Happy birthday, Mr Dickens!

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.

Charles Dickens

On a day like today, Charles John Huffam Dickens would have turned 200 years old. It is certainly a day to celebrate.

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, in the south of England, on the 7 February 1812, and is considered the greatest novelist of Victorian England. He enjoyed a considerable popularity and fame during his lifetime, which was not frequent in those days. He was buried at Westminster Abbey, London, where he has been paid homage today by Londoners, alongside H.R.H. the Prince of Wales and personalities such as actor & director Ralph Fiennes.

To learn a bit more about this great man's life, we have several options:

• Dickens Fast Facts
• 7 things you didn't know about Charles Dickens

Or better, watch this BBC animation:

Charles Dickens is widely known for being a master of realism, picturing the hardships of living in London when you were not privileged. Would you like to learn what Dickensian London was like? Click here to play the game SURVIVE DICKENS' LONDON.

Would you like to see London the way it was like in Dickens's life? Click here for a map of London in Dickens' time.

Have you ever read any of Dickens' works? Which ones do you know? Maybe here you can find some that might interest you. (ONLINE E-BOOKS, unabridged)

• A Christmas Carol
• A Tale of Two Cities
• Great Expectations
• Bleak House
• Oliver Twist
• Hard Times

If you are thinking of reading any of Dickens's works in English, you might find this glossary extremely useful!

Dickens' works are also on screen and on stage.

Here you have a taste: Oliver! The Musical at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London

For those who wish to dig deeper into Dicken's world, check David Perdue's Charles Dickens' Page.

ENJOY!!!