A Dickens of a fiction fan
QUESTION Do we know what Charles Dickens liked to read?
Charles DiCkens was a voracious reader and in his novels you can find references to his favourite authors. he was also a champion of new writers, many of whom he serialised in his magazine, all The Year round.
Born in Portsmouth on February 7, 1812, to John and elizabeth Dickens, he was the second of eight children. his nursemaid Mary Weller helped inspire his passion for fiction.
her bedtime stories featured characters such as Captain Murderer, who made pies out of his wives. she also introduced him to fairy tales. These were the original dark tales of the Brothers Grimm, not the sanitised versions re-written by the moralising Victorians.
as a young man, Dickens’s favourite works were Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, Tom Jones by henry Fielding and arabian nights — all picaresque novels composed of a series of loosely linked adventures, a format evident in his early works.
Dickens was a life- long devotee of William shakespeare and in 1838 made a pilgrimage with friends to the Bard’s birthplace in stratford-upon-avon.
in his letters, he writes of how the group ‘sat down in the room where shakespeare was born, and left our autographs and read those of other people and so forth’.
The visitors’ book containing Dickens’s signature is on display in the house.
in nicholas nickleby ( 1838- 1839), Dickens expressed his strength of feeling about this visit through his character Mrs Wititterly: ‘i don’t know how it is, but after you’ve seen the place and written your name in the little book, somehow or other you seem to be inspired; it kindles up quite a fire within one.’
Dickens admired the social realism of elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) and called her his ‘dear scheherazade’ — the legen- dary queen and storyteller of One Thousand and One nights (arabian nights). he serialised her novels Cranford and north and south in all The Year round.
he also had a close bond with Wilkie Collins (1824-1889), whose most successful novels, The Woman in White and The Moonstone, were serialised in the magazine, too. They were travel companions and collaborated on plays such as The Frozen Deep.
another writer he admired was William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), the celebrated author of Vanity Fair. They became friends, but after a quarrel they didn’t speak for years and only began a reconciliation shortly before Thackeray’s death.
Dickens praised the works of edward Bulwer-lytton (1803-1873), a prolific author and playwright, and sir Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), the essayist and social political commentator.
and he was on good terms with George henry lewes, the partner of Marian evans, aka George eliot.
he greatly admired eliot’s adam Bede, published in 1859, and offered to serialise her next book, The Mill On The Floss, but she turned him down. Davin Finch, Matlock, Derbys.
QUESTION Was Star Wars the first film to use an opening scroll to set the scene?
While star Wars: episode iV — a new hope in 1977 was the first feature film to use what is called an opening crawl sequence — which begins: ‘a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . .’ — the director, George lucas, was inspired by the popular motion picture serials of the Thirties, such as Flash Gordon (1936) and Buck rogers (1939), both starring Buster Crabbe.
These forerunners of today’s serialised TV dramas had been around since the early days of cinema.
Cliffhangers were used to ensure the audience came back for the next instalment to find out the latest plot twists and how the hero or heroine had escaped from the previous week’s peril.
an opening crawl was used to set the scene and remind cinema-goers what had happened the week before.
Ian F. Gower, Malvern, Worcs.
QUESTION How did New Zealand, a hamlet in Wiltshire, get its name?
COnTrarY to expectations, new Zealand the hamlet is named after the country — not the other way round.
These ten houses in the parish of hilmarton, which adjoins the parish of Calne in the south and the village of lyneham in the north, are next to the runway at raF lyneham.
The hamlet was once part of the hilmarton estate, which dates back to the 10th century. The manor was bought in 1813 by Thomas Poynder, and on his death in 1856 it passed to his two sons.
The estate was enlarged and several farmhouses, cottages for estate workers, a school and almshouses were built by the architect henry Weaver.
in 1880, the now 3,500-acre estate passed to John Poynder Dickson (18661936). he was educated at harrow and Christ Church, Oxford, succeeding his great-uncle as baronet in 1884, and in 1888 assumed the additional surname Poynder to make him John Poynder Dickson-Poynder.
he represented north-West Wiltshire (1892–1910) first as a Conservative, but crossed the floor in 1905 and joined the liberal Party. he was created Baron islington in 1910, and was Governor of new Zealand from 1910 to 1912.
he sold the hilmarton estate in lots in 1914 to his tenants under generous terms, and it was at this time the hamlet was named new Zealand in his honour.
Sarah Webster, Bath, Somerset.
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