To more completely enjoy reading Dickens you must "live" in Dickens' London!
In How to Read a Book, authors Mortiner J. Adler and Charles Van Doren write:
"The elements of fiction are connected by the total scene or background against which they stand out in relief. The imaginative writer.creates a world in which his characters 'live, move, and have their being.'
.become at home in this imaginary world; know it as if you were an observer on the scene; become a member of its population, willing to befriend its characters, and able to participate in its happenings by sympathetic insight, as you would do in the actions and sufferings of a friend."
Learn more about Dickens' London...
What's the big deal? Why is this author
who was born nearly 200 years ago still taught, talked about, and read today?
Why are film and stage productions of Dickens' works still dramatized every
year? Dickens had the unique ability to take in the scenes around him and instantly commit them to memory. Every character type that he met, even casually, was indelibly etched in his mind, to be recalled on command. As he worked out complex plots, he saw it all before him, and needed only to leisurely describe it, sometimes becoming the characters before a mirror to better convey subtle facial expressions.
The characters he created, drawn from an immense well of imagination and personal experience, remain unique in English literature. Characters such as Scrooge (miserly) and Pecksniff (hypocritically affecting benevolence) have become defining terms in everyday vernacular.
Dickens also possessed the uncanny ability to describe inanimate objects, enlivening them with human wisdom, heroics, and shortcomings. His incredible command of the English language allowed him to describe characters and events to readers, giving them the sense that they are witnesses to the story unfolding in his imagination. His advice to aspiring writers was "make me see", and no one did it better than Dickens.
Dickens' side-splitting comic style remains one of his most endearing traits to readers today. He seems to have considered it his sworn duty to bring to light all of the hypocrisies of mankind; pompous churchmen, sharp dealing businessmen, crotchety spinsters, cruel schoolmasters, and pretentious politicians were all slain with an even hand before his prodigious pen.
Dickens' ability to command these gifts, together with an extraordinary skill for integrating character, plot, and theme, form the essence of his genius. Michelangelo once said that he "saw an angel in the marble and carved until I set him free", this is the same sort of genius that Dickens possessed, and so also the reason for his immortality, leaving the world something so wonderful that it is never forgotten.
You know the tale, you've seen the movies, but if you haven't read the book you're missing half the story...and much of the heartwarming Christmas cheer! Dickens' little tale of human redemption is definitely worth a couple of evenings near the holidays. There are a million versions out there, make sure you get the original, or read it online at Stormfax.
Use this web site as a guide as you read. From the Novels page you will find links to each novel which offer plot summaries, characters, links to other sites offering information, as well as sidebar information with interesting items about the novels. On the Characters page many of the characters from the novels are explained, some with illustrations. The Dickens' London page will help you understand the times in which the stories take place. There is also a Map of Dickens' London which points out many of the locations mentioned in the novels and a glossary of terms found in Dickens.
The Bibliography page points to books used as a reference in putting this site together and The Dickens Shoppe contains links to Amazon.com where you can purchase many of these books. The Dickens on the Web page includes many good links to other sites containing information on the author as well as more scholarly sites which serve information on literary theory which is beyond the scope of this site.
Read Dickens: Early Sketches | Magazine articles | Excerpts from Major Works
In the nineteenth century everyone, from Queen Victoria to the street sweepers, either read Dickens or had Dickens read to them. Reading Dickens
today
is more of a challenge as many of the words he used, and the things those
words described, have fallen out of common use. Having a good reference
handy while you're reading will ensure that reading Dickens today will be
just as entertaining as it was 150 years ago. After all, they're not classics
because they're old...but because they're great! Many good Dickens references are available, I like Charles Dickens A to Z : The Essential Reference to His Life & Work by Paul Davis and The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens, edited by Paul Schlicke.
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You may have been required to read A Tale of Two Cities in school and while it is a great story, in my opinion it is among the least representative of Dickens' true genius, containing none of his trademark humor. If you really want to know why Dickens is still considered worthy of your time, read Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, or Great Expectations.
Want to be exposed to Dickens but are intimidated by the 900 page tomes he was famous for? Start with one of these short stories, sketches, magazine articles, and excerpts of his works that can be read in a single sitting.
Early Sketches Back to Top
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A Christmas Dinner - Early Dickens
Christmas story describes a Christmas dinner at the home of Uncle
and Aunt George. Originally published in Bell's Life in London
in 1835 under the name Scenes and Characters No. 10 Christmas Festivities. |
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The New Year - Dickens describes a
party on New Year's Eve 1835. Published in Bell's Life in London
as Scenes and Characters No 11. |
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Omnibuses - Dickens' hilarious account of
riding in a London omnibus. The omnibus, a relatively new concept
of mass transit, was replacing the coach as a means of moving about
the city. Originally appeared as Street Sketches No. 1 in the Morning
Chronicle September 26, 1834. |
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Seven Dials - Sketch describing this
notorious London slum, so named for the seven streets that come together
there. Dickens observes the residents there living in squalor and
filth. Originally published as Scenes and Characters No. 1 in Bell's
Life in London in September 1835. |
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The Pawnbroker's Shop - Dickens describes
a pawnbroker's shop in Drury Lane and the customers who are forced,
through poverty, to deal there. Published as Sketches of London No.
