200 years on, it's still a Dickensian world

The bells rang out over London where a congregation gathered to commemorate the birth 200 years ago not just of a man, but of the language he created.

Charles Dickens works have been turned into more movies and stage plays than any other novelist. His themes of poverty and social injustice made more real perhaps because of his own rags to riches story. Dickens himself was sent out to work in a child labor sweatshop because he father was sent to debtors prison, or so says his great, great grandson.

"These characters are still there, the writing is still there," says Mark Dickens, adding that often unhappy imagery accompanies the phrase "Dickensian."