As you probably know, the internets contain everything known to humankind, and Charles Dickens is no exception. In my research over the years on this particular project, I keep finding websites and blogs devoted to the man and his works, and I would like to share just a few that I find myself visiting over and over.
I’m not opining on any of them, as they each have their strengths and they are all worth visiting. Some, like the Charles Dickens Museum, are websites for particular places in the real world, while others are compendiums in and of themselves. For the most part I’ve picked up text from their “About” pages, and some I have invited to submit a paragraph or two to expand on their mission statements.
The Dickens Society is a scholarly society formed to conduct and support new research into the life and works of Charles Dickens. Central to our work is our interaction with the public and our support of research through social media, our annual Symposium (held this year in London), and the Dickens Quarterly , our newsletter which is published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
The Dickens Society was first formed from the Modern Language Association Convention (MLA) in 1970. We also have officers and trustees to ensure that the research we support on Dickens is both accurate and current. Although we are a society made up mostly of Dickens scholars, we welcome anyone with an interest in Dickens to join, attend the annual Symposium and give their work on Dickens. https://dickenssociety.org
David Perdue, creator of this site, is a retired Web developer for the U.S. Government who happens to have a deep and enduring passion for Dickens. This passion spills into this Web site, which appeared on the Web in December 1997.
The site is intended to enhance the reader’s experience, providing background on Dickens; his work, his times, and the locations he wrote about.
David is a member of The Dickens Society, The Dickens Fellowship, and was elected to the Board of the American Friends of the Charles Dickens Museum.
David was born and raised in the Washington DC area and now resides in rural Missouri. His wife of 30 years and biggest fan,Sandy, died suddenly in 2008. This site is dedicated to her memory. https://www.charlesdickenspage.com/
Dickens-online.info began in early 2007 as a free resource on Charles Dickens. The main goal: to provide easy and free access to the entire collection of Dickens’ writings.
This website is, for the most part, a one man operation. Who am I? My name is Gregory and here is something important you should know about me – I’m not an expert on Victorian literature or Charles Dickens. I’m an IT professional who just happens to like Dickens very much. I’m passionate about reading and Dickens is one of my all-time favorites.
On this website you will find a huge collection of Dickens’ works:
- 20 novels & novellas
- 28 short stories
- A number of nonfiction works
- Essays
- Speeches
- And more…
http://www.dickens-online.info
The Dickens Fellowship, founded in 1902, is a worldwide association of people from all walks of life who share a common interest in the life and works of Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870). The Fellowship’s aims are to knit together in a common bond of friendship, lovers of that great master of humour and pathos, Charles Dickens; to promote the knowledge and appreciation of his works; to spread the love of humanity, which is the keynote of all his works; and to exercise such charitable support as would have appealed strongly to the heart of Charles Dickens.
The Fellowship is based in London, England, at the Charles Dickens Museum. Branches are located in the UK, the USA, Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, India, Japan, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland and the Netherlands.
https://www.dickensfellowship.org
The museum is situated at 48 Doughty Street, Dickens’s London home from 1837-1839. He moved there with his wife Catherine and their eldest son Charlie. While living in Doughty Street, Dickens finished writing The Pickwick Papers, wrote Nicholas Nickleby and most famously of all, Oliver Twist. These early publications made Dickens an international celebrity, even Queen Victoria was a fan!
After the Dickenses left Doughty Street, the property was largely used as a boarding house until the Dickens Fellowship purchased it as their headquarters in 1923. The house opened to the public in 1925 and houses a significant collection linked to Dickens and his works.
Today the Charles Dickens Museum is set up as though Dickens himself had just left. It appears as a fairly typical middle-class Victorian home, complete with furnishings, portraits and decorations which are known to have belonged to Dickens. A visit to the museum allows you to step back into 1837 and to see a world which is at once both intimately familiar, yet astonishingly different. A world in which one of the greatest writers in the English language found his inspiration.
https://dickensmuseum.com
Dickensblog is — as its name suggests — quite simply a blog for all things Dickens! On the blog and in its associated Facebook group, we talk about his books (and their various adaptations), his life, his legacy — everything Dickensian that there is to talk about.
When I started the blog in 2009, it wasn’t because I saw myself as any kind of expert on Charles Dickens. Quite the contrary. I was a great fan, but one with much to learn, and I thought running the blog would help me do that, in two ways. First, blogging about Dickens would require me to do more research on him and spend more time with his works. And second, blogging would put me in touch with other fans, many of whom would know more than I would and be able to share their knowledge. And that’s exactly what has happened.
Dickensblog has led me to so many wonderful people who share my love and enthusiasm for Dickens, and for 13 years now we’ve kept a conversation going that I hope has been as delightful and enlightening to them as it has been to me. https://dickensblog.typepad.com
These are of course only a few of the many, many websites devoted to the works of Dickens; in fact most all of these have links out to even more Dickens-centric websites.
Thanks for stopping by, and as usual you can drop me a line at dickens@mooneyart.com if you like.
Gerry Mooney Illustrating Dickens 