Charles Dickens and Kippumjo: Difference between pages

Revision as of 14:42, 29 November 2005

Revision as of 00:59, 8 February 2007

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{{koreanname

{{dablink|For other uses see [[Dickens (disambiguation)]].}}

| context = north

| hangul = 기쁨조

| hanja = 기쁨[[wikt:組|組]]

| rr = Gippeumjo}}

The '''''Gippeumjo''''' (translated variously as "Pleasure Group," "Pleasure Groups," "Pleasure Squad," "Pleasure Brigade," "Joy Brigades," or "Joy Brigade") is a collection of groups of approximately 2,000 women between the ages of 13 and 40 (although most are believed to be between 18 and 25), which are maintained by the [[Chairman of the National Defence Commission of North Korea|head of state]] of [[North Korea]] for the purpose of providing pleasure and entertainment for high-ranking [[Workers' Party of Korea]] (WPK) officials and their families, as well as occasionally also distinguished guests.

The ''Gippeumjo'' was established in 1978, during the administration of [[Kim Il-sung]], with the first group being recruited by Lee Dong Ho, the First Vice Director of the Department of United Front of the WPK, for the purpose of entertaining Kim at the Munsu Chodaeso (문수 초대소<!--hangul needs to be verified-->;Munsu Guesthouse). The recruiting and training of ''Gippeumjo'' are currently administered by the Fifth Department of Staff of the Organic Direction of the Party and continues to be maintained by his son, [[Kim Jong-il]].<ref name="womansvoice">{{cite web |url= http://www.awomansvoice.org/nl1-2004-2.html |title= Intervention Agenda Item 13: Rights of Children; UN Commission on human rights |accessdate=2007-02-08 |author= Jeong, Ji Sun|date= [[April 6]], [[2004]]|publisher= A Woman's Voice International}}</ref>

[[image:CDickens.jpg|right|200px|framed|Dickens was a prolific writer who was almost always working on a new installment for a story and rarely missed a deadline.]]

'''Charles John Huffam Dickens''' ([[February 7]], [[1812]] &ndash; [[June 9]] [[1870]]), [[pen-name]] "[[Boz]]", was an [[England|English]] [[novelist]]. During his lifetime, Dickens was viewed as a popular entertainer of fecund imagination, while later critics championed his mastery of prose, his endless invention of memorable characters and his powerful social sensibilities. The popularity of his novels and short stories during his lifetime and to the present is demonstrated by the fact that none has ever gone [[out of print]]. Dickens played a major role in popularising the [[Serial|serialised novel]].

Each "pleasure group" is composed of three "teams":

==Life==

#''Manjokjo'' (hangul: {{lang|ko-Hang|만족조}}; hanja: {{lang|ko-Hant|[[wikt:滿|滿]][[wikt:足|足]][[wikt:組|組]]}}) – a "satisfaction team" (which provides sexual services)

Dickens was born in [[Portsmouth, England]], to John Dickens, a naval pay clerk, and his wife Elizabeth Barrow. When he was five, the family moved to [[Chatham, Kent]]. When he was ten, the family relocated to [[Camden Town, London, England|Camden Town]] in London. His early years were an idyllic time. He thought himself then as a "very small and not-over-particularly-taken-care-of boy". He spent his time outdoors, reading voraciously with a particular fondness for the [[picaresque]] novels of [[Tobias Smollett]] and [[Henry Fielding]]. He talked later in life of his extremely strong memories of childhood and his continuing [[photographic memory]] of people and events that helped bring his fiction to life. His family was moderately well off, and he received some education at a private school but all that changed when his father, after spending too much money entertaining and retaining his social position, was imprisoned for debt. At the age of twelve Dickens was deemed old enough to work and began working for ten hours a day in Warren&rsquo;s boot-blacking factory located near the present [[Charing Cross railway station]]. He spent his time pasting labels on the jars of thick polish and earned six shillings a week. With this money he had to pay for his lodging and help support his family who were incarcerated in the nearby [[Marshalsea]] [[Debtor's prison|debtors' prison]].

