Britain marks Charles Dickens' 200th birthday

LONDON -- He wrote about life in the modern city, with its lawyers and criminals, bankers and urchins, dreamers and clerks. He created characters still known to millions -- Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim, Pip and Miss Havisham, Fagin and Oliver Twist. And it made him a star on both sides of the Atlantic.

Britain on Tuesday marked the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens, the first global celebrity author and chronicler of a world of urban inequality that looks a lot like the one we live in today.

"You only have to look around our society and everything he wrote about in the 1840s is still relevant," said Dickens' biographer, Claire Tomalin. "The great gulf between the rich and poor, corrupt financiers, corrupt Members of Parliament ... You name it, he said it."

Dickens' mistrust of the wealthy and compassion for the poor haven't stopped him being embraced by Britain's high and mighty.

Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, joined Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, actor Ralph Fiennes, and a host of dignitaries and Dickens' descendants at a memorial service Tuesday in Westminster Abbey.

A simultaneous event was held in Portsmouth, southern England, where Dickens was born, the son of a navy pay clerk, on Feb. 7, 1812. In a message read out there, Charles called Dickens "one of the greatest writers of the English language, who used his creative genius to campaign passionately for social justice."

In London, the heir to the throne laid a wreath on the writer's grave in Poet's Corner -- resting place of national literary icons -- and two of Dickens' youngest descendants added a pair of small white posies.

Fiennes read from Dickens' "Bleak House," and there were prayers for the poor and marginalized, and for the writers, artists and journalists chronicling modern society.

Historian Judith Flanders, who attended the service, said it was "enormously moving" -- and Dickens would have hated it.

"Dickens said in his will that he wanted no public ceremonies, no statues, no public acknowledgment," said Flanders, author of the forthcoming book "Dickens' London."

"He wanted to be buried and die as a private man. He wanted his books to stand as his monument."

He got his wish. Dickens' novels and characters are more popular than ever.

The Royal Mail has just issued two new stamps featuring Dickens characters. There are new television adaptations of "Great Expectations" and "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," and a theme park called Dickens World. A new film version of "Great Expectations" is due later this year.

Part of Dickens' staying power stems from his incredible productivity. An insomniac who often roamed London's streets by night, he wrote more than 20 books, had 10 children, toured the world and campaigned for social change until his death from a stroke in 1870 at the age of 58.

Dickens' drive was fueled by early poverty. When he was 12, his father was sent to debtors' prison and Dickens went to work in a factory.

Dickens exposed the cruelty of workhouses in "Oliver Twist," the harshness of child labor in "David Copperfield," the chasm between rich and poor in "A Christmas Carol" and the brutality of the legal system in "Bleak House."

Many features of his world are familiar. The 19th century was an era of fast-paced technological change, and Dickens embraced it. He traveled Britain on newly invented steam trains and crossed the Atlantic in 1842 on one of the first steamships.

He was also a commercially astute writer. His books were published in monthly installments, in an inexpensive magazine-style format interspersed with ads.

"It feels very modern," said Alex Werner, curator of the exhibition, "Dickens and London," at the Museum of London. "A bit like TV soaps -- you have to get through the adverts."