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In 2007, Amazon released the first Kindle, making personal libraries more portable than ever. The renowned English author Charles Dickens died at the age of 58 in 1870. How, then, could these two literary legends, separated by nearly 140 years, encounter one another? An illustrator offers a clever solution.
While enrolled in a design class at Cardiff School of Art and Design, Rachel Walsh was tasked with “explain[ing] something modern or Internet-based to someone who lived and died before 1900.” She opted to reimagine the Kindle for Dickens, creating a large-format book that contained 40 miniature copies of classic novels, neatly stored within tiny rectangles that were hollowed out of the pages.
Walsh curated a selection of books based on Dickens’ proclaimed favorites as well as those within her own library. These novels ranged from historical stories like Don Quixote and Shakespeare‘s Othello to more modern literature such as A Streetcar Named Desire and The Catcher in the Rye. Books authored by Dickens are also featured, including Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.
Walsh’s “book of books” is an inventive metaphor for contemporary technology and its impact upon the literary tradition, effectively bridging gaps of knowledge between time and place. Many of the comments on her original Tumblr post showcasing the project seem to agree.
“Congratulations on creating something articulate, beautiful, and thought-provoking,” one user wrote.
To discover more of her illustrations, visit Rachel Walsh’s Tumblr.
Illustrator Rachel Walsh reimagined the Kindle for Charles Dickens for a design class project.
Her large-format, portable book featured 40 miniatures of literary classics within slits cut into its pages.
Books for Charles Dickens’ Kindle ranged from historical literature like Don Quixote to more modern novels like The Catcher in the Rye.
Rachel Walsh: Instagram | Tumblr
All images via Rachel Walsh.
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