CHARLES DICKENS 200TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

Google doodle commemorating Charles Dickens 200th Birthday

Charles Dickens

It was exciting to see Google's beautiful google doodle this morning commemorating Charles Dickens 200th birthday. The doodle with a Victorian touch, has characters from Charles Dickens novels including Scrooge, Bob Cratchit and Pip. I was swiftly taken back into my childhood days, where it was such sheer pleasure to read books by Charles Dickens. In fact to own a collection of his books was considered a treasure. 

I cannot conclude my post yet without mentioning a few interesting things about the greatest English author of the Victorian times, who was responsible for the most iconic novels and characters. Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 at Portsmouth, Hampshire. He was the 2nd of eight children to John and Elizabeth Dickens. He was married to Catherine Thomson Hogarth and they had ten children. Dickens  has written two dozen novels, several short stories and some plays. His first novel The Pickwick Papers was penned in 1936. 

Some of his well known novels are:

* Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

* Bleak House

* The Old Curiosity Shop

* Great Expectations

* A Christmas Carol

* A Tale of two Cities

* David Copperfield

* Oliver Twist

* The Cricket on the Hearth

* The Battle of Life

* The Haunted Man and the Ghost's bargain

* Our Mutual Friend

* The Battle of Life

* The Chimes

* The Life and Adventure of Martin Chuzzlewit

* Little Dorrit

There will be celebrations across the globe today to honor Charles Dickens. The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will be leading celebrations in UK. Prince Charles will visit Westminster Abbey to lay a wreath on Dickens' grave at Poet's corner, where he was buried in 1870. He is also expected to visit Dickens Museum in London. Many actors will be giving readings from Dickens' novels. Several of his descendants are expected to join the celebrations today. Dickens World Theme Park in Kent will host live attractions and events for visitors to experience characters from his novels come to life with costumed entertainers and interact with them .


Author Lucinda Dickens Hawksley has written a new book on Charles Dickens to celebrate the occasion. She is his great great great grand-daughter of Charles Dickens and a patron of the Charles Dickens Museum in London. The biography contains removable facsimile documents from Dickens' personal archives.

There is a nice website www.dickens2012.org exclusively dedicated to celebrating Charles Dickens' 200th birthday. Visit the website to read lots more on Dickens.

Dickens World Theme Park Kent

Dickens World Theme Park Kent

Birthplace of Charles Dickens - 393 Old Commercial Road Portsmouth