Our June #SolveItDickens challenge focuses on ‘Anecdote’ part I. What is this mysterious anecdote about? We’ll need to transcribe the text to find out!
Deadline: 30 June 2022
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‘So […] fiction may have had some foundation of truth in it’: Transcribing ‘Nelson’ part II
The Dickens Decoders have done it again! Find out what happens next in ‘Nelson’ part II and download a near complete transcript.
‘The Two Brothers’ part II
Our May #SolveItDickens challenge focuses on ‘The Two Brothers’ part II. Can we work out how this mysterious ghost story ends?
Deadline: 31 May 2022
‘Some circumstances connected with the death of Nelson’
Our Dickens Decoders have transcribed the first page of a shorthand exercise titled ‘Nelson’. Find out more about and download a line-by-line transcription.
‘Nelson’ part II
The mystery deepens with April’s challenge focusing on ‘Nelson’ part II. Look out for words written in longhand that provide additional context clues. Happy solving!
Deadline: 29 April
Decoding the Tavistock letter, or, Dickens and the ‘dark arts of Victorian media management’
The secrets of the Tavistock letter are finally revealed, thanks to the amazing work of our Dickens Decoders. Find out more and download a transcript of the letter in this post.
The story of ‘The Two Brothers’
This shorthand exercise begins ‘I once heard a story’, but a story about what?
Find out more about this haunting tale of ‘The Two Brothers’ and download a transcript in this post.
The story of ‘Sydney Smith’
What in the world was this dictation exercise, labelled ‘Sydney Smith’, about? Was Dickens writing about his son? His friend, Sydney Smith? Or something else?
Find out more and download a full transcript in this post.
The ‘Nelson’ challenge
Our first #SolveItDickens challenge of 2022 comes from the notebooks of Dickens’s shorthand pupil, Arthur Stone, at the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Deadline: 31 March 2022
‘The Two Brothers’: A festive #SolveItDickens challenge
Help us fill in the blanks, in this mini-challenge focused on the ‘Two Brothers’ shorthand extract.
Deadline: 31 January 2022