Feb 23, 2012 | 03:04
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Jan 26, 2012
Dickens' 200th birthday gives campus chance to reencounter author
Before Scrooge, the Artful Dodger and Miss Havisham became imprinted on our collective memories with their delightful quirks and singular charm, the imagination that conceived of these and countless other unforgettable characters was born.
A photograph of Charles Dickens found in a bound 12-volume "scrapbook" that was meticulously made by a collector. Four of the volumes will be on display in an exhibit at the Young Research Library beginning Feb. 7.
Events celebrating the author’s 200th birthday will begin at noon with a lecture about Dickens and some of his best-known works, followed by the formal opening of a commemorative exhibit at the Charles E. Young Research Library and a free movie screening hosted by the English Department.
To honor this giant of English literature on his 200thbirthday, the research library has assembled a special commemorative exhibit, on view now through March 29, entitled "’… the Sum of a Life’: Charles Dickens at 200."
"It’s a chance to show off some of the things we have, to educate the population in general at the university about Dickens, and also to have a nice moment of reencounter" for past readers of his work and a chance for others to discover the author, said Jonathan Grossman, associate professor of English and faculty coordinator of UCLA’s 19th-Century Group. Grossman’s first published article on the author appeared in 1996.
All of the items to be displayed come from the UCLA Library Special Collections, and they were carefully selected by Grossman and Dawn Setzer, director of UCLA Library communications.
"Since I’m the point man for doing things Dickens at UCLA, I went to talk to Tom Hyry," said Grossman of the director of Special Collections.
Thanks to the recent first-floor renovation, the Lobby Gallery will house the Dickens exhibit. Grossman praised the lobby space, noting its visibility and accessibility to library visitors.
The display covers three aspects of Dickens — his life, the serialization of his novels and his American tours. Among the items on display will be personal letters between Dickens and his manager, ticket stubs from Dickens’ readings and copies of the serialized installments or numbers, the format in which Dickens’ novels were first published.
A wrapper of the last installment in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" serial will be in the exhibit. Dickens died of a stroke on June 9, 1870, leaving this novel unfinished.
Grossman noted that Dickens made serialization a common practice for the publication of novels in the 19thcentury, but complete sets of the individual numbers are tough to find these days. Many of Dickens’ readers either had theirs bound into one book or purchased the novel in book format. Books were published once the serialized run concluded.
One particularly impressive offering is a copy of "The Life of Charles Dickens" by his official biographer John Forster that has undergone "scrapbook-ification." An unknown, but dedicated, fan removed all of the pages, pasted them into 12 larger volumes and then interspersed additional pages containing Dickens ephemera, including some 2,000 photographs and 500 letters.
Each volume is handsomely bound in red leather, with a gold-embossed print of Dickens’ signature on the cover. The tasteful presentation fits with the volumes’ meticulously plotted interiors: "Nearly every page contains a treasure," Setzer said. Four of the volumes will be on view in the exhibit.
There will also be opportunities for the public to learn more about the author and his most endearing novels. At noon on Feb. 7 in Humanities Building 193, a lunch will be held while Grossman delivers a talk, "’A Tale of Two Cities’ and the Passengers of History." Then at 1:30 p.m., there will be an exhibit viewing with the organizers in the research library. Then at 3 p.m. in Humanities 193, a free screening of David Lean’s acclaimed film, "Great Expectations," will take place, hosted by the Department of English.
Grossman is the author of a forthcoming book, "Charles Dickens's Networks: Public Transport and the Novel," due out from Oxford University Press this spring. In it, he explores how Dickens was influenced by the 19thcentury transportation revolution. Grossman ascribes key characteristics of Dickens' work to the 19th-century author's appreciation of the implications of Victorian innovations in high-speed, global passenger transport, including new perceptions of time, space and community.
"A Tale of Two Cities" will be the subject of a lecture by UCLA Dickens scholar Jonathan Grossman. Shown above is a Penguin Classic Books cover for one edition of the novel.
"That’s a different thing — to organize that mode of connectedness," Grossman said. In addition to his research, Grossman also teaches Dickens seminars at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and always tries to work some Dickens into his Victorian literature classes.
He is also a frequent contributor to the Dickens Universe scholarly conference, held each summer in Santa Cruz. That consortium, as well as the ongoing publication of several research journals on Dickens, indicates that scholarly interest in Dickens remains robust.
But what about the average Joe, who hasn’t picked up a book by Dickens since high school English class? The answer may lie in Grossman’s research.
"Dickens grasped what it meant for us to be connected," the professor explained. That may mean something to those who are addicted to social networking and smart phones.
In the dramatic opening of “Great Expectations,” which director David Lean adapted for cinema in 1946, the escaped convict Abel Magwitch seizes the young orphaned boy, Pip, sealing their fates together for life. The film will be screened in the Humanities Building on Feb. 7 at 3 p.m.
