Teaching Dickens With The New York Times Feb. 7 is the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens's birth, and events are planned all over (though possibly fewer than for 100th anniversary when, according to The New York Times, there was "a worldwide celebration.") Here are some ideas and resources for celebrating a writer with a "fierce reportorial eye and restless, prodigal imagination" (Michiko Kakutani in 2010) who "could always extract wisdom, pathos, humor from the most unlikely materials, and...never failed to read the man underneath all the strange wrappages that habit, speech and association might have flung around him" (Dickens's Times obituary in 1870). Because The New York Times has been publishing since 1851, just as Dickens was beginning the period of his life in which he wrote works like "Bleak House," "Hard Times," "Tale of Two Cities," and "Great Expectations," we have also included a number of archival articles that show how he was seen in his own day - as well as some that appraise him 100 years after he was born. Do you teach Dickens? Are there resources we're missing? Let us know, and we'll continue to update this post. Five Teaching Ideas Define "Dickensian" Type the adjective "Dickensian" into the Times search field and, as of this writing, there are 3220 results from the last year. It has been used to describe everything from the life of a 1930"s child star to shades of nail polish to Newt Gingrich's thoughts on education reform. According to this Times Opinion piece it is defined as "reminiscent of the harsh poverty-stricken living conditions described in the works of Dickens." How would you apply the word today? What, whether you find it in the pages of The New York Times or somewhere in your own community, strikes you as truly Dickensian? Create a 21st-Century Dickens Event How well does Dickens hold up 200 years later? How would you interest readers today in his works? Perhaps you'd create an app, a museum exhibit, a film or an amusement park with a Dickens theme? Write or sketch your own description of how you might make the milieu of Victorian London - and the Dickens characters who inhabited it - real to a 2012 audience, via whatever medium you choose. Or, just view some of the Dickens updates linked here and discuss which you think are most successful, and why. Consider 19th- and 21st-Century Attitudes Toward Money and Class In a 2009 review of a new version of "Little Dorrit," Alessandra Stanley wrote about how timely the show was just after the Madoff fraud: ""Little Dorrit" is particularly apt and enjoyable at this moment in history because the story focuses intently on something deeper and more universal than real estate bubbles or bank runs: unfairness." We used her review in our 2009 lesson plan, Greed Is Good?, in which students consider the traits and actions of greedy characters in Dickens stories and other literature. Read it to find many ways to draw parallels between Dickens's times and our own in comparing attitudes toward money, class, poverty and philanthropy. Appreciate Dickens's Characters In 1995, The Times's Op-Ed columnist Russell Banks wrote a piece about how he was reading "too much Dickens" but appreciating the character names: There are Hancock & Flobby, the dry-goods people; Uriah Heep, the pious hypocrite; Sir Mulberry Hawk, the seducer of innocent girls; Ebenezer Scrooge, the soul of greed; Mister Murdstone, the brutal stepfather; Mister Micawber, the eternal debtor; Josiah Bounderby, the loutish mill owner; Lord Lancaster Stiltstalking of the Circumlocution Office, and on, and on. Because of reading too much Dickens lately, I am amazed at how many real people are going around in Dickensian names. He then proposed a contest: "Compose a list of 10 well-known living people whose names would have caught Dickens's eye. Describe the character Dickens would have created for each name. If you feel cocky, fit all 10 into a single plot Dickens might have written, and send to me. Two months later, he announced the winners. Take Mr. Baker's challenge yourself today. Or, try something else similarly simple to appreciate the imagination Dickens lavished on even the least of his characters: Read some of the descriptions he wrote for some of his 989 named characters, and use them as models for describing people you know or invent. Observe Dickens's Writing Process Would you like to see the handwritten changes Dickens made as he wrote the 66 pages of "A Christmas Carol" in 1843? In 2009, The New York Times put the whole manuscript online and challenged readers to choose the most interesting edit. For example, writes Alison Leigh Cowan, on Page 3, he inserted "his eyes sparkled" to amplify the portrait of Scrooge's nephew, whose beneficence is crucial to the plot, and on Page 12, where Scrooge takes Marley's ghost to be evidence not of the supernatural, but of his own indigestion ("more of gravy than of grave"), he converted the offending bit of food from being a "spot of mustard" to a less digestible "blot of mustard." Use Dickens's writing process to inspire your own. What can you add, take away, move or otherwise change to make your writing stronger? Selected Times Content Times Topics and Multimedia 19th- and Early-20th-Century Times Pieces on Dickens Charles Dickens: A Critical Article (1856) Mr.Dickens's First New York Reading (1867) The Death of Charles Dickens (1870) Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens by G.K.Chesterton (1911) Remarkable Increase in Popularity of Dickens (1912) Dickens's Place in Literature (1912) The Influence of Dickens (1912) 20th- and 21st-Century Reviews, Appraisals and Studies Two-Sided Man Gets Two New Biographies A review by Michiko Kakutani on new writing about Dickens (2011) Getting to Know Charles Dickens A review of four books for young readers based on Dickens's life (2011) Father Christmas Kathryn Harrison's review of a book about "A Christmas Carol" (2008) A Double Life, A Life of Fiction An appraisal by Jane Smiley (2000) Round Up the Usual Suspects David Lehman's review of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" (1992) The Sum of His Oddities James R. Kincaid's review of Peter Ackroyd's biography, "Dickens" (1991) A Great Heart and Restless Soul Review of two-volume biography by Edgar Johnson (1952) From the Opinion Section A Victorian Christmas The Op-Ed columnist Maureen Dowd on Dickens's later years (2011) Was Orwell Orwellian? On Orwell, Burke and Dickens, including the term "Dickensian" and how it does-and does not-apply to Dickens's own characters. The Old Curiosity Mall On a planned theme park in England that includes rides, a shopping mall and animatronic robots based on Dickens's life. Is That Charles With a "C"? The Op-Ed columnist Russell Baker on reading Dickens (1995) Other Times Articles and Blog Posts In Reality, Oliver's Diet Wasn't Truly Dickensian (2008) A health article on the Victorian workhouse diet. Scrooge Relents. Joy Prevails. Again On the enduring popularity of "A Christmas Carol." Diagnosing with Dickens A medical doctor on possible symptoms seen in some of Dickens's best-known characters (2006) Care to Brush Up on Dickens? About a 3,744-page work that covers every character Dickens created (2005) On the 200th Anniversary of Dickens's Birth Dickens Anniversary Kicks Off in London (2011) An App to Take You Deep Into Dickens's London (2011) Dickens the Man, Foibles and All Review of the Morgan Library's exhibit (2011) Lesson Plans Greed Is Good? Students consider the traits and actions of greedy characters in Dickens stories and other literature, drawing parallels to current events. (2009) Ghosts of Holidays Past Students explore the concept of holiday nostalgia through a journalist's look at Christmas, then write holiday pieces. Our Computers, Ourselves: Imagining the Digital Lives of Authors and Characters (2010) More From The Learning Network 10 Ways to Use The New York Times for Teaching Literature Here you can find ideas, as well as links to more pages like this one, for teaching Shakespeare, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, J.D. Salinger, John Steinbeck and many more classic authors. Resources Around the Web Dickens 2012 A site for celebrating the 200th Birthday of Charles Dickens Charles Dickens on The Victorian Web A clearinghouse of information about Dickens's life and works. David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page An exhaustive collection of information by a writer with "a deep and enduring passion for Dickens" The Dickens Project A consortium at The University of Santa Cruz with pages for educators Dickens World A Dickens theme park outside London. What the Dickens Pages that are part of Dickens 2012 for teachers and students, including competitions, lessons, video commentary on Dickens, and more