‘Here is a new game’, as Scrooge puts it in A Christmas Carol. For our Christmas Special, we’re inviting decoders old and new to have a go at ‘filling in the gaps’ and solving the symbols that have so far eluded us. Can you crack these ‘impossible’ symbols?
Deadline: Midnight, 31 January 2023.
Blog
‘Sunday Night 5 February 1860’ part I transcript
Thanks to Dickens Decoders Shane Baggs and Ken Cox, a source has been discovered for the shorthand text mysteriously titled ‘Sunday Night 5 February’. Find out more and download a transcript here.
Transcription for ‘Travelling’ part III
Download the shorthand transcript for ‘Travelling’ part III here, which has been solved with the help of the Dickens Decoders.
‘Sunday night’ part I
This month our shorthand page has a longhand date, rather than a longhand title. What does this suggest about the type of document we might be dealing with? Download an entry form and have a go!
Deadline: 30 November 2022
Transcription for ‘Travelling’ part II
Download the shorthand transcript for ‘Travelling’ part II here, which has been solved with the help of the Dickens Decoders.
‘Travelling’ part III
Where will these ‘travels’ take us? Help us to find out by taking part in our #SolveItDickens challenge for October, which focuses on the third part of ‘Travelling’.
Deadline: 31 October 2022
The great dictator – was Dickens reading texts to Arthur or improvising them?
How did Dickens teach his pupil, Arthur Stone, shorthand? Was he reading texts aloud, or improvising them, or both? Professor Hugo Bowles ponders some of the possibilities.
Transcriptions for ‘Anecdote’ parts I and II and ‘Travelling’ part I
Download the latest shorthand transcripts, including line-by-line solutions for ‘Anecdote’ parts I and II and the first page of ‘Travelling’. Thanks to all of the Dickens Decoders who made these transcripts possible.
‘Travelling’ part II
Our September #SolveItDickens challenge turns to the second part of ‘Travelling’. How does the text continue? We’ll need to transcribe the shorthand to find out!
Deadline: 3 October 2022
Telling Tales: Dictation, Gossip, Fact, and Fiction
Is it important that Dickens is dictating to his shorthand pupil, Arthur Stone, in the texts that our Dickens Decoders have transcribed? In the first of a series of three blogs, Professor Hugo Bowles thinks through the implications of these texts as spoken stories, as well as the role of dictation, gossip, fact, and fiction.