Dickens, Charles John Huffam

Dickens, Charles John Huffam (1812–70), the great English novelist, was all his life intimately connected with the stage and had an immense influence on it through the numerous dramatizations of his books. Although there is no proof that he was ever an actor, both Nicholas Nickleby and Great Expectations show an intimate knowledge of an actor's life between 1837 and 1844, and those who saw Dickens in his many amateur appearances thought he would have made a fine eccentric comedian. His famous readings from his own works were in a way solo dramatic performances, as has been clearly shown by Emlyn Williams's reconstruction of them. In his later years he had in his London home a small private theatre, perfectly equipped, where with his friends and family he gave private performances before a distinguished audience. Two of Wilkie Collins's plays were produced there before they were seen at the Olympic, and Dickens also collaborated with Collins in the writing of No Thoroughfare (1867), in which Fechter and Ben Webster appeared.

It would be impossible to catalogue here all the plays based on Dickens's novels, many of which were seen before the books had finished appearing in fortnightly parts. The most persistent adapters were W. T. Moncrieff and Edward Stirling, but many versions were performed anonymously. Dickens entrusted Albert Smith with the dramatization of The Cricket on the Hearth at Christmas 1845, when 12 different versions were being given at London theatres, all to be superseded later by Dion Boucicault's excellent Dot (1862), and Dickens himself wrote the script for The Old Curiosity Shop, not seen until 1884 at the Opera Comique. His own version of Great Expectations, in which he hoped Toole would appear, was never used, and the first to be staged was that prepared by W. S. Gilbert (1871). Many dramatizations were also prepared for the American stage, but owing to the absence of Copyright laws Dickens received nothing for them.

Dickens's characters are so vivid, his plots so dramatic, that it is not surprising they did well on the stage. Many famous actors had their favourite Dickens characters, Irving appearing as Jingle (from The Pickwick Papers), Tree as Fagin (from Oliver Twist), and, most successful of all, Martin-Harvey as Sidney Carton in The Only Way (based on A Tale of Two Cities). Betsey Prig and Sairey Gamp (from Martin Chuzzlewit) were for a long time acted by men. Three of Dickens's novels, Oliver Twist, The Pickwick Papers, and A Tale of Two Cities, were turned into musicals, as Oliver! (1960) by Lionel Bart, Pickwick (1963), and Two Cities (1969). A version of The Pickwick Papers was an outstanding success on the Soviet stage, being seen at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1934. The RSC's production of a two-part, eight-hour adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby was a phenomenal success in London (1980) and New York (1981).