#''Haengbokjo'' (hangul: {{lang|ko-Hang|행복조}}; hanja: {{lang|ko-Hant|[[wikt:幸|幸]][[wikt:福|福]]組}}) – a "happiness team" (which provides [[massage]]s)

#''Gamujo'' (hangul: {{lang|ko-Hang|가무조}}; hanja: {{lang|ko-Hant|[[wikt:歌|歌]][[wikt:舞|舞]]組}}) – a "dancing and singing team" (whose members are sometimes asked to [[Striptease|dance semi-nude]])<ref name="womansvoice"/><ref name="Becker">{{cite news |first=Jasper |last=Becker |title=North Korea: At Home With the Kims |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/EJ11Dg04.html |publisher=[[Asia Times]] |date=[[October 11]], [[2003]] |accessdate=2007-02-08 }}</ref>

Girls from throughout the country are recruited to be ''Gippeumjo'' members according to government criteria (one of which is that they must be [[virginity|virgins]]). After being selected, they undergo a rigorous training period, with some ''Haengbokjo'' members being sent overseas for massage training.<ref name="womansvoice"/>

After a few years, his family's financial situation improved, partly due to money inherited from his father's family. His family was able to leave the Marshalsea but his mother did not immediately remove him from the boot-blacking factory which was owned by a relation of hers. Dickens never forgave his mother for this and resentment of his situation and the conditions working-class people lived under became major themes of his works. Dickens told his biographer [[John Forster]], "No advice, no counsel, no encouragement, no consolation, no support from anyone that I can call to mind, so help me God!" In May [[1827]] Dickens began work as a [[law clerk]], a junior office position with potential to become a lawyer. He did not like the law as a profession and after a short time as a court [[stenographer]] he became a journalist, reporting parliamentary debate and travelling [[United Kingdom|Britain]] by stagecoach to cover election campaigns. His journalism formed his first collection of pieces ''[[Sketches by Boz]]'' and he continued to contribute to and edit journals for much of his life. In his early twenties he made a name for himself with his first novel, ''[[The Pickwick Papers]]''.

The first two syllables of the name, ''gippeum'', means “joy” in [[Korean language|Korean]]. Kim Il-sung is believed to have established this corps of women in the belief that having sexual relations with young women would have the effect of enhancing his [[life force]], or ''[[Qi|gi]]'' (hangul: {{lang|ko-Hang|기}}; hanja: {{lang|ko-Hant|[[wikt:氣|氣]]}}; no relation to the ''gi'' in ''gippeum'').<ref name="Martin">{{cite news |first=Sano |last=Yoel |title=The Kims' North Korea: ''Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty'' by Bradley K Martin |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/GF04Dg03.html |work=Book review |publisher=Asia Times |date= [[June 4]], [[2005]]|accessdate=2007-02-08 }}</ref> ''Gippeumjo'' members typically "retire" at age 22 or 25, at which time they are often married to other members of North Korea's elite, and their former membership in the ''Gippeumjo'' is kept secret.<ref name="womansvoice"/><ref name="Martin"/>

On [[2 April]] [[1836]] he married Catherine Hogarth, with whom he was to have had ten children, and set up home in [[Charles Dickens Museum, London|Bloomsbury]].

Little is known outside North Korea about the ''Gippeumjo'', but information has gradually emerged through the testimony of [[North Korean defectors|North Koreans who have defected to the West]].

:His ten children by Catherine Thompson Hogarth were:

==References==

*[[Charles Culliford Boz Dickens]] ([[6 January]] [[1837]]&ndash;[[1896]]).

===General===

*Mary Angela Dickens ([[6 March]] [[1838]]&ndash;[[1896]]).

<div class="references-small">

*Kate Macready Dickens ([[29 October]] [[1839]]&ndash;[[1929]]).

*Martin, Bradley K. (2004). ''Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty''. New York, New York, United States: Thomas Dunne Books. Hardcover: ISBN 978-0312322212; Paperback: ISBN 978-0312323226.

*Walter Landor Dickens ([[8 February]] [[1841]]&ndash;[[1861]]).

===Specific===

*Francis Jeffrey Dickens ([[15 January]] [[1844]]&ndash;[[1886]]).

<references/>

*Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens ([[28 October]][[1845]]&ndash;[[1912]]).

</div>

*Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens ([[18 April]][[1847]]&ndash;[[1872]]).

*Henry Fielding Dickens ([[15 January]] [[1849]]&ndash;[[1933]]).

*Dora Annie Dickens ([[16 August]] [[1850]]&ndash;April [[1851]]).

*Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens ([[13 March]][[1852]]&ndash; [[1902]]).

