What do Charles Dickens, Frederick Douglass, Laura Ingalls Wilder and I all have in common? Aside from being incredibly famous writers, we also share a February 7th birthday! But the real star of the birthday this year is English author Charles Dickens who was born 200 years ago on Tuesday. Dickens left us with a rich collection of literature, a bevy of colorful (and sometimes wicked) characters, and countless phrases we’ve worked into everyday use. To wit, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” from the novel Tale of Two Cities and referring to grumps as ‘scrooge’ are two of the more apparent examples. But he’s also responsible for referring to doctors as ‘sawbones’ and coining the neologisms ‘butter-fingers,’ ‘flummox,’ ‘tousled,’ ‘boredom,’ and ‘kibosh.’ Plus, with this list of words we have an excuse to occasionally use the phrase ‘Dickensian Neologisms.’
This February cold front provides the perfect opportunity to spend a bit of time revisiting some of Dickens’ work. And thanks to APL’s downloadable service, you can get some of these titles without even leaving your cozy reading nook (although we’re always happy to see you in the library)!
Some Classic works by Charles Dickens:
- The old curiosity shop : with the original illustrations
- A tale of two cities, and, Great expectations
- Dombey and Son
- David Copperfield
- Hard Times
- The life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
Some Dickens-inspired works:
- Batman. Noel by Lee Bermejo
- Graphic Novel Classics. Vol. 19, Christmas classics by Rick Geary
- Oliver & Company (DVD)
- The Muppet Christmas carol (DVD)
- An actor's Dickens : scenes for audition and performance from the works of Charles Dickens by Beatrice Manley
- Everyone in Dickens by George Newlin
Happy exploring!
