Happy Birthday Mr Dickens


It's Charles Dickens birthday today. The author of so many classic works and memorable characters would have been celebrating his 213th birthday. My personal favourites:

1. A Christmas Carol - What a character Scrooge is, the definitive miser. And set at Christmas, the original classic. Those ghosts - who is your favourite? My favourite line is Jacob Marley's: "I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it."

2. Great Expectations - Wow, what a ride. From Pip to Estella to Miss Havisham and Magwitch. Here's a brilliant line: "You must know," said Estella, condescending to me as a brilliant and beautiful woman might, "that I have no heart—if that has anything to do with my memory."

There ought to be a Dickens Day. Oh, there is, a few weeks before Christmas Tavistock, celebrates Dickensian Night. I wonder what the old boy would have thought of that?

Picture source: AI


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