University of Central Florida Libraries
5/21/2013
http://library.ucf.edu/
Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812. Not a math major? That was 200 years ago.
If you search the UCF Catalog, http://library.ucf.edu/, for Charles Dickens as an author, you'll find 446 items listed, 80 of which are available online.
If you take a look at Biography in Context, http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1?userGroupName=orla57816&, which is on the library's list of articles and databases, you'll see that Dickens has had more written about him and his work than any other writer except Shakespeare.
And if you look in the online Oxford English Dictionary, you'll find that "the dickens" was in use as a phrase for astonishment or irritation long before Charles Dickens was born. It's worth mentioning if your parents ever called you "the little Dickens", ususally in reference to some mischief you perpetrated.
It would be nice to celebrate with a little reading. How about Hard Times, or Oliver Twist, or Great Expectations?
Dickens died in 1870, and is buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey.
