Charles Dickens
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Charles Dickens’
Davy Copperfield is not pleased at having to compete for his mother’s affection with Edward Murdstone.
Young Davy Copperfield never knew his father, who died before Davy was born. There came a time when his shy but pretty mother began staying out to dinners, and after one of them she was brought home by a raven-dark-haired gentleman, whom Davy recalled seeing the Sunday before.
Ardent opera buffs descend like locusts on Jenny Lind’s hotel, eager for a memento.
In a letter to Douglas Jerrold, dated Paris, February 14th, 1847, Charles Dickens related an anecdote about the opera singer Jenny Lind (1820-1887), popularly known as the Swedish Nightingale. Her celebrity throughout Europe bordered on the hysterical, as Dickens shows.
Charles Dickens explains how King Alfred the Great overcame the Great Heathen Army in 878, with the help of a little music.
In 865, the Great Army of the Vikings from across the North Sea had been swarming over England, intent on all-out conquest of a country by then better known for its science and art than for its military readiness. But as Charles Dickens tells us, in 878 King Alfred of Wessex turned the tables on his enemy, and not just with battlefield courage.
A conspiracy of European monarchs sought to delay Richard the Lionheart’s homecoming long enough for John to steal his crown.
During the Third Crusade in 1189-1192, Richard I of England offended Philip II of France by jilting his sister Alys, and quarrelled with Leopold of Austria. He tried to come home incognito, but in December 1192 he was spotted at Vienna, arrested on various charges including murder, and hauled up before Henry VI, the Holy Roman Emperor.
The guardian of a lonely signalbox recounts a truly haunting experience.
While exploring the branch lines radiating out from Mugby Junction, a man has stumbled on a remote signal box near the mouth of a tunnel. ‘Halloa! Below there!’ he called to the signalman, waving his arms. The signalman’s distress was so remarkable that it required an explanation, and next day he gave it.
Mrs Squeers has lost the school spoon, and is uncomfortably frank about its importance.
Impoverished young gentleman Nicholas Nickleby has accepted a position as junior master at Dotheboys Hall, a remote Yorkshire school managed by Mr Wackford Squeers and his wife. On his arrival, Nicholas is treated to a rapid initiation into the school’s educational vision.