153 Charles Dickens

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

Arts, History, Books

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2018

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was the greatest novelist of the Victorian age. In his 58 years he went from a hardscrabble childhood to a world-famous author, beloved and admired for his unforgettable characters, his powers of observation and empathy, and his championing of the lower classes. He wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of articles and short stories - and also found time to edit a weekly periodical for over 20 years. But that wasn't all: he also wrote thousands of pages of letters, ran a sizable household, was a tireless reformer, a philanthropist, an amateur theatrical performer, a lecturer, and a traveler, and at times walked 14 miles a day. And he had secrets in his personal life that are still being unearthed today. How on earth did he get all this done? How was he viewed by his contemporaries? And what do we make of his novels - and his life - today? For more on Dickens' classic work A Christmas Carol, try Episode 72 - Top 10 Christmas Stories For a look at the sentimental in fiction, try Episode 65 - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (with Professor James Chandler) Does Dickens make you hungry? We explore the phenomenon in Episode 144 - Food in Literature (with Ronica Dhar) What was Dickens's favorite book? Find out in Episode 41 - The New Testament (with Professor Kyle Keefer) Support the show at patreon.com/literature. Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.
0:07.0	Hello, Charles John Huffham Dickens was the greatest novelist of the Victorian age, and some might say the greatest person, or maybe we should say the greatest figure.
0:20.0	He was 58 when he died. In that relatively brief span he went from a hardscrabble childhood to a world famous author and a universally acknowledged genius admired and beloved for his unforgettable characters, his powers of observation
0:36.2	and empathy, and his championing of the lower classes.
0:40.6	He edited a weekly periodical for 20 years, bringing out his own works in installments, 15 novels, 5 novellas, hundreds of articles and short stories.
0:51.0	He wrote thousands of pages of letters, ran a sizable household,
0:55.2	was the tireless reformer and philanthropist and amateur theatrical performer,
0:59.7	a lecturer and traveler, and at times walked 14 miles every day.
1:05.8	His energy was astonishing.
1:08.5	All of his activities were lit up with the force of his personality.
1:13.0	Like many vivid and remarkable authors, his name became an adjective,
1:18.0	DeKansian, but like the author himself, it overflows its boundaries.
1:22.0	It can mean a vivid unusual character, someone with a quirky personality, a source of fun.
1:29.0	More often, it's used to describe a horrible tyrant, someone almost comically repulsive, especially a teacher or
1:36.0	someone else in charge of children. It can mean squalid social conditions like a workhouse
1:42.3	or a dark and lonely school.
1:44.8	It can mean whimsical character names like Grad Grind.
1:49.4	Usually dictionaries just give up and say, reminiscent of the novels of Charles Dickens.
1:55.7	Dickensian, it's everything in there, it's all that, it's him.
2:00.5	You know the dude, It's Charles Dickens.
2:03.0	But here at the History of Literature Podcast, we don't just throw up our hands. We dig in.
2:08.0	There are some secrets here and some mysteries, some recent revelations.
	...

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