- published: 17 Jun 2016
- views: 70205
Bleak House, a novel by Charles Dickens, was first published as a serial between March 1852 and September 1853. Widely considered to be one of Dickens's finest novels, Bleak House has many characters and several sub-plots. The story is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and partly by an omniscient narrator. Memorable characters include Lady Honoria Dedlock, the lawyer Tulkinghorn, John Jarndyce, Harold Skimpole, and Richard Carstone. At the novel's centre is the long-running legal case, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which has far-reaching consequences for all involved. This lawsuit revolves around the fact that someone wrote several conflicting wills. Dickens creates this fictional legal case to satirize of the English judicial system, using both his own experiences as a law clerk, as well as his experiences as a litigant seeking to enforce copyright on his earlier books.
Though lawyers and judges criticised Dickens's portrait of the English legal system as exaggerated, his novel helped to spur a judicial reform movement that culminated in the enactment of legal reform in the 1870s. As Dickens wrote Bleak House, the need for legal reform was being widely debated in London.
Hard Times – For These Times (commonly known as Hard Times) is the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. The book appraises English society and highlights the social and economic pressures of the times.
Hard Times is unusual in several respects. It is by far the shortest of Dickens' novels, barely a quarter of the length of those written immediately before and after it. Also, unlike all but one of his other novels, Hard Times has neither a preface nor illustrations. Moreover, it is his only novel not to have scenes set in London. Instead the story is set in the fictitious Victorian industrial Coketown, a generic Northern English mill-town, in some ways similar to Manchester, though smaller. Coketown may be partially based on 19th-century Preston.
One of Dickens's reasons for writing Hard Times was that sales of his weekly periodical, Household Words, were low, and it was hoped the novel's publication in instalments would boost circulation – as indeed proved to be the case. Since publication it has received a mixed response from critics. Critics such as George Bernard Shaw and Thomas Macaulay have mainly focused on Dickens's treatment of trade unions and his post–Industrial Revolution pessimism regarding the divide between capitalist mill owners and undervalued workers during the Victorian era. F. R. Leavis, a great admirer of the book, included it--but not Dickens' work as a whole--as part of his Great Tradition of English novels.
A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same period. It follows the lives of several characters through these events. A Tale of Two Cities was published in weekly installments from April 1859 to November 1859 in Dickens's new literary periodical titled All the Year Round. All but three of Dickens's previous novels had appeared only as monthly installments.
Dickens's famous opening sentence introduces the universal approach of the book, the French Revolution, and the drama depicted within:
In 1775, a man flags down the nightly mail-coach on its route from London to Dover. The man is Jerry Cruncher, an employee of Tellson's Bank in London; he carries a message for Jarvis Lorry, a passenger and one of the bank's managers. Mr. Lorry sends Jerry back to deliver a cryptic response to the bank: "Recalled to Life." The message refers to Alexandre Manette, a French physician who has been released from the Bastille after an 18-year imprisonment. Once Mr. Lorry arrives in Dover, he meets with Dr. Manette's daughter Lucie and her governess, Miss Pross. Lucie has believed her father to be dead, and faints at the news that he is alive; Mr. Lorry takes her to France to reunite with him.
Charles John Huffam Dickens (/ˈtʃɑːrlz ˈdɪkɪnz/; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.
Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens's literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers. Within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humour, satire, and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication. The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience's reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback. For example, when his wife's chiropodist expressed distress at the way Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield seemed to reflect her disabilities, Dickens improved the character with positive features. His plots were carefully constructed, and he often wove elements from topical events into his narratives. Masses of the illiterate poor chipped in ha'pennies to have each new monthly episode read to them, opening up and inspiring a new class of readers.
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (also known as The Pickwick Papers) is Charles Dickens's first novel. He was asked to contribute to the project as an up-and-coming writer following the success of Sketches by Boz, published in 1836 (most of Dickens' novels were issued in shilling instalments before being published as complete volumes). Dickens (still writing under the pseudonym of Boz) increasingly took over the unsuccessful monthly publication after the original illustrator Robert Seymour had committed suicide.
With the introduction of Sam Weller in chapter 10, the book became the first real publishing phenomenon, with bootleg copies, theatrical performances, Sam Weller joke books, and other merchandise.
After the publication, the widow of Robert Seymour claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any specific input, writing that "Mr Seymour never originated or suggested an incident, a phrase, or a word, to be found in the book."
LITERATURE - Charles Dickens
The Life of Charles Dickens (BBC)
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens (Part 1 of 3)
A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens - FULL Audio Book | Greatest Audio Books (Book 1 of 3)
Charles Dickens: Literature's great rock star
Charles Dickens's London with Simon Callow - the Guardian
"Hard Times" by Charles Dickens {Audio Book}
Biografía Charles Dickens
Great Expectations - Part 1 of 2 - FULL Audio Book - by Charles Dickens
Actors: Lasco Atkins (actor), Steve Morphew (actor), Tom Hollander (actor), Kristin Scott Thomas (actress), John Warman (actor), Joan Washington (miscellaneous crew), John Kavanagh (actor), Ralph Fiennes (director), Ralph Fiennes (actor), Stuart Matthews (actor), Ilan Eshkeri (composer), Nicolas Gaster (editor), Asha Sharma (miscellaneous crew), Sharon Harel (producer), David Davoli (miscellaneous crew),
Genres: Biography, Drama, Romance,Actors: David Zum Brunnen (actor), Scott Davis (director), Elliot Engel (writer), Warren Gentry (editor),
Genres: ,Actors: Debbie Wiseman (composer), James Fox (actor), Robert Halmi Jr. (producer), Philip Saville (director), Hans Christian Andersen (writer), Hugh Bonneville (actor), Alison Steadman (actress), Mathieu Carrière (actor), Geraldine James (actress), Steven Berkoff (actor), Simon Callow (actor), David V. Picker (producer), Mathias Braun (miscellaneous crew), Mathias Braun (miscellaneous crew), Jan Henrik Stahlberg (actor),
Plot: A fictionalized account of the young life of Hans Christian Andersen, a young man with a penchant for storytelling but struggles to find his place in the world and gain the affection of the woman he adores. Interspersed throughout are brief interludes of the stories that will make Hans famous (The Nightingale, The Little Mermaid and The Snow Queen to name a few), which are intertwined with the events that surround his own life.
