Happy birthday, Chuck! (Charles Dickens, b. 7 February 1812)

[gardnerhill]

The famous English man of letters Charles Dickens observed a quiet 200th birthday today under his slab in St. Paul's Cathedral. The rest of London, however, was a bit more boisterous and giddy about the celebration

Comments

[ex_lbilover]

I always loved Dickens, even in school. But my mom loves his writing and we had a complete set of his works that my brother and I devoured. My favorites are Our Mutual Friend and Little Dorrit. I haven't read any recently, but just rewatched the wonderful BBC Little Dorrit with Andy Serkis among many others in a stellar cast. I'm boring and will go with Alastair Sim and Ronald Colman.

[gardnerhill]

Oh, you cannot improve on Alistair Sim! My favorite for a very long time was the 1970 Albert Finney musical (My link above goes to that one), then the 1984 Hallmark one with George C. Scott doing a Reagan-era take on Ebenezer. But when I finally saw Alistair Sim's Scrooge, that was all she wrote.

There is also an incredible half-hour animated version of Christmas Carol done in 1972 (won the Oscar for Animated Short) in which Alistair Sim and Michael Hordern reprised their respective roles as the voices of Scrooge and Marley. Only showed it once on TV (and I remember it vividly) because they pulled no punches with the portrayals of the ghosts, or scenes with dead bodies. Hard to believe it was produced by Chuck Jones (of Bugs Bunny fame).