HE was the star of the 19th century, and has become fiercely relevant in ours: take a bow charles dickens!!
thanks to the plunging economy, the awesome show “the wire,” and a bunch of bbc adaptations, dickens is back in a big way. HERE is my piece from today’s LAT in which i speak to a producer at mastepiece (theatre), a ucla literary scholar and former wire scribe (and onetime baltsun colleague) rafael alvarez.
given where newspapers are these days, i’m pleasantly shocked that i’m still asked to do this kind of meaty deep-think story for the daily press.
anyone who knew me in highschool would be shocked to see me writing such a piece in any form: my freshman english class read “great expectations” and i HATED it. i think i simply wasnt ready for it. wasnt until a college assignment of the atypical “hard times” that i realized what a fool i’d been.
was a real pleasure to go back to some of the work, especially “david copperfield” and “oliver twist.” much more awaits.
Photo credit: samuel lawrence and Superstock
I’m so glad that you wrote this beautifully thorough well-researched article — it’s exactly what I wanted to read just now, as I’m some 600 pages into “Dorrit,” and my wife and I (I’m Judith Lewis’s hub) are anxiously awaiting the final episode of the series.
True to your report, I’m yet another writer who’s been reading Dickens all his life, and your piece made me think about how much he’s influenced me, too, in global and unconscious ways…
Well done, sir.