Solving the ‘savage stenographic mystery’ of Dickens’s shorthand texts
What the Dickens? Our decoders have been asked to consult on Gurney shorthand related to a nineteenth-century Canadian murder case! Help us crack the code to be in with a chance of winning a 1-year membership for the Charles Dickens Museum!
Deadline: 2 May 2025
Join us to decipher some fiendish fragments from Notebooks E and F!
Deadline: 31 January 2025
Join us for the final challenge based upon Arthur Stone’s Notebook D!
Deadline: 31 October 2024
Rather than a new mystery, the curious ‘specimen’ of shorthand from The Strand Magazine turned out to be an old ‘friend’ from the Brachygraphy manual… Find out more and download a line-by-line transcript here.
We’re continuing Arthur Stone’s Notebook D this May. What new mysteries will we discover? Download an entry form and find out!
Deadline: 31 May 2024
Over Easter, we’re inviting you to dig into a new Dickens shorthand mystery… Find out more and download a competition entry form here.
Deadline: 3 May 2024
Our challenge for May 2023 aims to ‘fill in the gaps’ in a partially transcribed letter to Victorian publisher Richard Bentley.
Deadline: 31 May 2023
‘Didactic’ means ‘intended to instruct’ – but what does Dickens want to teach his pupil Arthur, here? Let’s find out!
Deadline: 3 March 2023
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
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