==External links==

In the same year he accepted the job of editor of ''[[Bentley's Miscellany]]'', a position he would hold until [[1839]] when he fell out with the owner. Two other journals in which Dickens would be a major contributor were ''[[Household Words]]'' and ''[[All the Year Round]]''. In [[1842]] he travelled together with his wife to the [[United States]]; the trip is described in the short [[travelogue]] ''[[American Notes]]'' and is also the basis of some of the episodes in ''[[Martin Chuzzlewit]]''. Dickens&rsquo; writings were extremely popular in their day and were read extensively. His popularity allowed him to buy Gad&rsquo;s Hill Place, in [[1856]]. This large house in [[Rochester, Kent]] was very special to Dickens as he had walked past it as a child and had dreamed of living in it. The area was also the scene of some of the events of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare's]] ''[[Henry IV, part 1]]'' and this literary connection pleased Dickens.

* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501030721-464475,00.html "Dirty Details"], by Bryan Walsh, from ''TIME'' magazine, [[July 14]], [[2003]]

* [http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976812314 "The Dear Leader Unmasked"]

==See also==

Dickens separated from his wife in [[1858]]. In Victorian times, divorce was almost unthinkable, particularly for someone as famous as he was. He continued to maintain her in a house for the next twenty years until she died. Although they were initially happy together, Catherine did not seem to share quite the same boundless energy for life which Dickens had. Her job of looking after their ten children and the pressure of living with and keeping house for a world-famous novelist certainly did not help. Catherine&rsquo;s sister Georgina moved in to help her, but there were rumours that Charles was romantically linked to his sister-in-law. An indication of his marital dissatisfaction was when, in [[1885]], he went to meet his married first love Maria Beadnell. Maria was by this time married as well, but she seems to have fallen short of Dickens' romantic memory of her.

* [[Comfort women]]

* [[Harem]]

[[Category:North Korea]]

On the [[9th June]] [[1865]], while returning from France to see [[Ellen Ternan]], Dickens was involved in the Staplehurst train crash in which the first six carriages of the train plunged off of a bridge that was being repaired. The only first-class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was berthed. Dickens spent some time tending the wounded and the dying before rescuers arrived; before finally leaving, he remembered the unfinished manuscript for ''[[Our Mutual Friend]]'', and he returned to his carriage to retrieve it.

[[Category:1978 establishments]]

[[Category:Erotic dance]]

[[Category:Massage]]

[[ja:喜び組]]

Dickens managed to avoid an appearance at the inquiry into the crash, as it would have become known that he was travelling that day with Ellen Ternan and her mother, which could have caused a scandal. Ellen, an actress, had been Dickens' companion since the break-up of his marriage, and, as he had met her in [[1857]], she was most likely the ultimate reason for that break-up. She continued to be his companion, and probably mistress, until his death.

[[ko:기쁨조]]

Although unharmed, he never really recovered from the crash, which is most evident in the fact that his normally prolific writing shrank to completing ''[[Our Mutual Friend]]'' and starting the unfinished ''[[The Mystery of Edwin Drood]]''. Much of his time was taken up with public readings from his best-loved novels. Dickens was fascinated by the theatre as an escape from the world, and theatres and theatrical people appear in ''[[Nicholas Nickleby]]''. The travelling shows were extremely popular, and on [[December 2]], [[1867]], Dickens gave his first public reading in the [[United States]] at a [[New York City]] theatre. The effort and passion he put into these readings with individual character voices is also thought to have contributed to his death.

Five years to the day after the Staplehurst crash, on [[9 June]] [[1870]], he died after suffering a stroke. Contrary to his wish to be buried in Rochester Cathedral, he was buried in the [[Poets' Corner|Poets&rsquo; Corner]] of [[Westminster Abbey]]. The inscription on his tomb reads: "He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England&rsquo;s greatest writers is lost to the world." In the [[1980s]], the historic Eastgate House in [[Rochester, Kent]], was converted into a Charles Dickens museum, and an annual Dickens Festival is held in the city. The Eastgate House was closed in [[2005]] by [[Medway]] Council as an economy measure, but a "Dickens World" theme park is scheduled to open in nearby [[Chatham, Kent|Chatham]] in [[2007]]. The house in [[Portsmouth]] which Dickens was born has also been made into a museum.

==Literary style and legacy==

[[image:Charles_Dickens.jpg|left|250px|framed|Charles Dickens used his rich imagination, sense of humour and detailed memories, particularly of his childhood, to enliven his fiction.]]

