Google honors Charles Dickens 200th birth anniversary with doodle

PanARMENIAN.Net - English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period, Charles Dickens, whose 200th birth anniversary will be marked tomorrow in ceremonies across the world, has been honored with a Google doodle.

The Telegraph reports that the Dickens Google doodle went up first in New Zealand and features characters from his novels including Scrooge, Bob Cratchit and Pip.

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will be leading celebrations in the United Kingdom and Charles will lay a wreath on Dickens' grave at Westminster Abbey, where he was buried in 1870.

Ralph Fiennes, who will next be seen as Magwitch in a new film adaptation of Great Expectations, will read an extract from Bleak House with readings also being given by Mark Dickens, great-great-grandson of Charles Dickens.

Meanwhile, according to BBC, a university is launching a mobile app to mark the bicentenary of Dickens' birth.

The University of Warwick's Celebrating Dickens app links to podcasts, articles and videos on Victorian Britain, his novels and adaptations of his works.

The university has also produced a feature-length documentary on Dickens.

Charles John Huffam Dickens (February 7, 1812 – June 9, 1870) enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic novels and characters.

Many of his writings were originally published serially, in monthly installments, a format of publication which Dickens himself helped popularize. Unlike other authors who completed novels before serialization, Dickens often created the episodes as they were being serialized. The practice lent his stories a particular rhythm, punctuated by cliffhangers to keep the public looking forward to the next installment. The continuing popularity of his novels and short stories is such that they have never gone out of print.