Charles Dickens' 200th birthday

Charles Dickens

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

(Charles Dickens wrote in 'A Tale of Two Cities')

A remarkable statement by one of the greatest classic writers, Charles Dickens, stands so true for our situation today! Remembering Charles Dickens on his 200th birthday today (Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was born on 7 February 1812 in Portsmouth, England)the most befitting tribute we can pay to this reverred author is holding his words close to our hearts and cherishing them as always. The present is considered to be an age of 'knowledge explosion'. The same holds true for the literary world. We have had a hurricane of writings, good and bad. Let us not be swept away by the this tide of sub-standard reading material. The classics can serve as a benchmark of quality for the present. This opinion is not at all to negate all the contributions being made to literature today.

Let us think of 'A Tale of Two Cities', 'Great Expectations', 'David Copperfield', 'The Pickwick Papers' and give them their due place in the glorious history of English literature.