All posts tagged: Dickens

5 Great Reads by Charles Dickens

5 Great Reads by Charles Dickens

Published by skeptic

  During his lifetime, Charles Dickens wrote fifteen novels and hundreds of short stories, gave rousing lecture tours, and became the most famous man of his day. Here, we will take a closer look at some of his best works, which won him celebrity status during his lifetime, as well as lasting literary acclaim.   1. A Christmas Carol (1843) Front cover of a first edition of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843. Source: Heritage Auctions   A Christmas Carol is a novella first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 that tells the story of the miserly, misanthropic moneylender Ebenezer Scrooge. In the space of one night—the night before Christmas, to be precise—he is haunted by the ghost of his late business partner, Jacob Marley, and then by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come.   By learning the error of his ways and the true spirit of Christmas, Scrooge is redeemed, becoming “as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the …

Explore an Online Archive of 2,100+ Rare Illustrations from Charles Dickens’ Novels

Explore an Online Archive of 2,100+ Rare Illustrations from Charles Dickens’ Novels

Published by José

As Christ­mas­time approach­es, few nov­el­ists come to mind as read­i­ly as Charles Dick­ens. This owes main­ly, of course, to A Christ­mas Car­ol, and even more so to its many adap­ta­tions, most of which draw inspi­ra­tion from not just its text but also its illus­tra­tions. That 1843 novel­la was just the first of five books he wrote with the hol­i­day as a theme, a series that also includes The Chimes, The Crick­et on the Hearth, The Bat­tle of Life, and The Haunt­ed Man and the Ghost’s Bar­gain. Each “includ­ed draw­ings he worked on with illus­tra­tors,” writes BBC News’ Tim Stokes, though “none of them dis­plays quite the icon­ic mer­ri­ment of his ini­tial Christ­mas cre­ation.” “Any­one look­ing at the illus­tra­tions to the Christ­mas books after A Christ­mas Car­ol and expect­ing sim­i­lar images to Mr Fezzi­wig’s Ball is going to be dis­ap­point­ed,” Stokes quotes inde­pen­dent schol­ar Dr. Michael John Good­man as say­ing. Pri­mar­i­ly con­cerned less with Christ­mas as a hol­i­day and more “with the spir­it of Christ­mas and its ideals of self­less­ness and for­give­ness, as well as being …

John Dickens interviews school leaders

John Dickens interviews school leaders

Published by skeptic

Three school leaders with a front row seat of the policy reforms of the past decade talk about how Whitehall decisions have changed the classroom, for better and worse. Becks Boomer-Clark, CEO of Lift Schools, Dr Nic Crossley, CEO of Liberty MAT, and Andrew O’Neill, headteacher of All Saints Catholic College, talk to Schools Week editor John Dickens. Source link

London Tide review: The National’s moody Dickens musical is hamstrung by PJ Harvey’s dirge-like songs

London Tide review: The National’s moody Dickens musical is hamstrung by PJ Harvey’s dirge-like songs

Published by Sam

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Despite his place in the history of literature, there hasn’t been a huge amount of Dickens on stage in recent years. There’s always Oliver!, of course, 700 adaptations of A Christmas Carol each year, and Eddie Izzard’s one-person Great Expectations last year, but Dickens adaptations have mostly been TV ones of the Sunday night sit-down-and-watch-with-granny type. Ben Power’s adaptation of Our Mutual Friend really doesn’t want to be that. With its changed title and songs by PJ Harvey, the suggestion is of something far muddier, far murkier. Director Ian Rickson constructs a moody production to house Power’s flowing script, and every so often it stops to allow for even moodier songs by Harvey. It’s all a bit of an odd assemblage, those three elements trying to assert themselves individually rather than cohering as a whole. It’s Power’s script that really sings, honing in on the River Thames as …

Garrick Club judges show that Dickens was correct | Garrick Club

Garrick Club judges show that Dickens was correct | Garrick Club

Published by skeptic

The bar has made significant progress combating discrimination in the legal profession, but there’s some way to go yet. It’s not just our female colleagues who are concerned about barristers’ and judges’ membership of the Garrick Club (Legal profession’s most powerful among members of London’s men-only Garrick Club, 19 March). It is a tradition at the bar that after a long trial with numerous defendants, a case dinner is held to which defence, prosecution and judge are invited. This reinforces the idea that we share a joint loyalty to the principle of justice that overrides our individual loyalties to clients. Recently a colleague was arranging just such a dinner, to be held at his club – the Garrick. He seemed genuinely surprised when I and others, including female barristers, declined to attend because we would not feel comfortable enjoying the hospitality of such a discriminatory institution. Surely my eminent legal friends can grasp the simple concept that if you don’t want look like you are sexist, you should not join a club that is institutionally sexist.Paul …

Hunt on for book containing Wilkie Collins’s criticism of friend Dickens | Charles Dickens

