Portable Magic: Charles Dickens: the blogger.

Many of us will know the fiction of Charles Dickens. Whether through reading a novel or two, watching a TV adaptation, or simply singing along to "Food Glorious Food" whenever you hear the word 'pease pudding', a Dickensian character or story line will have touched your imagination at some point in your life.

But what about his journalism, his non-fiction, his [OK so I'm stretching it a little bit] blog posts? How many of us have read any of that?

Image of book taken from Book Depository

I've always been aware that Dickens founded his own magazines ['Household Words' and 'All the Year Round'] where he first published some of his well known novels in serial form. But, until recently, I hadn't  read any of the non-fiction he wrote for those same publications.

And goodness me have I been missing out. 

I picked up a copy of 'Night Walks' his collected writings by Penguin Books in the library and it was its slimness that first appealed [when you don't have an office at work, and you carry your life around with you in your bag, 500 page shoulder-straining tomes lose their appeal.].

But its appealing features multiplied with every line I read; and I believe the time is right for our blogging generation to rediscover these gems.

• In this collection of articles he wanders around observing ...  then comes home, writes about it, and publishes it in his magazine. 
• And what are we doing in this blogging culture [hello!] if not that?
• We're all trying our hand at writing and sharing first-person narratives of our experiences and this particular kind of writing by Dickens is exactly that. 
• Dickens was a blogger!
• And as he wrote many of these observation pieces under the heading 'The Uncommercial Traveller' ... that is without doubt what he should have named his blog! [He definitely would have bought up the dot com domain for that one!]

**Before we move on ... if you're anything like me you read book reviews like this and think "Well, that's all very interesting but, I'm still probably not going to go and buy the book she's talking about." ... hang on there ... because you don't have to ...

I've been seeking out a way can all enjoy Dickens's non-fiction without having to leave the comfort of our WiFi! And I found one! 

Let me introduce you to the amazing resource of The Dickens Journal Online: 

• Here you can dip into scanned copies of the original journals [alongside easily readable text versions and even audio]. 
• You can search to find just those articles written by Dickens, or search by category etc, 
• And you can generally lose yourself in Victorian Britain while you're there.

I've had a look through to find the articles which are featured in the Penguin Night Walks collection that I read.

And while I couldn't find them all I did find the first essay in the book - the title article 'Night Walks' here - it starts half way down under the heading 'The Uncommercial Traveller'.

• It tracks a walk an insomniac Dickens took through London and features wonderfullly evocative descriptions of the people he meets. His stopping off for coffee and toast came as a complete eye-opener to me ... I had no idea there were Starbucks equivalents over 150 years ago!  

Other articles from the book which I've managed to find in the online journals include: Wapping Wokhouse, Betting -Shops and Trading in Death.

Regarding Trading in Death - if you thought merchandising, selling memorabilia [hello Ebay], or raising prices during special events [like when the Olympics is in town] was a relatively new phenomena ... then you'll enjoy Dicken's disapproval of what canny entrepreneurs were getting up to around the funeral of the Duke of Wellington! eg:

• "TO be SOLD, SIX AUTOGRAPH LETTERS from F.M. the Duke of WELLINGTON, with envelopes and seals, which have been most generously given to aid a lady in distressed circumstances",
• "THE DUKE'S FUNERAL.—To be LET, a SHOP WINDOW, with seats erected for about 30, for 25 guineas. Also a Furnished First Floor, with two large windows. One of the best views in the whole range from Temple-bar to St. Paul's. Price 35 guineas. A few single seats one guinea each." [For more examples read the full article here.]

But my favourite essay from the collection was "Gone Astray" [find it here].

Here Dickens regales us with a tale of getting lost in London as a child [I believe there are doubts as to whether it's 100% true but really, who cares when it's as entertaining as this is?!]. And there's lots to enjoy here.

• Him thinking that, that's it, he's lost for good: "and then I walked,with a feeling of dismal dignity upon me, into a court, and sat down on a step to consider how to get through life";
•  the life he envisions for himself now he's on his own, at 8! "I would ask my way to the barracks, knock at the gate, and tell them that I understood they were in want of drummers, and there I was".
• as well as the dog and the children he meets along the way [the Artful Dodger?]

...  but these are my favourite lines:

• "When I came to Temple Bar it took me half an hour to stare at it, and I left it unfinished even then. 

Isn't that a glorious idea?

"it took me half an hour to stare at it,and I left it unfinished even then."

That there are things that you never finish looking at, that you never tire of admiring, that you just can't take-in in one go?

I know just what he means - although not with Temple Bar - how about you? 

• Haven't there been times when you've just wanted to sit and take it all in ... and then still had to leave before you really felt you've done with it?  
• Maybe a landscape? A building? A person? 
• I think the most recent for me was the experience of the Rothko room in Tate Modern. If I hadn't had a certain play to attend that evening [did I ever mention that I went to see Cumberbatch as Hamlet this summer? Did I?] I think I'd have stayed there indefinitely! 

And finally ... another favourite line from Gone Astray and a comfort to all of us who've ever felt a little out of step with the crowd ... it didn't seem to do Dickens any harm ...

"People said I was an odd child. Perhaps I was. 
I'm an odd man perhaps."

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For more book-related posts visit/follow the Portable Magic Pinterest board [or click to search for the 'Portable Magic' keywords here in my bog.]

• If you do dip into Dickens's 'blog posts' via the Dickens Journal Online do drop by to let me know you enjoyed them! Especially if you find ones I haven't read [send me the journal /page numbers].

• And if you feel like sharing whatever it was that has made you stop, stare, and still not feel like you'd finished looking at it ... I think that would make a fascinating list to read through. 

I'll 'see' you in the comments ... 

Julie