Talk:List of Dickensian characters

[Untitled]
can anyone help me out? Biddy's name was conspicuously absent from the list of names in Great Expectations, but I'm new to editing Wikipedia, so I don't know how to stop it from linking to something about a chicken. I realize she doesn't have her own page, but how does one get the link to be in red?


 * Welcome to wikipedia. It would look like this but in double brackets. Biddy (Character) | Biddy. I fixed it for you. --Chadamir 16:35, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Expansion...
Could we have a VERY long term goal of basing this on List of Shakespearean characters According to here, Dickens created some 989 characters! Gareth E Kegg 11:38, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Mr Choakumchild
There is a spurious "Mr Chokeumchild" under "D" which is not even part of the list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.20.144.156 (talk) 14:40, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Mr M'Choakumchild is entered in two places - under M and under C. There may be some justification for this, for example if a reader doesn't realise the name begins with an 'M', though that is what 'search' is for - and would we really put O'Connor under 'C'? Moreover the entries are duplicates. I have removed the entry at 'C'. If someone wishes to add it back then it would make sense to refer the reader to the correct entry. 88.81.153.78 (talk) 08:55, 14 May 2016 (UTC)

Expansion...
With reference to earlier postings I have a complete list of Dickens characters (not 989, which must include those which didn’t appear in book form – mine is 838) as a two-column spreadsheet (a)code for book and (b)character with description as it appeared in early editions; thus Biddy appears as ‘GE  BIDDY, an orphan, later Joe Gargery's second wife.’  I would be happy to supply this to anyone with the expertise to replace the existing inadequate entry. A second spreadsheet lists book code (BL Book of Life to UC The Uncommercial Traveller) Tonyk1000 (talk) 16:57, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Work in progress
I've started going through making the list consistent in the way names are written, since 'Uriah Heep' and 'Heep, Uriah' format were both used. I chose to standardise on 'Heep, Uriah' as the list is alphabetical by surname. I've also been moving the name of the book in which the character appears if I thought it was natural to do so - previously the book name was always the last thing in a character's paragraph, occasionally with comical effect, such as:
 * "Hortense Lady Dedlock's French maid. She is dismissed in favor of Rosa and aids lawyer Tulkinghorn in discovering Lady Dedlock's secret. When Tulkinghorn spurns her she murders him. Hortense is based on Mrs Manning, a murderer whose execution Dickens witnessed in 1849 in Bleak House."

I've got up to 'K', more tomorrow. Squiddy | (squirt ink?)  16:27, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Number of Characters?
I think this page would benefit from an introductory statement giving the total number of characters created by Dickens. But I'm seeing estimates that vary wildly. This site, also footnoted above, says it's 989. Nick Hornby and Ben Folds have a recent song putting the total at 13,000! Can we get a Dickens scholar out there to give us a reference to a reliable number?Lafong (talk) 00:00, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Inaccurate Title
Why don't we call this page "List of characters created by Charles Dickens"? "Dickensian" means similar to a Dickens character, and includes characters that were not created by Dickens himself. I could write a story today that includes Dickensian themes and characters, but they wouldn't belong on this page. For this article, I think we mean Dickens, not Dickensian. But I'm not 100% positive about this, so I'll hold off on making the change to give others here an opportunity to weigh in. Thanks.Lafong (talk) 00:09, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

I agree with Lafong. These are specifically Dickens characters (characters created by Dickens), not just 'Dickensian characters' (characters in a similar style/setting to Dickens' characters). Ubertoaster (talk) 10:54, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Agreed also - these are characters created by Dickens, not ones modelled on such. However then what about the 'Shakespearean characters' page? 88.81.153.78 (talk) 08:20, 14 May 2016 (UTC)