What is your earliest memory of Charles Dickens? Tell us about it here.

[Sara]

I love that you came to Dickens at a young age, Theresa, as did I. I wonder if they still show films in school. We loved having them. I remember a science film that they based on Oliver Twist, with Fagan as a bad germ or something. I just remember that I hadn't read Oliver Twist at that point and went immediately to the library and checked it out.

[Dee]

I have noticed that both Wendy and Sara met Dickens through the musical Oliver because that's also where I got my first hint. I was in the 4th grade when the film came out. My mother bought the lp album; my younger sister and I learned the lyrics and delighted in serenading our father on auto trips. Mother had a lovely voice and joined us. Unfortunately, I didn't know it was based on a novel. 😔 Oliver Twist is my Dickens choice for 2025. Jean-- thanks for the link to the thread!

God bless our school systems for including Great Expectations in the mandatory reading curriculum. I wish I'd have had a creative teacher like the one Wendy had to spark my imagination. I might have enjoyed Pip and Miss Haversham's story more. I'm sure Wendy's class enjoyed the wedding cake! 😋

In my late teens, I fell in love with A Tale of Two Cities! ❤️
What a pleasure to reminisce with others about our introductions to Charles Dickens.
--Dee

[Sara]

Oh, no, Dee. I did not meet Dickens through the musical Oliver. I read him many years before that was released. I'm very glad to know that Great Expectations was still being taught when you were in school, since you are much younger than I. I don't think it is part of the curriculum anymore.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Dee, I love travelling down memory lane with you! 🥰

[John]

Wendy wrote: "My first memory of encountering Dickens was when I was very young, perhaps about five. I have vivid memories of being awed and somewhat terrified by certain scenes in the movie version of the Olive..."

I love this. A Miss Havisham Wedding Cake.

My first real experience with Dickens was Great Expectations. I say real because I do recall A Christmas Carol when I was under ten, but I was a little older when reading Great Expectations and was able to absorb and appreciate what Dickens accomplished. Uncle Pumblechook and his multiplication tables struck me as finding Dickens as a person who understood kids and their relation to adults.

[Aquaria]

I was a wee lass when Mum took me to see the film adaptation of the musical, Oliver. Original run. Which tells everyone how old I am, LOL. I don't remember much about it, but I remember Mum telling me it came from a famous book by a man named Dickens. When I was 9 or 10, a local telly station started playing the 1951 film adaptation, Scrooge, every year during the holidays.. First book I read was Tale of Two Cities, for English class.

[Betsie]

My Dad read A Christmas Carol aloud to myself and my siblings when we were children. It was a winter tradition to cozy up in the living room and read a book aloud in front of the wood stove. Tender memories. I believe A Christmas Carol was my first classic, cementing my love of Dickens.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

I love reading these reflections. Thanks all 🙂

By the way Sara, I believe Dee is actually a little older than you, so perhaps you have another Dee in mind as "much younger"?

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Aquaria wrote: "I was a wee lass when Mum took me to see the film adaptation of the musical, Oliver. Original run. Which tells everyone how old I am, LOL. I don't remember much about it, but I remember Mum telling..."

Lovely! 🙂

As you've just joined, Aquaria, would you like to introduce yourself in the welcome thread, so we can get to know you a little? LINK HERE.
Thanks.

[Ruth]

I don't really remember a time when I didn't know about Charles Dickens. Probably some of the first times I heard him mentioned were in books by E. Nesbit that I listened to as a kid (even if it was just in the exclamation "What the Dickens!").
I remember reading the Classics Illustrated comic book version of A Tale of Two Cities at my grandparents' house when I was very young (maybe 8 or 9), and being confused for most of it, but still feeling deeply impressed by the ending.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

It's interesting, isn't it Ruth, that Charles Dickens was (and is) such a literary phenomenon that we can feel as if we've always known about him!

(And I still have that edition of A Tale of Two Cities (this one linked to) 😄- so must have felt the same way!)

[Andrew]

I’ve just spent a delightful half hour reading through this entire thread. Some wonderful memories from everyone. I’m not completely sure when my first exposure to Dickens was. Most likely it would have been from watching the musical version of Oliver on the tv in the 1970s. However, I most likely wasn’t aware it was a Dickens story at that time. My memories are a little foggy, but I think my first encounter of a story that I knew as written by Charles Dickens would have been watching an adaptation of “The Signalman” one Christmas on the BBC. Ever since then I have always considered the Signalman to be a Christmas story, even though it isn’t really. When I started work in 1981, one of my work friends was obsessed with Dickens and he was always reading one of his books in the canteen at break time. I’m pretty sure they were hardbacks that had similar clovers to the old Readers digest condensed books my Mother used to love. Did they ever publish Dickens in those versions? Or am I having a mushed up memory?

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Hi Andrew, I think you might mean the Centennial edition of Charles Dickens's complete works, published over a couple of years, one volume a month from 1970 onwards by Heron. Green leather-look covers with gold tooling, then a few years later reissued with red covers ditto. They look like this . I have these, though it's taken me a long time to find them all! You can buy them quite cheaply still though. Heron's aim was to produce classic books in traditional matching bindings for ordinary people to collect.

Oh I remember watching that BBC film of The Signal-Man one Christmas, and loving it! I had thought it was by M.R. James, as the previous years' had been, and was so surprised that it was by Charles Dickens! It had Denholm Elliott as the title character. You can get it on DVD now.

And your instinct is right! The Signal-Man is a horror mystery story which Charles Dickens first published as part of the Mugby Junction collection in the 1866 Christmas edition of his magazine, "All the Year Round".

Thanks for sharing these great memories, Andrew!