NPR (national public radio) ran this story on Dickens last week. This article includes some very interesting links, too. I thought you might enjoy it, Jenny!
"Tuesday marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens the great 19th century English novelist who gave us stories of pathos and comedy, and colorful portraits of the people of London, from the poor in the back streets, to the rich in the parks and avenues.
Lots of Dickens' phrases like "Bah humbug" and "God bless us, every one!" have slipped into our minds and our memories. And along with the words, the characters, too from hungry orphan Oliver Twist to Little Dorrit to cruel Mr. Murdstone.
"After Shakespeare, Dickens is the great creator of characters, multiple characters," says Claire Tomalin, author of the new biography Charles Dickens: A Life. "He did these great walks he would walk every day for miles and miles, and sometimes I think he was sort of stoking up his imagination as he walked, and thinking of his characters. The way he built his novels was through the voices of his characters."
Dickens liked to walk, as he said, "far and fast," gathering his thoughts and his strength to pour into his novels. The books were published as cliff-hanging serials in magazines or pamphlets before they became bound books so nothing could be rewritten or reorganized.
"He would write these quite rapidly," Tomalin explains. "And very little was changed when they came out in book form, in volume form, afterwards. ... He was writing books that would become classics, and no other writer has done this."
Tomalin notes that there is bad writing to be found in Dickens' speedily produced novels but the poor writing is eclipsed by the great writing. One of Tomalin's favorites is David Copperfield which was also Dickens' favorite.........." (click title to read article with numerous links)
This article is very interesting. It's a link on the NPR article: "Not to Put Too Fine a Point Upon It": How Dickens Helped Shape the Lexicon "With the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens approaching (get your party hats ready for February 7th!), it's a good time to gauge the enormous impact he had on the English language. By many accounts he was the most widely read author of the Victorian era, and no writer since has held a candle to him in terms of popularity, prolificness, and influence in spreading new forms of the language both highbrow and lowbrow.
Dickens came from a decidedly modest background, working in a boot-blacking factory as a child. He grew up to be a keen observer of the many facets and layers of British society, as well as the language that typified different social classes and walks of life. In his novels, the words from his character's mouths were carefully chosen to reflect their background and personality, often for highly satirical effect. He infused his work with the colloquial speech styles of the day, weaving them into narratives that had a deep effect on his readership.
One way to measure the extent to which Dickens has enriched the lexicon is to see how often he is cited by the Oxford English Dictionary to illustrate the usage of words and phrases. Among writers quoted in the current edition of the OED, Dickens lags behind only Shakespeare, Scott, Chaucer, Milton, and Dryden for total number of citations (9,218). No one in the past two centuries comes close.................."
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Topic: "What the Dickens"....NOT HIM too????? (Read 1706 times)
