Charles Dickens' Household Words

By chance - and it is a long story - I found myself in recent weeks having the privilege of editing an original edition of Charles Dickens' weekly magazine, "Household Words" as part of the Dickens Journal Online project for his bicentenary. It was fascinating.

Not only was it extraordinary to be reading and checking for typographical and other such errors a facsimile of an original Victorian publication, but the content was riveting too: it ranged from describing the life of a freshwater salmon in Scotland to the history of walking sticks and an Arabian tale. It was clear that every word had been written by Dickens himself, for the sense of his energy and powerful use of words and style was like a strong perfume overpowering a room, and I felt overshadowed by his imprint all the time I read and wrote. I loved the work, and what could have been a chore was a refreshing delight. Until then I had not realised how much he knew about the world of nature; his descriptions of a trip he made to Red Hill (sic) on a hot summer's day was interwoven with observations about the wild flowers he saw, each given their common name and some of which I had not heard of before, but explored later.

In that his lead article for the week he was, you could say, writing his blog for he talked in great detail of the day he had spent travelling from the grime of Victorian London to the wilted freshness of Surrey to visit a correction institution for wayward boys. Again, his personality, in his passion for justice and his emancipated views about society and punishment, emerged in every sentence as he described the benefits of reforming a forgotten, desperate young underclass through constructive occupation, earned responsibility, fresh air and exercise - and it was clear that the results in this experimental farm-cum-remand home  for errant boys showed great success. Dickens had hoped that this new approach to crime and punishment would become universal, but of course it was not, and today, while perhaps sanitation in big cities may have improved since 1854, there still exists social misery and a largely ineffective justice system in many parts of the world.

Above all, Dickens loved life and he loved people. He could see their human flaws with humour and compassion, and he was not afraid to highlight unpalatable truths publicly. "Household Words" is long forgotten, but as in his books, there is much we can learn from these magazines even now: his work and his words and his spirit live on.