Published by Sam

Charles Dickens may be lauded by many as the greatest Victorian novelist, but one close friend did not demur from fierce criticism after the writer’s death. Wilkie Collins, the author of The Woman in White, collaborated on drama and fiction with Dickens and the two enjoyed a long, close friendship until Dickens’s death in 1870. While they shared opinions on each other’s writing, it was only after Dickens died that Wilkie revealed what he truly thought about some of his friend’s major works. Handwritten notes by Collins in his copy of John Forster’s The Life of Charles Dickens, and discovered in Collins’ library after his own death in 1889, show he was unsparing. Now the hunt is on for that annotated copy of Forster’s book, which was last known to have been sold at auction in 1890, for an exhibition called Mutual Friends: The Adventures of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins at the Charles Dickens Museum in London. Dickens and Collins were longtime friends and collaborators. Photograph: ©Rosey Taylor According to Collins, Barnaby Rudge was …

Nae Expectations: Andy Arnold on a gallus Dickens, Glasgow’s Tron and ‘catastrophic’ arts cuts | Theatre

Published by Sam

Andy Arnold is a director with staying power. Nae Expectations, which has just opened at Glasgow’s Tron theatre, is his swansong production after nearly 16 years with the company. Prior to that, he spent 18 years at the Arches, the multi-arts venue he founded in the catacombs beneath the city’s Central station, creating a seedbed for a generation of theatremakers, artists and DJs. If in neither case did he overstay his welcome, it is because of the quality that defines him: his relentless championing of young artists. He has remained a vital part of Glasgow’s cultural life because of the company he keeps. Take two of the Tron’s biggest hits of recent years. Before it won an Olivier award, Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) was a breezy summer hit at the 230-seat theatre. Arnold had programmed the irreverent Austen adaptation after effectively handing over the reins to the company led by playwright-actor Isobel McArthur and director Paul Brotherston. The company’s name? Blood of the Young – the clue was in the title. “We wouldn’t have …

‘Overrun with rats’: Charles Dickens Museum illuminates author’s factory stint | Charles Dickens

Published by Sam

It was an experience that ruptured his childhood but shaped his life’s work. Two hundred years ago, 11-year-old Charles Dickens was taken out of school to work in a rat-infested factory on the banks of the Thames to support his family as his father sank into debt. Now the Charles Dickens Museum in London is marking the bicentenary of the bleak period of the author’s childhood by displaying letters from his father that illustrate the difficulties in the father-son relationship. The museum is also displaying an early edition of The Life of Charles Dickens, the three-volume biography of the author by his friend John Forster that revealed the grim facts of his childhood. Warren’s blacking factory on the banks of the Thames. Photograph: Charles Dickens Museum In September 1823, the young Dickens was removed from school and sent to work, 10 hours a day, six days a week, at Warren’s blacking factory, near where Charing Cross station is today. A few months later, John Dickens, Charles’s father, was arrested and imprisoned for three months in …

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens explains why tech companies are moving to the city

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens explains why tech companies are moving to the city

Published by skeptic

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens sat down with TechCrunch to help open our first TechCrunch Live event dedicated to the city and spoke with us about the rapidly growing tech landscape. Atlanta is home to many buzzy industries, including fintech and SaaS, and is also the abode for many investors looking to back the startups in the city. Some well-known unicorns from the city include Calendy, FullStory, and Kabbage. Atlanta startups raised around $1.65 billion, according to Pitchbook, the second-highest amount of funding allocated to the city in recent years. With that, it makes sense why even the Atlanta Hawks and record label Quality Control have set up funds and investment portfolios. Dickens was born and raised in Atlanta and had an extensive background in tech before becoming mayor. He said it has been “phenomenal to watch this city grow from a southern jewel with charm to now an international city, one of the epicenters of the tech ecosystem,” before giving a slight nod to all the companies who are moving in: Microsoft, Porsche, to name …

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens to speak at TechCrunch Live’s Atlanta event

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens to speak at TechCrunch Live’s Atlanta event

Published by skeptic

TechCrunch Live is excited to announce a fireside chat with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens to kick off our virtual TechCrunch Live: Atlanta event on June 7. He will sit down with me, Dominic-Madori Davis, at 2:03 p.m. EDT to discuss the burgeoning Atlanta tech scene, touching on everything from creating a talent pipeline with the local Historically Black Colleges and Universities to how it is using the remote work trend to lure in big players from coastal cities. Since assuming office last year, Dickens has developed a reputation for his robust support of technology and even appointed a Senior Tech Advisor for the city — or, as some call the role, a Tech Czar. There is much to talk about with Dickens and his plans to grow and sustain the city as a tech hub. He himself attended Georgia Tech, majoring in chemical engineering; before serving as mayor, he was the Chief Development Officer for the nonprofit TechBridge, which sought to tackle poverty; he also co-founded the Technology Career Program to help those from disadvantaged …