Dickens' writing style is florid and poetic, with a strong comic touch. His satires of British aristocratic snobbery &mdash; he calls one character the "Noble Refrigerator" &mdash; are wickedly funny. Comparing orphans to stocks and shares, people to tug boats, or dinner party guests to furniture are just some of Dickens&rsquo; flights of fancy which can sum up situations better than any simple description could.

The characters are among the most memorable in English literature, certainly their names are. The likes of [[Ebenezer Scrooge]], [[Fagin]], Mrs. Gamp, [[Wilkins Micawber|Micawber]], Pecksniff, [[Miss Havisham]], Wackford Squeers and many others are so well known and can be believed to be living a life outside the novels that their stories have been continued by other authors. Dickens loved the style of [[18th century]] [[gothic romance]], though it had already become a bit of a joke&mdash;[[Jane Austen]]&rsquo;s ''[[Northanger Abbey]]'' being a well known parody&mdash;and whilst some are grotesques their eccentricities do not usually overshadow the stories. One character most vividly drawn throughout his novels is [[London]] itself. From the coaching inns on the out-skirts of the city to the lower reaches of the [[Thames]], all aspects of the capital are described by someone who truly loved London and spent many hours walking its streets.

Most of Dickens' major novels were first written in monthly or weekly instalments in journals such as ''[[Master Humphrey's Clock]]'' and ''[[Household Words]]'', later reprinted in book form. These instalments made the stories cheap, accessible and the series of regular cliff-hangers made each new episode widely anticipated. Part of Dickens&rsquo; great talent was to incorporate this episodic writing style but still end up with a coherent novel at the end. The monthly numbers were illustrated by, amongst others, "[[Phiz]]" (a pseudonym for [[Hablot Browne]]). Among his best-known works are ''[[Great Expectations]]'', ''[[David Copperfield (novel)|David Copperfield]]'', ''[[The Pickwick Papers]]'', ''[[Oliver Twist]]'', ''[[Nicholas Nickleby]]'', ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]'', and ''[[A Christmas Carol]]''.

Dickens' novels were, among other things, works of social commentary. He was a fierce critic of the poverty and social stratification of Victorian society. Throughout his works, Dickens retained an empathy for the common man and a scepticism for the fine folk.

Much of Dickens&rsquo; writing seems sentimental today, like the death of Little Nell in ''[[The Old Curiosity Shop]]''. Even where the leading characters are sentimental, as in ''[[Bleak House]]'', the peripheral events offer a different style. ''[[Little Dorrit]]'' which appears to be a simply rags-to-riches story was written as an acerbic [[satire]] on [[debtor's prison]]s. Another criticism of his writing is the unrealistic and unlikeliness of his plots. This is true but much of the time he was not aiming for realism but for entertainment and to recapture the [[picaresque]] and [[gothic novel]]s of his youth. When he did attempt realism his novels were often unsuccessful and unpopular. The fact that his own life story of happiness, then poverty, then an unexpected inheritance, and finally international fame was unlikely shows that unlikely stories are not necessarily unrealistic.

All authors incorporate autobiographical elements in their fiction, but with Dickens this is very noticeable, particularly as he took pains to cover up what he considered his shameful, lowly past. ''David Copperfield'' is one of the most clearly autobiographical but the scenes from ''[[Bleak House]]'' of interminable court cases and legal arguments could only come from a journalist who has had to report them. Dickens&rsquo; own family was sent to prison for poverty, a common theme in many of his books, in particular the [[Marshalsea]] in ''[[Little Dorrit]]''. Little Nell in ''[[The Old Curiosity Shop]]'' is thought to represent Dickens&rsquo; sister-in-law, [[Nicholas Nickleby]]'s father and [[Wilkins Micawber]] are certainly Dickens' own father and the snobbish nature of [[Philip Pirrip|Pip]] from ''[[Great Expectations]]'' is similar to the author himself.

==Legacy==

[[Image:Oliver_twist1.jpg|thumb|212px|A scene from ''Oliver Twist'', from an early 20th Century edition.]]

