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Exploring the Life and Legacy of Charles Dickens

This quiz tests your knowledge about the life, works, and legacy of Charles Dickens, one of the most celebrated authors in English literature.

#Charles Dickens #Literature #19th Century #English Authors #Literary History

💡 Interesting Facts

  • in the 1976 miniseries Dickens of London, British actor Roy Dotrice played both Charles Dickens and his father John Dickens.
  • many gift books, decorative anthologies published annually just before the holidays to be given as gifts, featured popular authors of the day such as Dickens, Wordsworth and Poe.
  • actress Helen Ernstone appeared in stage adaptations of Charles Dickens novels.
  • The Haunted House written by Charles Dickens in 1859 is the inspiration for an attraction which can be seen at Chatham in Kent.
  • Sydney Dickens, the son of novelist Charles Dickens, accumulated so much debt that his father refused to see him.
  • publisher Richard Bentley hired Charles Dickens to edit his periodical, Bentley's Miscellany.
  • the 1901 film Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost is the oldest surviving film adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novel A Christmas Carol.
  • the jilted bride Eliza Emily Donnithorne, who is buried in Camperdown Cemetery, may have been the model for Charles Dickens' reclusive Miss Havisham.
  • the bestselling children's book The History of the Fairchild Family by Mary Martha Sherwood inspired the character of Pip in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations.
  • the Star and Garter Hotel in Richmond was the venue for a dinner hosted by Charles Dickens in 1850 to celebrate the publication of his novel David Copperfield.
  • the Norfolk Biffin apple appears in the works of Charles Dickens and was sent from Norfolk to London for Sir Robert Walpole.
  • Elizabeth Dickens, the mother of novelist Charles Dickens, was the model for Mrs. Nickleby in Nicholas Nickleby and Mrs. Micawber in David Copperfield.
  • Charles Frederick Field (pictured) was the basis for Inspector Bucket in Charles Dickens's novel Bleak House.
  • Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell and Adelaide Anne Procter each wrote a chapter of the short story "A House to Let".
  • Charles Dickens wrote his novels Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit and A Tale of Two Cities at his Tavistock House home.
  • Charles Dickens used his father John Dickens as his inspiration for the character of Mr Micawber in his novel David Copperfield.
  • Charles Dickens once wrote that in Civil War-era Montana, a town was to be named after Varina Davis, the first lady of the Confederate States of America.
  • English novelist Charles Dickens wrote the bestseller The Life of Our Lord for his children in 1849, but it was not published until 1934, 64 years after his death.
  • Indian author and journalist Peary Chand Mitra played a leading role in the Bengal renaissance in the 19th century and became known as the "Dickens of Bengal" due to his clear Bengali prose.
  • Augustus Dickens, the brother of English novelist Charles Dickens, abandoned his blind wife in London and ran away to America with another woman.
  • Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens, the son of novelist Charles Dickens, died in New York in 1912 while on a lecture tour celebrating the centenary of his father's birth.
  • Thomas Macaulay referred to Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times as "sullen Socialism".
  • novelist Charles Dickens received news of the death in India of his son Walter Landor Dickens on his own birthday on February 7, 1864.
  • Charles Dickens composed the epitaph for the tombstone of Charles Irving Thornton (pictured) despite never having met the dead child or his family.
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