Young ‘fail Dickens test’
Modern-day children are not being educated to read with the attention span necessary for a Dickens novel, a leading expert has said as the country prepares to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the revered author tomorrow.
Acclaimed Dickens biographer Claire Tomalin said: “Very simply, he is, after Shakespeare, the greatest creator of characters in English.”
Tomalin said: “What Dickens wrote about is still amazingly relevant. The only caveat I would make is that... children are not being educated to have prolonged attention spans and you have to be prepared to read steadily for a Dickens novel and I think that’s a pity.”