Submitted by:
Kamshi Kanavathy |

“No boys and no donkeys allowed, go away!” and so did David Copperfield’s Aunt Betsey open the 200th Anniversary Celebration of Charles Dickens at the North-West Regional Library in Swan River last night.
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An entertaining and spectacular portrayal of Aunt Betsey was played by Merle Dvorak in a skit derived from the novel. Sharron Carpenter set the scene for the skit by an impressive reading of a short passage from the David Copperfield novel. Dickens himself describes this novel as, “a very complicated interweaving of truth and fiction”. Hence David Copperfield appears to be a biography of some aspects of Dickens’s life.

Charles Dickens is the most popular 19th century novelist. To set the tone of that period as Charles Dickens perceived it, Gordon Watkins read the opening paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities:



“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

Many in the audience recalled this passage from their school days, which brought back many memories!

Attendees enjoyed a cup of tea and a glass of punch served with biscuits(cookies).


Spot quiz questions on his novels and characters were asked throughout the evening.


Winners received a balloon covered with birthday wishes to the great writer.