Happy 200th birthday to Charles Dickens, who was born in 1812 on this day, February 7, and was the beloved British author of (well, you know this)- Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickelby, A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and dozens of short stories, poems, plays, and articles. 

There are few authors with as recognizable a style or creative collection of characters as Dickens, whose prose, though often sentimental and florid, contained both wit and messages that resounded deeply with Victorian-era readers. Although he had many critics, like Henry James, who called him a “superficial novelist”, his fans were still far more numerous, and Dickens’s novels and stories have never gone out of print since they were published.