35 in the Evening Standard in June 1835. |
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A Visit to Newgate - Dickens visited
the notorious London prison in 1836 describing the men, women, and
children imprisoned there. He also imagines what it must have been
like to have been a condemned man in the last night before execution.
Published in Sketches by Boz. |
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The Hospital Patient - Dickens
relates the touching story of a young woman in a London hospital who
has been brutally beaten by her husband. Police bring the husband
to the hospital to observe the dying woman who refuses to identify
him as the man who beat her. Originally published in The Carlton
Chronicle in August 1836. |
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Gin Shops - Dickens describes the gin
shops in the slums of St. Giles frequented by the London poor. Originally
published in The Evening Chronicle on February 19, 1835. |
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Bill Sticking - Article written for
Dickens weekly journal Household Words published March 22,
1851 in which Dickens interviews the King of the Bill-Stickers, men
hired by contractors to paste advertisements on hoardings (rented
billboards), and just about anywhere else they could get away with
it. |
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In Memoriam W. M. Thackeray
- Dickens eulogized his friend and fellow author, William Thackeray
(1811-1863), in Cornhill Magazine in February 1864 |
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Dullborough Town - Dickens, at
age 48, describes a trip to his childhood home of Chatham, which he
refers to as Dullborough, and finds it 'mysteriously gone, like my
own youth'. First published in Dickens' weekly journal All the
Year Round June 30, 1860 |
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Waterloo - On patrol with Thames police
officer 'Pea', Dickens is introduced to 'Waterloo', night toll-taker
on Waterloo Bridge, who describes suicides and other unusual events
he has seen. Condensed from Down with the Tide, Household
Words, February 1853. |
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David Copperfield - Chapter 11
- Contains much of the "autobiographical fragment" which Dickens gave
to his friend and biographer, John Forster, relating in the fictionalized
account of David Copperfield the story
of Dickens' own troubled childhood. |
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David Copperfield - Chapter 41
- Hilarious account of Copperfield and his friend Traddles' visit
to David's sweetheart Dora's spinster aunts to obtain their permission
to call on her. |
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Dombey and Son - The Coming of the Railroad
- Condensed from chapter 6 of Dombey and Son in which Dickens describes
the upheaval caused by the railroad's intrusion into Camden Town. |
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American Notes - From Pittsburgh to Cincinnati
in a Western Steamboat - During Dickens' 1842 tour of America
he describes a fascinating trip aboard the steamboat Messenger
down the Ohio river during the heyday of the American steamboat. |
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American Notes - The Haves...and the Have
Nots - Near the end of Dickens' 1842 travels in North America
he observed, on a steamboat between Quebec and Montreal, emigrants
from England crowded between decks. He recorded his thoughts, in this
beautiful passage in American Notes, on the burden poor families
face over those blessed with plenty. |
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The Pickwick Papers - Equestrian Journey to
Dingley Dell - Samuel Pickwick and his fellow travelers, Tracy
Tupman, Nathaniel Winkle, and Augustus Snodgrass, are traveling from
Rochester to their friend Mr. Wardles residence at Manor Farm, Dingley
Dell, a journey of about 15 miles. The travelers' inexperience at
handling horses is evident in this comic adventure. |
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The Pickwick Papers - Mr Pickwick Meets the
Lady in Yellow Curl Papers - In one of the funniest episodes
in the novel, Samuel Pickwick and his servant, Sam Weller, have traveled
to Ipswich in search of the rascal Alfred Jingle, taking rooms in
the Great White Horse Inn. Mr Pickwick is ready to retire for the
night when he realizes he has left his watch on the dinner table downstairs
and determines to go and get it. |
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A Christmas Carol - Cratchit's Christmas
- Scrooge, accompanied by the Ghost of Christmas Present, visits the
home of his clerk, Bob Cratchit, to observe the Cratchit's simple
Christmas celebration. |
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Oliver Twist - Oliver asks for More -
Nine-year-old Oliver is a resident in the parish workhouse where the
boys are "issued three meals of thin gruel a day, with an onion twice
a week, and half a roll on Sundays" and has the audacity to ask for
more. |
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Martin Chuzzlewit - Mrs Gamp - Even among the
bizarre cast of characters in Dickens, Mrs Gamp is a piece of work.
She is a nurse of sorts whose specialty lies in the polar extremities
of life, the lying in and the laying out. |
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A Christmas Carol - Condensed
- 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! |
Charles Dickens A to Z : The Essential Reference to His Life and Work
An excellent reference to keep handy when reading Dickens
The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens
Edited by Paul Schlicke (1999) The definitive Dickens reference
Dickens-Public Life and Private Passion
by Peter Ackroyd (2003)
Illustrated biography
Two paperback editions of Dickens' works provide helpful endnotes and more, helping to make reading Dickens more enjoyable:
Penguin Classics
Barnes & Noble Classics
Discovering DickensEnjoy Dickens the way he was originally read in the 19th century...in serial parts. This site, courtesy of Stanford University, features facsimiles of the original installments of several of Dickens novels along with very helpful notes, maps, and illustrations. You can view the installments in pdf format or they will mail you a paper copy. A great way to read Dickens! |
