The Dickens You Say

200 years ago today at Landport, in Portsea (Portsmouth) England the 2nd of 8 children was born to John & Elizabeth Dickens. Charles John Huffam Dickens went on to be 1 of the most influencial authors of the 19th Century. & in many ways that is still so today.
Some lines from his books automaticly connect us with the book without even mentioning the title. If you hear "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," you autiomaticly think of "A Tale of Two Cities."  "Please, sir, I want some more." takes us to Oliver Twist.
Other times it is specific characters that have come to be symbols. Scrooge has come to symbolize everything miserly. Uriah Heep stands for obsequiousness & insincerity that hides treachery. Little Nell symbolizes unselfishness & sweetness.
His Christmas stories have influenced the way we celebrate Christmas.
His books have been adopted into plays, musicals & movies. Some actors seemed like they were born simply to play a specific Dickens characeter. Alistair Sim is the standard by which all other Scrooges are measured. WC Fields perfectly embodied Wilkins Micawber.
One of Dickens greatest fans was GK Chesterton (an understatement). He was asked to write the entry on Dickens for one edition of The Encyclopædia Britannica. In 1906 Chesterton wrote , Charles Dickens: A Critical Study. One line from Chapter 1 makes it clear what Chetserton thought about Dickens: "Whatever the word "great" means, Dickens was what it means."
To that I will add nothing else.