As we mark 150 years since What the Dickens would he make of modern Britain?
THIS weekend marks 150 years since the death of literary giant Charles Dickens – and his tales of social injustice and corruption resonate more than ever.
From the orphan begging for more in Oliver Twist to the heartless Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, Dickens highlighted poverty and squalor.
But as the gap between rich and poor grows wider and struggling families are forced to use food banks, how far have we really come since then?
The Charles Dickens Museum’s Alex Werner said: “What has allowed Dickens to remain relevant is that he was a powerful social campaigner.
“He was shocked by the extremes of poverty. He really tried to drive reform and improve conditions for the poor.
“Bureaucracy was another thing he didn’t like, and poor education. He was always campaigning for better schooling. In the world we live in today those inequalities still exist.”
The term Dickensian is often used to describe something that is reminiscent of the author’s work, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters. So what would Dickens make of world leaders today such as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson?
Mr Werner, head of history collections at the Museum of London, said: “Dickens attacked government with confidence, which is relevant today.
“If he was alive now he’d be very much a campaigner and embrace the latest technology.
“He’d be on social media giving his thoughts on Donald and Boris. He’d be using all that was available to comment on society.”
Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812 when industrialisation was rapidly reshaping Britain. “London was the capital of the world at that point,” said Mr Werner. “That’s his backdrop and he has this amazing imagination creating this cast of characters.
“He was the first author to capture what it felt like to live in a big city – the extremes of wealth and poverty, the buzz, the energy.”
Dickens had a tough start in life. His father John worked as a clerk at the Navy Office HQ but the family got into debt after spending beyond their means.
When his father was locked up in a debtors’ prison, Dickens was forced to leave school and get a job.
At the age of 12 he was in a factory pasting blacking labels on bottles of shoe polish for six shillings a week.
Mr Werner said: “He was really scared by his father going to prison. He’d been forced to work in the blacking factory and felt this enormous sense of humiliation.
“That never left him throughout his life. That’s why he was a workaholic.
“He would always worry about money so he was driven by that humiliation. Often, great writers and artists have that in their life to push them.” Dickens first found success in 1836 with the serial publication of The Pickwick Papers.
He would go on to become an international celebrity, writing 15 novels, five novellas plus hundreds of short stories and nonfiction articles.
His works, including A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Hard Times and Bleak House, are some of the world’s greatest.
Dickens’s books are still loved today and many have been adapted for the screen.
Mr Werner says Dickens’s talent would also translate well to modern day soap operas. “He focuses on ordinary people and his characters feel very real. From Jo the crossing sweeper in Bleak House to Tiny Tim the disabled child in A Christmas Carol, they’re all very lifelike.
“You can almost feel them in front of you.
“I could see him as a scriptwriter for one of the soaps. Something like Eastenders or Coronation Street. I think he’d be really good at that. His character writing was exceptional. “There’s so much conversation in his books and that translates well on to television – creating a character through the words they use, the pace of dialogue and expression.” In his lifetime, fans just couldn’t get enough of Dickens’s works.
“His books came out in instalments and people would clamour for them,” said Mr Werner. “There are fantastic descriptions of people coming together, people who couldn’t read, and there would be one person reading out the next episode just to find out what happened.
“They were page turners with mysteries and cliffhangers – like the death of Little Nell from The Old Curiosity Shop. It sent a whole nation into mourning.
“People wrote to him begging him not to kill her off. It was a character the whole Victorian world had embraced.
“Dickens travelled around the country, he gave readings, he packed theatres, he toured America twice.
“People tried to get him to stand as a politician but he thought he had more