! I am a non-fiction reader myself so I can only read novels (no matter what century they are from) unless they are extremely well-written.
      Oh, and I smiled when you said that you thought that Charles Dickens would be pleased with my story. I sincerely hope he would!

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  11. I had not realised that it was Charles Dickens 200th anniversary when I started on the Rochester posts recently. Then the media was full of it. Was an interesting coincidence.

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  12. Dear Barbara,
    Typical...nothing on it, then the media is saturated with it.
    What do you think of this- Charles Dickens really left express wishes that he wanted to be buried in Rochester Cathedral but they buried him in Westminster Abbey anyway.

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  13. Great Expectations. Even if he only wrote that one book, he would still be one of the greats.

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  14. Dear Julie,
    Thank you for your comment! Did you know that they are filming "Great Expectations" right now? Not sure when it will be out but the director is the same one who did "Four Weddings And A Funeral, and, oh one of the Harry Potter ones, can't remember which one! Should be good, look out for it! :-)

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