February 7, 2012 is the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens, and over 50 countries including UK presented various forms of commemorative events such as commemorative exhibition, literature symposium, global relay recital and a second fashion of film and TV production.
As a key component of Dickens 2012, Dickens and London exhibition was launched last year till June 10 this year. This is the first large-scale exhibition about Charles Dickens since 1970, and video clips, real objects and pictures illustrate Dickens’ personal experience and background as well as its novel’s realistic significance. The exhibits include the desk, chair, account book and other living articles during his writing. Recently, two biographies have been issued, namely Becoming Dickens: the Invention of a Novelist by Robert Douglas Fairhurst, Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin. The former endeavored to discover those accidental factors on how Dickens became a writer and disclosed the hard life in his early years.
TV and film production of Dickens’ novels have come into fashion again. From November last year, BBC showed many TV serials, radio dramas and related documentaries, and made a series of Dickens’ literature symposium live shows. After the mini-drama Great Expectation in the Christmas last year, a film of the same name will be on show this year. Reportedly, BBC plans to turn the last unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood into TV programs and British Film Institute is now presenting “Retrospect of Film and TV Adaptation of Dickens”.
The 24-hour Marathon Reading sponsored by British Council pushed Dickens 2012 to a new climax in the global arena. Altogether 24 countries participated in this relay, including China, Russia, Australia and Pakistan.