Keywords: animal, based-on-autobiography, character-name-in-title, charles-dickens, chinese, chinoiserie, copenhagen-denmark, dancing, empire-fashion, fairy-taleActors: Juliet Stevenson (actress), Nik Powell (producer), Juliet Stevenson (actress), Jane Horrocks (actress), Keith Wickham (actor), Kate Winslet (actress), Keith Wickham (actor), Simon Callow (actor), Rhys Ifans (actor), Nicolas Cage (actor), Simon Callow (actor), Michael Gambon (actor), Robert Llewellyn (actor), Robert Llewellyn (writer), Charles Dickens (writer),
Plot: The film begins with a live-action sequence set in Boston in 1857, the site of a live reading by renowned novelist Dickens. As he begins his 'story of ghosts' a woman in the audience screams because she has seen a mouse and Dickens points out that this is appropriate since his story begins with a mouse. At this point the story turns into the animated version and Dickens explains that the mouse, named Gabriel, carries a glimmer of hope amidst the glaring co-existence of rich and poor in the streets of London. Throughout the subsequent unfolding of the well-known story Gabriel acts as a miniature Greek chorus, providing younger members of the audience with a point of entry into the story and, in the case of the potentially frightening elements (the Ghosts of Past, Present and Future), a place of refuge.
Keywords: 1840s, based-on-novel, christmas, compassion, ghost, holiday, punctuation-in-title, redemption, victorian-eraActors: Simon Callow (actor), Charles Dickens (writer), Patrick Garland (director), Peter Ackroyd (writer),
Genres: Biography, Drama,Actors: Simon Callow (actor), Joby Gee (editor), Tom Kinninmont (director), Adrian Barry (actor), Neil Morkunas (actor), Phyllis Childs (actress),
Genres: Drama,Actors: Ben Cross (actor), Heathcote Williams (writer), David Bartlett (actor), Janet Amsden (actress), Rosie Marcel (actress), Victoria Plucknett (actress),
Genres: Drama,Actors: John Gielgud (actor), Jonathan Fuller (actor), Jonathan Fuller (actor), Catherine Burns (actress), Catherine Burns (actress), Stephen D'Ambrose (actor), Stephen D'Ambrose (actor), Peter Thoemke (actor), Robert Nadir (actor), Marshall Borden (actor), Oliver Cliff (actor), Oliver Cliff (actor), Paul Lassko (actor), Paul Lassko (actor), Barbara Field (writer),
Genres: Drama, Family, Fantasy,Actors: Eric Barker (actor), John Bird (actor), Warren Mitchell (actor), William Mervyn (actor), John Cleese (actor), Maurice Denham (actor), Arnold Diamond (actor), Bill Fraser (actor), Ferdy Mayne (actor), Charles Lloyd Pack (actor), David Hemmings (actor), David Hemmings (actor), Arthur Howard (actor), Peter Jeffrey (actor), William Rushton (actor),
Genres: Comedy,Actors: Walter Buschhoff (actor), Carl Wery (actor), Elmar Wepper (actor), Peter Arens (actor), Franz Josef Wild (director), Rolf von Nauckhoff (actor), Charles Dickens (writer), Klaus Havenstein (actor), Albert Hehn (actor), Walter Janssen (actor), Angelika Bender (actress), Trude Breitschopf (actress), Stefan Schnabel (actor), Hans Baur (actor), Gustl Datz (actor),
Genres: Fantasy,I lived a happy life ‘til I was ten years old
When debt landed dad in prison and our country house
was sold
Lunched with a lady in her London flat so cold
Worked at a good polish factory, labelling jars quite
Donald told
Goodness only knows
I was a miserable soul
For a time I went to school but then I found a job
As a clerk to a lawyer, oh it made my poor head throb
I failed to be an actor, despite my loud gob
Ended up reporting speeches of the parliamentary mob
Then as everybody knows
I started writing pros
Put my life into my books
Friends and enemies and crooks
Legal bosses of the crop
In “The Old Curiosity Shop”
Fagin in “Oliver Twist”
A factory pal, you get the gist
And although my memory’s quite foggy
Got Scrooge from the grave of Ebenezer Scroggy
My first book was an overnight sensation
But I drove myself too hard to enjoy the agilation
Despite my wealth, my family begged for money
I wrote of it in “Chuzzlewit” which people said was
funny
Didn’t sell like books before
My family still asked for more
“Little Dorrit” is a tale
About my dad in debtor’s jail
While “Hard Times” tells my life ‘bout
When I tried to leave my wife
“Little Nell’s” here was my poor dear
Departed sister-in-law
And “David Copperfield”, working in a factory
I must confess that that was really me
In my life, felt shamed ‘bout poverty in childhood
Wrote about sadness, suffering and fears
Also wrote about people with funny names
Bumble, Smallweed, Scrooge, Uriah Heep
And Wackford Squeers
Whilst writing “Edwin Drood”
Train crashed in, helped my mood
Still I drove myself on
With readings far across the pond
Died before I wrote Drood’s end
Something drove me ‘round the bend
So Dickens, take a dickens, take a bow
And Heaven knows