P Marlowe - Shakespeare in Love was great, unfortunately she wasn't, and definitely didn't deserve the academy award for it.

Brigid - you prob know this, but there was a very important financial reason Dickens was so wordy - each chapter was published monthly in a magazine, and he got paid per chapter. That is why there is a 'cliffhanger' at the end of each chapter, and why some things are just sooooo drawn out.

I prefer William Thackeray and Wilkie Collins to Dickens, although some stories are ok - Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Bleak House - even Nicholas Nickleby! Just wish they weren't so long in places :-)

Diva - which is why Dickens works better if you only read one chapter a month :o)

I read that there used to be crowds waiting on the quayside in New York, on the days when the steamer carrying the latest issue of the Dickens' magazine was expected...

I forget which story it was-- it might've been The Old Curiousity Shoppe, whichever one had Little Nell. There's a famous story that one of the steamers delivering the latest installment of that particular tale of Dickens dumped the magazine bales into the sea-- and people jumped in to save them! That's how badly they wanted to know what was going on.

I have to romanticize the past, esp. when it's so easy to do so, but if ONLY the printed word inspired such fervor these days.

Diva, I'm very fond of Thackeray myself. Like Collins, never got rreally into him. But no one tops Becky Sharp-- not even Scarlett O'Hara!

Charles Dickens was cool and one of the greatest authurs there was.

I'm doing a report on how Charles Dickens used autobiographical facts in the creation of the character Pip in Great Expectations. Know any good web sites?

I didn't realize Charles Dickens wrote mysteries, but I loved David Copperfield.

All of Dicken's books had elements of the mysterious in them.

I did not really enjoy Great Expectations as much as Hard Times. Hard Times was easier to understand.

Does anyone of you like Tale of two Cities? Pretty grisly, I think!

Don't know if you're into musicals...but FYI. The audience votes on the ending, so it's differnet every night -- actually kind of fun!

"The Mystery of Edwin Drood" -- Interactive theatrical event in New York City

The great Charles Dickens was halfway through his famous mystery novel when he committed the one ungenerous deed of his noble career: He Died, leaving behind no hint as to the outcome he intended for his bizarre and uncompleted puzzle. In this revival of Rupert Holmes’ Tony-Award-winning musical, you -- the audience -- get to vote and decide “who dunnit.” Don’t miss your chance to solve, at long last, The Mystery of Edwin Drood!

The St. Bart’s Players present "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" from April 21st to May 1st, 2005 (Thursday-Sunday) at the St. Bart's Playhouse on Park Avenue at 50th Street in Manhattan, located in the Community House of St. Bartholomew's Church.

Tickets are $22.00 Regular Admission / $20.00 Students/Senior Citizens and are available at the St. Bart's box office by calling (212) 378-0248.

For more information, please visit http://members.aol.com/bartsweb/

"I’m dying to see you there!" -- Edwin Drood

Another page that noone seems to use any more.