The Google doodle commemorating the 200th birth anniversary of the greatest English novelist of the Victorian era features famous characters from Charles Dickens' novels.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of.

By Richard Shears A fading handwritten note glued to the inside of a cracked and weathered 200-year-old desk has created a baffling mystery which historians have yet to solve – was the desk used by the great Charles Dickens when he was a schoolboy?

By Tanyanika Samuels / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS While Charles Dickens is best known for such classics as Great Expectations , a global festival marking the British author's 200th birthday this month is spotlighting some of his earlier works.

At the time of his death, Dickens had made a name for himself not merely as the author of more than 14 novels (The Mystery of Edwin Drood was half done when he was felled by a stroke), but as a magazine editor, playwright,