Dickens at 200

This month is the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth. You must have noticed - the media have been shoving it down our throats since Christmas.

Dickens is, of course, one of the greatest writers that this country and possibly the world has ever produced. He is up there with Chaucer, Shakespeare, the Brontes, Jane Austen, John Webster (OK, he's a playwrite but let's not split hairs) and, in the modern literary world, people like PD James and Annie Proux. I must also confess my guilty pleasure and add Jeffrey Archer here because what ever else he may be, he is a damn good story teller.

Dickens' characters have lived in our imagination since childhood and most people, including children, can name at least one. Mostly that will be Oliver, but also well known will be the other characters from Oliver, Miss Havisham, Nicholas Nickleby, Ebenezer Scrooge and more. My personal favourite novel has to be 'A Christmas Carol' (you may remember my favourite Christmas movie is Muppet Christmas Carol) and the story of morals and compassion expounded upon within it is one of the most fundamental examinations of the human character and its failings that there is.

Dickens' stories have been reworked into some of the most famous stage plays, movies and musicals. Again, the obvious one is Oliver!, but also Great Expectations, Christmas Carol, The Old Curiosity Shop, Nicholas Nickleby (who can forget the fabulous RSC adaptation once they have seen it) and more. Most of us theatricals hanker after playing one or more of his characters whether it be Wackford Squeers, Fagin, Nancy or something else.

Charles Dickens was not, of course, originally a novelist. He first wrote his stories as a series to be published in popular Victorian magazines, one chapter each week. It was only later that the chapters were compiled and sold as novels. They were the Victorian equivalent of a weekly cliffhanger, each time leaving his readers  wanting more and guaranteeing the magazines a regular readership. He was amazingly popular in his day (and indeed still is) which was just as well, because he also very often wrote for purely commercial reasons; he needed the cash from his writing to live. He was not a rich man and he had ten children which was a pretty substantial family even for Victorian days. He was a bit of a ladies man and by all accounts, treated his long suffering wife rather badly and showered presents on various mistresses.

It was his own life experiences and observations that informed much of the content of his writing. He was a great observer, walking miles and exploring London and often Rochester and other parts of Kent to find characters and locations. The Victorian slums he portrays, child gangs and thieves (things don't change much, do they?), poor houses and prostitution were real, and provided rich colour to give his stories background and grittiness. That grittiness is what sets his stories apart from others that were writing around the same time; other writers often focused on comedies of manners with saccharine heroines or dashing heroes and based their tales around the comfortable middle or upper classes, but not Charles Dickens who wanted reality and earthiness.

Much of what he wrote about is still pertinent today, and perhaps that is why his stories have remained so popular. None of them has ever gone out of print and demand remains high. So even in a modern culture which prides itself on being forward thinking, relaxed, easy going and loves technology, his world of right and wrong, morals and not shying away from the filth and detritus of our own making and ensuring we try and make it better for everyone, remains relevant.

We have much to learn from him, and every home should have at least one of his books. Our children should all get their bedtime story with a dose of Dickens, and we should all try and read his words again too. With luck, they will then be preserved for future generations and they will value them long into the future.