Dickensians! discussion

What the Dickens? - A Quiz

How much do you know about Charles Dickens? Take this fun quiz, and you might surprise yourself :) The answers are at the end of this comment.

What the Dickens? - Take the Quiz:

1. Charles Dickens is remembered mainly for his:
A. poetry and plays
B. dramatisations and graphic novels
C. novels and short pieces

2. Charles Dickens’s first job was as:
A. a chimney sweep
B. sticking labels on bottles of shoe blacking
C. a trainee blacksmith

3. He went on to:
A. inherit a fortune and spend all his days writing
B. study in his spare time and get a place at university
C. take a job as a newspaper reporter for court proceedings

4. Charles Dickens very much enjoyed embroidery, and produced many beautiful samplers.
A. True
B. False

5. Which is true?
A. Charles Dickens hated writing letters, and left it all to his wife, Catherine.
B. Charles Dickens wrote a tremendous amount of letters, and even requested a postbox to be installed outside his house.
C. Charles Dickens, in common with many other important men of his time, dictated any necessary letters to a servant.

6. Charles Dickens believed in ghosts.
A. True
B. False

7. When was Charles Dickens born?
A. 1812
B. 1862
C. 1912

8. Which country did he live in?
A. Scotland
B. England
C. Australia

9. Charles Dickens won a medal for bravery, when a train he was on crashed, and he assisted and rescued many of his fellow passengers.
A. True
B. False

10. All Charles Dickens’s novels were originally published as serials in a magazine, and only later as books.
A. True
B. False


Answers:

(view spoiler)[1. C. novels and short pieces
2. B. sticking labels on bottles of shoe blacking
3. C. take a job as a newspaper reporter for court proceedings
4. B. False
5. B. Charles Dickens wrote a tremendous amount of letters, and even requested a postbox to be installed outside his house
6. A. True
7. A. 1812
8. B. England
9. A. True
10. A. True (hide spoiler)]

"Please Sir, I want some more!"

Enjoying it? Then here are a few more to try:

11. Charles Dickens is known as:
A. “the Bard of Avon”
B. “the Inimitable”,
C. “Mr. Penny Dreadful”

12. Charles Dickens lived most of his life in which era?
A. Elizabethan
B. Georgian
C. Victorian

13. Which is true?
A. Charles Dickens rarely finished his work, and left hundreds of uncompleted manuscripts.
B. Charles Dickens wrote slowly and methodically, and finished everything he started.
C. Charles Dickens always had many writing projects on the go at the same time, and left just one unfinished novel.

14. How did Charles Dickens choose to dress?
A. soberly and conservatively
B. flamboyantly; he was considered a bit of a dandy

15. Charles Dickens hated dogs.
A. True: He had a phobia about them
B. False: He loved dogs, and the family always had a pet dog

16. Charles Dickens was “paid by the word”. True or false?
A. True: He was an impoverished writer and in danger of starving in a garret, so he wrote to order
B. False: For much of his life he owned the magazines and periodicals in which he was published

17. How many children did Charles Dickens have?
A. None
B. 4 or 5
C. 10 or more

18. Charles Dickens campaigned tirelessly all his life for better working and social conditions for the poor.
A. True
B. False

19. Which of these is true?
A. Charles Dickens liked to walk, and went for long walks every day.
B. Charles Dickens preferred riding by carriage to walking.
C. Charles Dickens liked to go out on his penny farthing bicycle.

20. Charles Dickens’s father once went to prison for bankruptcy.
A. True
B. False

21. Charles Dickens never quarrelled with his friends, and kept most of them all his life.
A. True
B. False

22. If he could choose a different career, Charles Dickens would have liked to be:
A. an actor
B. a boxer
C. a judge

23. Charles Dickens wished to be remembered and celebrated after he had died.
A. True: He planned a great funeral procession with all the testimonials and trimmings in true Victorian style.
B. False: He expressly forbade any monuments or statues to be erected to himself after his death.