Charles Dickens was a well known personality and his novels were immensely popular during his lifetime. His first full novel ''The Pickwick Papers'' brought him immediate fame and this fame continued right through his career. He maintained a high quality in all his writings and although never departing greatly from his typical "Dickensian" style he did experiment with different themes, moods and [[genre]]s. Some of these experiments were more successful than others and the public&rsquo;s taste and appreciation of his various works have varied over time. He was usually keen to give his readers what they wanted and the monthly or weekly publication of his works in episodes meant that the books could change as the story proceeded at the whim of the public. A good example of this are the American episodes in ''Martin Chuzzlewit'' which were put in by Dickens in response to lower than normal sales of the earlier chapters. In ''Our Mutual Friend'' the inclusion of the character of Riah was a positive portrayal of a [[Jewish]] character after he was criticised for the depiction of [[Fagin]] in ''Oliver Twist''.

His popularity has waned little since his death and he is still one of the best known and most read of English authors. At least 180 movies and TV adaptations based on Dickens&rsquo; works help confirm his success. Many of his works were adapted for the stage during his own lifetime and as early as [[1913]] a silent film of ''The Pickwick Papers'' was made. His characters were often so memorable that they took on a life of their own outside his books. Gamp became a slang expression for an umbrella from the character [[Martin Chuzzlewit|Mrs Gamp]] and Pickwickian, Pecksniffian and Gradgrind all entered the dictionary owing to Dickens&rsquo; perfect portrayal of these kind of people. [[Sam Weller]] was an early superstar perhaps better known than his author at first. It is likely that ''A Christmas Carol'' is his best-known story, with new adaptations almost every year. It is also the most-filmed of Dickens' stories, most versions dating from the early years of cinema. This simple [[morality tale]] with humour and pathos, for many, sums up the true meaning of Christmas and eclipses all his other Christmas stories.

At a time when Britain was the major economic and political power of the world Dickens highlighted the life of the forgotten poor and disadvantaged at the heart of empire. Through his journalism he campaigned of specific issues such as [[sanitation]] and the [[workhouse]] but his fiction was probably all the more powerful in changing opinion. He revealed the harsh lives of the poor and satirised the people who allowed abuses to continue, all in the context of a good-humoured, entertaining story which sold widely. His works seem to have inspired many more people to address problems and inequalities, even though he poked fun at these well meaning [[philanthropist]]s, and his influence is often credited with having the [[Marshalsea]] and [[Fleet Prison]]s shut down.

Dickens may have hoped for the foundation of a literary dynasty through his ten children and he named some of them after past writers but it would have been difficult for them to be anywhere near as successful as their father and some of them seem to have inherited their grandfather&rsquo;s lack of financial acumen. Several of his children wrote of their memories of their father or prepared his surviving correspondence for publication but his great-granddaughter, [[Monica Dickens]], would follow in his footsteps as a writer of novels.

His works, with their vivid descriptions of life at the time, mean that the whole of Victorian society is often simply described as Dickensian. Following his death in [[1870]] a greater degree of realism entered literature probably in reaction to Dickens&rsquo; own tendency towards the picaresque and ridiculous. Late Victorian novelists such as [[Samuel Butler (1835-1902)|Samuel Butler]], [[Thomas Hardy]] and [[George Gissing]] owe much to Dickens but their works are grittier and less sentimental. Writers continue to be influenced by his books and, although his faults are criticised, few writers can match his characterisation, gripping plots, social commentary, popular, critical, and financial success, and his sense of humour.

==Quotations==

*"Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind! I don&rsquo;t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country&rsquo;s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail." &mdash; ''A Christmas Carol''

*"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show." &mdash; ''David Copperfield''

*"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known." &mdash; ''A Tale of Two Cities''

==Bibliography==

===Major novels===

*''[[The Pickwick Papers]]'' ([[1836]])

*''[[Oliver Twist]]'' ([[1837]]&ndash;[[1839]])

*''[[Nicholas Nickleby]]'' ([[1838]]&ndash;[[1839]])

*''[[The Old Curiosity Shop]]'' ([[1840]]&ndash;[[1841]])

*''[[Barnaby Rudge]]'' ([[1841]])

*The Christmas Books:

**''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' ([[1843]])

**''[[The Chimes]]'' ([[1844]])

**''[[The Cricket on the Hearth]]'' ([[1845]])

**''[[The Battle of Life]]'' ([[1846]])

*''[[Martin Chuzzlewit]]'' ([[1843]]&ndash;[[1844]])

*''[[Dombey and Son]]'' ([[1846]]&ndash;[[1848]])

*''[[David Copperfield (novel)|David Copperfield]]'' ([[1849]]&ndash;[[1850]])

*''[[Bleak House]]'' ([[1852]]&ndash;[[1853]])

