Soon it will the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens- unsurpassed literary genius whose influence through words forever defined the way we connote Christmas.
Great orator of the Victorian Age.
His Dickensian characters like Mr. Pickwick, Fagin, Miss Havisham, Mr. Micawber, Scrooge, Uriah Sweep, Mrs. Gamp,Wackford Squeers and Mr. Murdstone, David Copperfield, Merdle, Lady Dedlock and Mr. Pecksniff are of cheery memory but he was tortured by the ghosts of his childhood. He was defensive, cruel to wife and dismissive of his children - a Victorian retinue of social mobility, sexual hypocrisy and tortured genius. His critics were many but we have surpassed the literary snobs of his age.
His is a triumph of imagination.
Having created his singular vocabulary that is now part of modern language and culture, he explored the poverty, class rigidities, injustics, hypocrisies and easy disposition to criminality of that era.
A body of work comparable to Shakespeare only ~ Dickens like the great playwright is unknowable despite the many biographies and studies undertaken in his name.
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