| | '''Charles Dickens''' (1812 - 1870) was an English novelist and reformist writer felt by some to be second only to [[Shakespeare]] in English literature. He wrote many well-known books (''see'' [[Dickens novels]]), including 3 of the 10 greatest [[British]] [[novel]]s as ranked by the [[BBC]].<ref>https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20151204-the-25-greatest-british-novels</ref> The most-read British author of the 19th century, Dickens wrote 4.6 million words and is the sixth most-cited in the Oxford English Dictionary.<ref>Dickens is cited 9,218 times by the OED, ranking him just behind [[Shakespeare]], Scott, Chaucer, Milton, and Dryden. See https://atkinsbookshelf.wordpress.com/tag/number-of-words-used-by-dickens/#:~:text=The%20total%20number%20of%20words,Chaucer%2C%20Milton%2C%20and%20Dryden.</ref> More than 75 movies are based on his novels.<ref>https://www.dickens-online.info/</ref> Dickens is buried at Poets' Corner of [[Westminster Abbey]], and merits 6 full pages in the ''[[Encyclopedia Britannica]]''. | | '''Charles Dickens''' (1812 - 1870) was an English novelist and reformist writer felt by some to be second only to [[Shakespeare]] in English literature. He wrote many well-known books (''see'' [[Dickens novels]]), including 3 of the 10 greatest [[British]] [[novel]]s as ranked by the [[BBC]].<ref>https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20151204-the-25-greatest-british-novels</ref> The most-read British author of the 19th century, Dickens wrote 4.6 million words and is the sixth most-cited in the Oxford English Dictionary.<ref>Dickens is cited 9,218 times by the OED, ranking him just behind [[Shakespeare]], Scott, Chaucer, Milton, and Dryden. See https://atkinsbookshelf.wordpress.com/tag/number-of-words-used-by-dickens/#:~:text=The%20total%20number%20of%20words,Chaucer%2C%20Milton%2C%20and%20Dryden.</ref> More than 75 movies are based on his novels.<ref>https://www.dickens-online.info/</ref> Dickens is buried at Poets' Corner of [[Westminster Abbey]], and merits 6 full pages in the ''[[Encyclopedia Britannica]]''. |
| − | Dickens was devoutly [[Christian]] and wrote ''[[The Life of Our Lord]]'' for children, but felt he had to keep his [[faith]] and book private by prohibiting the publication of this work until the last of his children ultimately passed away,<ref name="CH">https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/faith-behind-the-famous-charles-dickens</ref> Dickens wrote in his last will and testament, dated May 12, 1869: “I commit my soul to the mercy of [[God]] through our [[Lord]] and Saviour [[Jesus]] Christ, and I exhort my dear children humbly to try to guide themselves by the teaching of the [[New Testament]] in its broad spirit, and to put no faith in any man’s narrow construction of its letter here or there.”<ref name="CH"/> | + | Dickens was devoutly [[Christian]] and wrote ''[[The Life of Our Lord]]'' for children, but felt he had to keep his [[faith]] and book private by prohibiting the publication of this work until the last of his children ultimately passed away.<ref name="CH">https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/faith-behind-the-famous-charles-dickens</ref> Dickens wrote in his last will and testament, dated May 12, 1869: “I commit my soul to the mercy of [[God]] through our [[Lord]] and Saviour [[Jesus]] Christ, and I exhort my dear children humbly to try to guide themselves by the teaching of the [[New Testament]] in its broad spirit, and to put no faith in any man’s narrow construction of its letter here or there.”<ref name="CH"/> |
| | Dickens' works, which are searchable online,<ref>https://www.online-literature.com/dickens/</ref> include: | | Dickens' works, which are searchable online,<ref>https://www.online-literature.com/dickens/</ref> include: |