June 9th, 2020 marks the 150 anniversary of the death of Charles Dickens. Westminster Abbey is celebrating the occasion with a private wreath laying behind closed doors and the release of a new film of a sound and light installation which was projected onto the Abbey’s iconic West Towers over the weekend. The New York Times is looking back at their archives to examine how people reacted to the news. The Guardian newspaper is reading Our Mutual Friend in June for their reading group.
By a wonderful coincidence worthy of Dickens, our Low Maintenance Book Club has also been reading Dickens this summer. We have been reading David Copperfield, and our last discussion will take place on June 23rd. It’s not too late to sign up if you would like to join us. We will send you a Zoom link after you have registered.
We are lucky that we have many books by and about Charles Dickens that can be accessed virtually, if you just can’t get enough. Here are a selection of some of the titles:
Charles Dickens in Context edited by Sally Ledger and Holly Furneaux
Charles Dickens: A Life Defined by Writing by Michael Slater
The Pleasures of Memory: Learning to Read with Charles Dickens by Sarah Winter
Select Short Fiction by Charles Dickens
The Unabridged Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
We also have some wonderful items in our Rubenstein Library, including a first edition of David Copperfield, which you can view online on Internet Archive.