The great British novelist Charles Dickens was born 200 years ago today. To mark the occasion, bicentennial celebrations are being held across the globe this year.
When Charles Dickens died at the age of 58, a headline in the New York Times blared: “Death of the Great Novelist…Mourned by the People of Two Continents.”
In today’s celebrity-laden culture, with people like Paris Hilton and the Kardashian sisters famous for simply being famous, it’s hard to overestimate the cultural impact Dickens had on 19th-century audiences. Born when mass media was in its infancy, he became the world’s first literary celebrity.
At the time of his death, Dickens had made a name for himself not merely as the author of more than 14 novels (The Mystery of Edwin Drood was half done when he was felled by a stroke), but as a magazine editor, playwright, actor, speaker, philanthropist, and social reformer.
In iconic novels like Oliver Twist, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Bleak House, and Little Dorrit, Dickens created some of English literature’s most unforgettable characters: Oliver Twist, Fagin, Little Nell, Scrooge and Tiny Tim, Mr. Micawber, and Pickwick. His novels gave voice to the poor and his depiction of workhouses, orphanages, and slums led to many reforms. Since 1897, there have been more than 300 film and television adaptations of his work, including nearly 50 of A Christmas Carol alone.
