The Dickens Route in London

In the pantheon of world literature, Charles Dickens stands alongside Cervantes, Shakespeare, Dante, and a few others. The creator of unforgettable characters such as David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Philip Pirrip, and Mr. Scrooge was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, a coastal town near London. A few years later, he moved with his family to the capital, where he would live for most of his life and which would serve as a backdrop for his most famous novels. To commemorate the bicentennial of his birth, the Charles Dickens Museum and Film London have coordinated an ambitious program of activities that span the entire year (www.dickens2012.org).

The Charles Dickens Museum occupies a beautiful Victorian house in the Bloomsbury area, near the British Museum, where Dickens lived from 1837 to 1839. Today's visitors can stroll through the rooms where the writer drafted works such as Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. The museum boasts a collection of one hundred thousand items, including first editions, manuscripts, and personal items belonging to Charles Dickens.

Close to Covent Garden, at 26 Wellington Street, literary enthusiasts can grab a coffee, or whatever they prefer, at the Charles Dickens Coffee House. This establishment, which corners Tavistock Street, occupies the former offices of All the Year Round, a magazine founded by Dickens in 1859, where he worked until his death in 1870. Its pages published important works of the time in installments, such as A Tale of Two Cities, by Dickens himself, and The Moonstone, by his friend Wilkie Collins. During a brief period in 1860, after his separation from Catherine Dickens, Charles lived in an apartment in the same building.

One of the major exhibitions this year will take place at the Museum of London (www.museumoflondon.org.uk). Until June 10, Dickens and London offers a thorough exploration of the life, work, and times of the brilliant British writer.

Those who prefer moving images over printed words are also in luck. The British Film Institute offers at its headquarters in the modern Southbank arts and leisure center the most extensive retrospective of feature films inspired by Dickens created to date (www.bfi.org.uk). This brief stroll through London with the creator of the Pickwick Club must end, unfortunately, in the cemetery. The remains of Dickens, like those of other illustrious literary figures such as Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Hardy, and Rudyard Kipling, are found in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A place to revere Literature with a capital L.

Dickens was born in Portsmouth, a port city located just a hundred kilometers from London. The author of Great Expectations moved with his family to the capital when he was two years old. Due to this brief but significant connection, between the 7th and 12th of this month, the streets of Portsmouth are filled with activities and special events at the Dickens Birthplace Museum (www.charlesdickensbirthplace.co.uk) and at the city museum (www.portsmouthcitymuseums.co.uk).