24. Charles Dickens had a pet crow.
A. True
B. False

25. Charles Dickens never went abroad.
A. True
B. False

26. How old was Charles Dickens when he died?
A. 58
B. 68
C. 78



Answers:

(view spoiler)[11. B. “the Inimitable”
12. C. Victorian
13. C. Charles Dickens always had many writing projects on the go at the same time, and left just one unfinished novel
14. B. flamboyantly; he was considered a bit of a dandy
15. B. False: he loved dogs, and the family always had a pet dog
16. B. False: For much of his life he owned the magazines and periodicals in which he was published
17. C. 10 or more
18. A. True
19. A. Charles Dickens liked to walk, and went for long walks every day
20. A. True
21. B. False
22. A. an actor
23. B. False: He expressly forbade any monuments or statues to be erected to himself after his death.
24. A. True
25. B. False
26. A. 58 (hide spoiler)]

Scores:

Less than 5 correct answers: You need this group! Have fun :)
Between 5 and 20 correct answers: You're already a fan of Charles Dickens, and will thoroughly enjoy this group
More than 20 correct answers: Wow, you're an expert! Would you like to write a dozen more questions?

It's just a bit of fun, of course :) So how did you do? Were there some surprises there?

I love quizzes, Jean. Great fun. I missed two in the first set and two in the second set. (view spoiler)[The sampler question got me, but then I should have known he was too busy writing to have time for embroidery. (hide spoiler)]

LOL I knew that would sound eccentric - but some other things do too!

You did sooo well! It's easy to set these things - but we all know different aspects, so I'm glad I pitched it right! Thanks for saying, Sara, and I'm pleased you enjoyed doing it :)

Two wrong overall - one in each set of questions.

I got three wrong overall. I should have guessed at one of the true/false questions, but I didn't. 🥴

Hey Allie and Rosemarie - that's great! We've got some experts here :)

Bionic Jean wrote: "Hey Allie and Rosemarie - that's great! We've got some experts here :)"

Haha. I was confident in each of my answers....but I was also confident in the two I got wrong LOL.

I did well because of reading his biography and some other sources a few years ago when I gave a talk about him, and reading his novels in the GR Readers Review group.

Well done! It's useful to get Feedback, thanks. Hope you enjoyed it Robin :)

Having read a biography about Dickens, - this was a great test of memory - got 'em all!
Found a picture of Dickens and one of his dogs, Turk:



In the mid-nineteenth century, Charles Dickens had a small, shaggy Havana spaniel named Timber Doodle. Dickens had acquired Timber during a visit to America and the little dog soon became his constant companion, even accompanying him on his travels.

Another favorite was Mrs. Bouncer, a small Pomeranian:

And this was another breed, a mastiff called Governor:

Hey Elizabeth, there's a project right there for you! Write a little Christmas type gift book, and call it "Dickens and his Dogs". It might become a best-seller!

Seriously, congratulations, and thank for the pictures :) The first is one of my favourites, but I hadn't seen the other two at all!

Bionic Jean wrote: "Hey Elizabeth, there's a project right there for you! Write a little Christmas type gift book, and call it "Dickens and his Dogs". It might become a best-seller!

Alas, Jean, others have written about Dickens' dogs. so I would only be barking up the wrong tree by writing more :-)
As I read David Copperfield and other Dickens' novels, I will now no doubt pay more attention to the dogs depicted in his books!

Aw, that's a shame Elizabeth, (LOL great pun!) although I shall now be on the lookout for any books :)

I always feel so sorry for Bill Sikes's dog "Bullseye". What a master to have!

Bionic Jean wrote: "Aw, that's a shame Elizabeth, (LOL great pun!) although I shall now be on the lookout for any books :)

I always feel so sorry for Bill Sikes's dog "Bullseye". What a master to have!"

Yes, Bullseye was vicious but loyal to his harsh master

It's heartbreaking :(

I enjoyed the quiz and scored 22/26. Not bad, even though, many of them were just lucky guesses. (view spoiler)[ Sara, the one about embroidery got me as well. :-D (hide spoiler)]

LOL that's hilarious Milena :D But an excellent score!

Missed 2 in the first set but only scored 12 in the second set Jean.. Oh dear! I really do need to read his biography sitting on my book shelves.

