At our At the Foot of the Cross service for Good Friday this afternoon, Amanda had picked selections of readings from a book unknown to me: Charles Dickens The Life of our Lord. It was very apt being the bi-centennial of Dickens’ birth.
Dickens’ novels and short stories are well-known but I had no idea that he had written a book, about the life of Jesus, obviously based on the Gospels. He originally wrote it for his children, with the introduction stating,
“My Dear Children, I am very anxious that you should know something about the History of Jesus Christ. For everybody ought to know about Him. No one ever lived who was so good, so kind, so gentle, and so sorry for all people who did wrong, or were in any way ill or miserable, as He was.”
The book was written between 1846 and 1849, about the time he was writing David Copperfield. Every Christmas, Dickens would read the book to his children, and he never intended it to be published, and was adamant that it would not be so during his lifetime. The book passed down the Dickens family until Sir Henry Fielding Dickens in his will in 1933 gave permission for the book to be published if a majority of the family agreed. The majority vote did agree and the book was published the following year.
The book is interesting in that Dickens’ own style is clear throughout, as well as some ‘interesting’ Victorian views.
The Life of our Lord, like all other Dickens books, is now in the public domain and so free to download. You can view it here.
Neal Pinder-Packard
Good work by the parish