Learn more about Charles Dickens:

The Mystery of Ellen Ternan

Forget who killed Edwin Drood, Dickens scholars and amateur enthusiasts have been trying to solve Dickens' last and greatest mystery since his death in 1870. Namely, what exactly was his relationship with Ellen Lawless Ternan?

Dickens at the Movies

Charles 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.

Sir Roger de Coverley

The fiddler struck up Sir Roger de Coverley. Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs Fezziwig. Top couple, too; with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them.

The dance performed by Fezziwig and company was popular in the eighteenth century and was considered old-fashioned by Dickens' time. Named for a ficticious character in The Spectator (1711) the dance resembled the Virginia Reel. It was usually the last dance performed during an evening of entertainment (Hearn, 2004, pp. 70-71, n. 52).

Learn the dance

Hear the music

Charles Dickens Puzzles
By Julian Morgan
A fun and challenging romp through the world of Dickens!
Also available: Shakespeare!

Cursing in Dickens

As the stricter morals of the Victorian era replaced the ribaldry of the 18th-century, Dickens felt compelled to clean up his act. Instances of cursing in the novels dropped dramatically in his mid and late career. For example, below is a count of the full-use of the word "damn" (as opposed to just a capital D or d--d for damn or damned) in Dickens' works:

7 - Sketches by Boz
29 - Pickwick Papers
12 - Nicholas Nickleby
8 - Barnaby Rudge
1 - David Copperfield
3 - Bleak House
3 - Hard Times
3 - Little Dorrit
1 - Tale of Two Cities
3 - Great Expectations
1 - Our Mutual Friend
2 - Edwin Drood

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

After Charles Darnay is acquitted of treason he accompanies Sydney Carton "down Ludgate hill to Fleet Street, and so, up a covered way, into a tavern. Here, they were shown into a little room, where Charles Darnay was soon recruiting his strength with a good plain dinner and good wine" (A Tale of Two Cities, p. 77).

This was almost certainly Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, rebuilt after the great fire of 1666 and a favorite of Dickens.

Read about a visit Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese by Joseph Pennell for Harper's Weekly in November 1887.

The Charles Dickens Page

Bringing the genius of Charles Dickens to a new generation of readers since 1997

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.

Charles 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 "It is wonderful to me how I could have been so easily cast away at such an age" (Forster, 1899, v. 1, p. 25).

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 including, Oliver Twist, Bleak House, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and his personal favorite, David Copperfield. He will forever be associated with the celebration of Christmas due to his Christmas Books, the most popular being A Christmas Carol. Dickens also edited, and contributed to, weekly journals Household Words and All the Year Round. Near the end of his life he traveled throughout Britain and America giving public readings of his work.

Charles Dickens died an old man of 57, worn out with work and travel, on June 9, 1870. He wished to be buried, without fanfare, in a small cemetery in Rochester, Kent, 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.

Explore the World of Charles Dickens

Mapping the Locations in the Novels Charles Dickens' London Aerial Charles Dickens' London Dickens' Rochester/Chatham Dickens' Higham Dickens' American Travels 1842 Dickens' American Reading Tour 1867-68 Dickens' Pictures from Italy Map 1844-45 Oliver Twist Map - London Locations Oliver Twist Map - Outside London A Tale of Two Cities - London A Tale of Two Cities - Paris Great Expectations Connections Dickens' Reading Tour of England, Scotland, and Ireland 1858 Map of Nell's Journey from The Old Curiosity Shop The London of Barnaby Rudge London Map of Dickens' Night Walks London Locations in Bleak House Pickwickian Travels

The Many Faces of Ebenezer Scrooge

The Internet Movie Database lists more than 100 actors who have portrayed the famous Dickensian miser. Some of the best are pictured here.

Lionel Barrymore	Reginald Owen	Alistair Sim	Mister Magoo	Albert Finney	Yosemite Sam
Scrooge McDuck	George C Scott	Bill Murray	Rowan Atkinson	Michael Caine	Fred Flintstone
Patrick Stewart	Kelsey Grammer	Jim Carrey	Christopher Plummer	Guy Pierce	Will Ferrell

Bits of Dickens...

Short examples of Charles Dickens' work that can be read in a single sitting:

• Oliver Asks for More (Oliver Twist)
• Cratchit's Christmas (A Christmas Carol)
• Steamboat Trip (American Notes)
• Omnibuses (Sketches by Boz)
• Mrs Gamp (Martin Chuzzlewit)
• The Haves and the Have Nots (American Notes)
• Mr Pickwick Meets the Lady in Yellow Curl Papers (Pickwick Papers)
• More Bits of Dickens

Learn more about Charles Dickens

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