Update from New York

This Saturday, I had the honor to attend The Friends of Dickens New York celebration of "our mutual friend's" (that would be C. D. of course!) 199th birthday.
What an energetic, pleasant, welcoming bunch! Their book of the year is "Tale of Two Cities" so we were treated to a short dramatic reading of the confrontation between Madame Defarge and Miss Pross. I happened to be the youngest person in attendance and most far afield, but everyone at our table was really nice to talk to--the party was a luncheon at an Irish bar. They even forgave my confusion about not having money for the meal--I had read on their website that meetings were 'free and open to the public'--and kindly offered to pay for me and insisted that I join them for lunch. and tea. and strawberry shortcake. so nice!

The highlight was hearing Lillian Nayder talk about her book "The Other Dickens", a biography of Catherine Hogarth, or Charles Dickens' wife. I'll confess I didn't know who she was, but I am very eager to read a copy of her book. She was so enthusiastic, describing the ways in which Charles slighted Catherine (he was not so nice, apparently) and had clearly researched their lives throughly. Nayder described some accounts of dinner parties the Dickens' attended and seemed also as if she had been a guest herself. How does one research such a book? Well Nayder's description makes me envy historic research if it involves traveling to an amazing city like London, spending all day in a historic library, and reading a Victorian diary. Sounds pretty good indeed.

It was great to spend an afternoon in the company of fellow Dickens enthusiasts since I couldn't be at the run through with my usual cohort. Some even dressed up in period clothing! The guy who dressed as Sydney Carton was fantastic, and he even wore a red string around his neck--you know, because of Carton's encounter with a guillotine...awesome.