Charles Dickens New Theme Park in London

Saturday, 28 April 2007 22:36

Beloved British novelist Charles Dickens will soon have his very own theme park--"Dickens World"--in Chatham, England.  The park was supposed to open last weekend, but hard times mean fans will have to contain their great expectations until the end of May.  The park's planners say they aim to "reproduce the architecture of the [Victorian] period" an hour away from modern London.  They plan to line their cobblestone streets with rides, animatronics, and "a host of costumed characters, shop keepers, and street entertainers"--not to mention "Ye Olde Curiosity Gift Shop."

Folks in Chatham hope Dickens World will attract 300,000 people a year to an area that needs an economic boost.  We hope it inspires you to join us for a look at Charles Dickens, perhaps the most famous English novelist of all.  After more than 150 years in print, Dickens's books are still going strong.  So, what's the secret of his serial success?

Dickensian Roots

Dickens was born February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. His father, John, made a decent living as a clerk for the British navy, but he had trouble sticking to a budget.  When Charles was 10, John moved the family to London.  Two years later, John went to jail--for not paying his debts.

To help the family foot the bills, 12-year-old Charles went to work in a shoe-polish factory. His coworkers mocked the "young gentleman," who hated his job.  The work was hard and the pay was low, but firsthand experience of a London factory and debtors' prison eventually repaid Dickens in full.

Writer's Rise

After a brief (and unremarkable) return to school, a 15-year-old Dickens found a better job, working as a clerk in a law office.  He shortly taught himself shorthand--and became a court reporter, then a parliamentary reporter, then a newspaper reporter.  By the time he was 20, Dickens had firsthand experience with the courts and parliament, too.

At 21, he began publishing original sketches and stories in various magazines and newspapers under the pen name "Boz" (rhymes with "nose").  Those won him enough of a following to merit the publication of Sketches by Boz in 1836. A few weeks later, he embarked on the project that first won him serious fame: the Pickwick Papers.

The Papers didn't simply emerge from Dickens's authorial imagination.  The project began when a publisher approached him and asked him to write a serialized comic narrative to go along with a set of engravings by a well-known artist. Dickens said yes--then stole the show with his prose.

Serial Success Story

A wandering comic adventure, published in 20 monthly installments, the Pickwick Papers flew off the shelves.  When the 20 months were up, Dickens was the most popular writer in London.  He quickly followed up with a succession of serialized successes: Oliver Twist (1837-39), Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41), and Barnaby Rudge (1841).

And that was just the start. Eleven more novels followed, including classics like David Copperfield (1849-50), Bleak House (1852-53), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and Great Expectations (1860-61)--all first published in serialized form.  If that wasn't enough, Dickens also published annual Christmas stories, beginning with A Christmas Carol in 1843.

Dickens's remarkable run didn't end until 1870, when he died suddenly from a stroke.  Throughout his career (and after), princes and paupers alike consumed his complex tales, crafted around characters so compelling that several have entered the cultural landscape in their own right--think of Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger, or of Scrooge and Tiny Tim.  Along the way, readers also got biting satire and social critique, from a rare writer who knew factories and prisons as well as courts and parliament...  Steve Sampson Author