A truly unique theme-park concept, Dickens’ World, will open in Chatham Maritime, Kent, UK on 25 May. This compleat Dickensian experience, features all the Victorian dis-comforts of the time, including ladies, gentlemen, orphans, pick-pockets, beggars, rat catchers, and prostitutes. Sounds like fun to me, sort of like the original Pirates of the Carribean ride in the 70’s, but with Bass Ale on tap.

If you need to bone up on your Charles Dickens reading in preparation, here are a few good books:

The Pickwick Papers (1836–1837)
Oliver Twist (1837–1839)
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1838–1839)
The Old Curiosity Shop (1840–1841)
Barnaby Rudge (1841)
A Christmas Carol (1843)
The Chimes (1844)
The Cricket on the Hearth (1845)
The Battle of Life (1846)
The Haunted Man (1848)
Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–1844)
Dombey and Son (1846–1848)
David Copperfield (1849–1850)
Bleak House (1852–1853)
Hard Times (1854)
Little Dorrit (1855–1857)
A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
Great Expectations (1860–1861)
Our Mutual Friend (1864–1865)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished) (1870)