LOL Leila, it's just a bit of fun! And I think you did well! Its always easier to set these quizzes that to do them, but I hope you enjoyed it. And we'll certainly be reading at least one biography of him as a group :)

Is anyone else going to try this quiz? Go on - have a go!

Well, only two errors in the first set and none in the second set. It did help that I read Dickens's Artistic Daughter Katey: Her Life, Loves & Impact just a couple of months ago, the author spends a lot of time of Charles Dickens so much than sometimes I had the impression it was not a biography of Katey but her father. What really is sad is how copyright did not exist further I think than a second edition after the death (not sure, but it was really quick), Dickens was still very popular twenty years after his death, but his family who everybody thought very rich did not receive any money for his works at this point. What is also very sad is that Kate Dickens (the artist Kate Perugini, very talented) place where she was keeping her father letters (and all her possessions) burned down so we lost all the letters between them. A lot of people lost a lot in that fire, it was a commercial warehouse that a lot of society used at the time.

I think a complete books could be written about Dickens and his tempestuous friendships, it propably has! I think the fault might have been with CD because he was a hard friend to please. He broke a lot of friendship when he repudiated his wife.

France-Andrée wrote: "Well, only two errors in the first set and none in the second set. It did help that I read Dickens's Artistic Daughter Katey: Her Life, Loves & Impact just a couple of months ago, the author spends a lot of time of Charles Dickens so much than sometimes I had the impression it was not a biography of Katey but her father...."

I read this under a different title, Katey: The Life and Loves of Dickens's Artist Daughter, and thought exactly the same about the early part of the book, although there was more about Katey later on.

21/26, so not too bad. 1 wrong in the first set (view spoiler)[same one as Sara, and Milena. (hide spoiler)]. 4 wrong in the second set. (view spoiler)[He had a cow? (hide spoiler)] That was fun, thanks Jean!

Judy: I think the first part being concentrated so much on Charles Dickens had to do with him being so prolific in letter writing and that Kate’s letters were destroyed for that time of her life also a daughter lived with her parents very dependent in those days so their activities were in common. I found it fascinating that Lucinda Hawksley is related to Charles through his son Henry. Another fun thing was researching all the artists and paintings with the internet, we have access to all those pictures and the have to limit ourselves to the grainy black in white at the end of a book.

Renee - (view spoiler)[ Yes, he had a pet crow (not cow!) Several in fact, one of which is stuffed and in Philadelphia Free Library in the States. It features as "Grip" in Barnaby Rudge, and was also the inspiration for The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. (hide spoiler)], maybe you knew all this and it was a typo LOL!

But congratulations! Everyone is scoring really high on this :) Glad it was fun.

Bionic Jean wrote: "Renee - [spoilers removed], maybe you knew all this and it was a typo LOL!

But congratulations! Everyone is scoring really high on this :) Glad it was fun."

Now I feel so silly! It wasn't a typo, I just misread it when doing the quiz LOL :) And thank you for that tidbit of info, I didn't know that.

LOL I do that sort of thing all the time, Renee :D Your idea is even more entertaining!

Have you just joined us? How about doing our quiz?

And let us know how you got on, if you like :)

Hi Jean, I am trying to find the quiz answers…?

I figured it out! I couldn't see the answers through the GR app on my phone but could get to them on my PC fine.
Bummer, though. I missed 8 total! Thought I knew Dickens better. Excited to keep learning!

I loved the quizzes! I learned some great tidbits...he had a pet crow and saved passengers on a train crash! Very fun. Thank you, Jean

LOL I'm glad you enjoyed it :) Thanks Lisa - and sorry it's not app- friendly! I wouldn't know how to fix that - but perhaps it's not possible. I don't think all the features are there,

Whew! Barely made it with 21/26.

I once won his figurine in my local book club, Dickens' Chicks, some years ago (but that was more on the books themselves and not about him per se).

LOL Dickens' Chicks! Well done Reggia :)

Loved the quizes, thanks Jean. I've yet to do #3. I loved the pet crow question as I have a pet seagull who loves to sit with me on my balcony. Hmm... is that a spoiler? Er maybe it's true, maybe not.

It's not a spoiler at all, Anna! And I'm so gald you enjoyed the quiz 😊