*''[[Hard Times]]'' ([[1854]])

*''[[Little Dorrit]]'' ([[1855]]&ndash;[[1857]])

*''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]'' ([[1859]])

*''[[Great Expectations]]'' ([[1860]]&ndash;[[1861]])

*''[[Our Mutual Friend]]'' ([[1864]]&ndash;[[1865]])

*''[[The Mystery of Edwin Drood]]'' (unfinished) ([[1870]])

===Selected other books===

*''[[Sketches by Boz]]'' ([[1836]])

*''[[American Notes]]'' ([[1842]])

*''[[Pictures from Italy]]'' ([[1846]])

*''[[The Life of Our Lord]]'' ([[1846]], published in [[1934]])

*''[[A Child's History of England|A Child's History of England]]'' ([[1851]]&ndash;[[1853]])

===Short stories===

*"A Christmas Tree"

*"A Message from the Sea"

*"Doctor Marigold"

*"George Silverman&rsquo;s Explanation"

*"Going into Society"

*"Holiday Romance"

*"Hunted Down"

*"Mrs. Lirriper&rsquo;s Legacy"

*"Mrs. Lirriper&rsquo;s Lodgings"

*"[[Mugby Junction]]"

*"Perils of Certain English Prisoners"

*"Somebody&rsquo;s Luggage"

*"Sunday Under Three Heads"

*"The Child&rsquo;s Story"

*"The Haunted House"

*"The Haunted Man and the Ghost&rsquo;s Bargain"

*"The Holly-Tree"

*"The Lamplighter"

*"The Seven Poor Travellers"

*"The Trial for Murder"

*"Tom Tiddler&rsquo;s Ground"

*"What Christmas Is As We Grow Older"

*"Wreck of the Golden Mary"

*"Captain Murderer"

*"The Signalman"

===Essays===

*''[[In Memoriam W. M. Thackeray]]''

===Articles===

*''[[A Coal Miner's Evidence]]''

== External links ==

{{Wikisource author}}

{{wikiquote}}

{{commons|Charles Dickens}}

*'''Sources online'''

** {{gutenberg author|id=Charles_Dickens|name=Charles Dickens}}

** [http://www.dickens-literature.com/ Dickens Literature] &mdash; Chapter-indexed, searchable versions of Dickens&rsquo; works.

** [http://www.charles-dickens.org Charles Dickens] HTML format of Dickens books.

** [http://www.victorianlondon.org/books/search.cgi The Dickens Search Engine] Search Dickens' books

*'''Miscellaneous'''

** [http://www.helsinki.fi/kasv/nokol/dickens.html A Dickens web page] with both original content and links to many other Dickens pages.

** [http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/characters.html Dickens&rsquo; Characters] some of the estimated 989 characters in Dickens.

**[http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/Dickens.html A comprehensive Dickens page]

**[http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/dickens/genealogy/genealogy-e.html A genealogical tree of the Dickens family]

** [http://www.gutenberg.net/1/0/0/2/10020/10020-h/s37s10.html The Signatures of Charles Dickens]

** [http://www.perryweb.com/Dickens Charles Dickens &mdash; Gad&rsquo;s Hill Place] Daily Dickens information!

** [http://www.dickensmuseum.com Dickens Museum] Situated in a former Dickens House, 48 Doughty Street, London, WC1.

** [http://www.charlesdickensbirthplace.co.uk/ Dickens Birthplace Museum] Old Commercial Road, Portsmouth

** [http://www.dickensfest.com/ International Dickens Festival]

** [http://reverent.org/bulwer-dickens.html Dickens or Bulwer?] A quiz to tell the prose of Charles Dickens from that of the worst writer in history of letters

*'''Critical analysis'''

** [http://www.online-literature.com/chesterton/dickensworks/ ''Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens''] by [[G. K. Chesterton]]

** [http://www.dickens-theme.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk Charles Dickens's Themes] An analysis of ''The Mystery of Edwin Drood''

**[http://www.diderot.nl/Uitgeverij%20Diderot%20-%20Life%20of%20Charles%20Dickens-John%20Forster.htm Life of Charles Dickens] by [[John Forster]]

**[http://www.fathom.com/course/21701768/index.html Charles Dickens: The Life of the Author] a seminar by [[Kenneth Benson]] from the [[New York Public Library]]

*{{imdb name|id=0002042|name=Charles Dickens}}

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