With all the celebrations over the last six months, you might have thought Charles Dickens's 200th birthday had been and gone. Not so. Tuesday is the day and it is now too late to read those novels you promised you would when everyone first started talking about it. But it's not too late to read the digested read versions of three of his finest books, Great Expectations, Bleak House and David Copperfield, at guardian.co.uk/books. Who can resist Pip, Miss Havisham, Lady Dedlock, Steerforth and Dopey Dora? And of course Mr Micawber, celebrated in this digested passage:
My lodgings were with a Mr and Mrs Micawber. Mr Micawber was a kindly man, albeit one given to circumlocution and financial mismanagement. "Master Copperfield," he would say. "Total income £20, total expenditure £200 equals unhappiness and I confess that today I find myself embarrassed. If I may prevail upon you …"
"Of course," I replied, not thinking it odd that an adult should ask a 10-year-old boy for money or that I should work extra hours in order to advance Mr Micawber a greater sum.
Over the course of the year, I will be digesting all Dickens's greatest novels. Next up this month? What better for these miserable days of austerity than Hard Times?
