Julie Cannavino
This weekend downtown Fernandina Beach will be turned into a Victorian wonderland with the arrival of Dickens on Centre, which started with the illuminated procession Thursday and runs through Sunday. This Victorian-inspired event has vendors, entertainment, festive food and drink, movies, and activities for all ages.
As the name would suggest, the event is inspired by Charles Dickens and Victorian London. Dickens (1812-1870) is a well-known and loved English author with his own rags to riches story. While his family first led a comfortable existence, that changed in 1824 when his father found himself in debt and was committed to Marshalsea debtor’s prison, along with Dicken’s mother and the younger children. Charles, who was 12 at the time, was forced to help his family by moving into a boarding house and working in a boot-blacking factory pasting labels onto bottles. He later said about this soul-crushing experience “No words can express the secret agony of my soul as I sunk into this companionship…and felt my early hopes of growing up to be a learned and distinguished man, crushed in my breast.” Eventually a relative of the Dickens’ family died and left some money to the family which allowed Charles’ father to pay off his debts and be released from prison.
Fortunately for us, Charles did grow up to be a learned and distinguished man, but those early experiences stayed with him. Those experiences, as well as his recollections of the Cleveland Street Workhouse just down the road from his teenage home, were the basis for Oliver Twist which Dickens published in 1838.
In addition to Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens wrote 14 additional novels, five novellas, and hundreds of short stories and nonfiction articles as well as editing a weekly journal for 20 years. Dickens was a social activist commentator and used his writing to bring attention to the plight of the poor and working classes in London. Dickens died in 1870 when he was 58 years old and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Many of us were exposed to Charles Dicken’s novels during high school and college, but if you would like to reacquaint yourself with his writings, visit the library. We have many of his novels including The Old Curiosity Shop, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, Hard Times, A Christmas Carol in Prose and others.
Dickens on Centre this weekend focuses on the warmth and light of a Victorian Christmas and promises to be fun for the whole family. We hope that you will take some time to explore it for yourself.
Julie Cannavino is library director for the Nassau County Public Library System. She has a master’s degree in library science and has worked in school and college libraries, as well as public libraries. Questions or comments? Contact her at jcannavino@nassaucountyfl.com.