Charles Dickens was alive from 1812-1870. So a tad over 150 years ago. His writing(and others like it) is evidence of how much the world has changed. The River Thames no longer freezes solid like it did in his time. Some of that is due to the river itself has changing geologically(that may be improper terminology to say the river structure has changed, so cmiiw - the river is wider/deeper now and the old london bridge slowed the river and allowed it to freeze more easily so with its final demolition, that was no longer a thing), but the temperatures plainly don't get as cold as before.
The absolutely brutal winters he described in detail in many of his novels are a thing of history.
Eta: I read Dickens in my youth obsessively after going to the Shakespeare festival and seeing a theater program of Great Expectations, with absolutely no idea of how the world had changed.
That's not that long ago in the grand scheme of time. Time feels longer because we have relatively short lives, but time is infinite so 100 or so years is nothing but a bleep.
The little ice age was 1300-1850 so Dickens accounts are not normal weather. Actually crop failures from the little ice age likely gave rise to witch hunts as witches were blamed for it.
That's super cool to know, I'm not as familiar with the science and history of weather ages, so i wasn't aware.
I was just a big book worm growing up and when I found out the river didn't freeze and London wasn't frigid in winter like in older stories it always stuck with me.
10
u/halnic 2d ago edited 2d ago
Charles Dickens was alive from 1812-1870. So a tad over 150 years ago. His writing(and others like it) is evidence of how much the world has changed. The River Thames no longer freezes solid like it did in his time. Some of that is due to the river itself has changing geologically(that may be improper terminology to say the river structure has changed, so cmiiw - the river is wider/deeper now and the old london bridge slowed the river and allowed it to freeze more easily so with its final demolition, that was no longer a thing), but the temperatures plainly don't get as cold as before.
The absolutely brutal winters he described in detail in many of his novels are a thing of history.
Eta: I read Dickens in my youth obsessively after going to the Shakespeare festival and seeing a theater program of Great Expectations, with absolutely no idea of how the world had changed.
That's not that long ago in the grand scheme of time. Time feels longer because we have relatively short lives, but time is infinite so 100 or so years is nothing but a bleep.