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Dickens birthday is coming up in February. In honor of the great day, I have stolen an idea from that august body known as the Pickwickians and am initiating a challenge in which you must guess which book and/or person certain expressions came from. Good Luck!

Expression 1: From which Dickens novel does the expression "devil-may-care" come from?

I'm going to guess David Copperfield, but it could be any of them.

The Pickwick Papers?

Barnaby Rudge?

Brit wrote: "The Pickwick Papers?"

Brit is correct!! It is Pickwick Papers!

How 'bout an easy one? "Bah Humbug"

"A Christmas Carol"

Natalie wrote: ""A Christmas Carol""

I know, too easy! How about this one?

"Put the kibosh on"

Technically, word historians say this had been used earlier, but Dickens is the one who popularized it. Bonus---whence comes the term "kibosh"?

How fascinating!Iwould take a wild guess ofEastern European origin.Could it be from "OliverTwist?"

Not Oliver Twist. Best guess is that it derives from Yiddish or Anglo-Jewish. With the character Fagin in Twist, that is a good guess! Anyone else want to guess and put the kisbosh on this phrase?!

Okay, I'm guessing Our Mutual Friend.

Hint--It is not from a novel.

Is it from a work of journalism?

Ah! you are on the track so I will give it to you----it is from Sketches by Boz. It was a hard one.

One more----"not to put too fine a point on it."

I am guessing that it's a phrase that recurs with the speaker---so I will take a wild guess and say Jaggers from "Great Expectations".

No, but it does come from a two-word title.

Pure guess...Bleak House

Bleak House it is!!

Well, it does have the sound of lawyering!

Your turn, Jane!

"...the law is a ass."

I double-checked, not "an ass" but "a ass." :)

Wow! That I know but cannot remember where it comes from. The Law is certainly a major theme in DIckens. I am going to guess Bleak House but it's only a guess. Maybe Mme. Hortense or the guy who spontaneously combusts?

No, not Bleak House. Here's more of the quote, if that helps, with the name of the speaker xxx'd out.

If the law supposes that," said Mr. XXX, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass � a idiot. If that's the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience � by experience.�

Jane, thank you for the extra context. I am still at sea. I cannot eliminate anything absolutely in my mind except "The Christmas Carol" and I am sure it's not in "Great Expectations".

What about "Little Dorrit"? The law and the circumlocution office are certainly a ass in that novel!

I remember now! It has been driving me crazy. Mr Bumble in Oliver Twist! Actually, supposedly Dickens did not originate the comments; it came from a play over a hundred years earlier, and we know Dickens and acting. But he is the first one whose publication gave it a wider audience.

Anyone have a quote they would like to throw out there?

How about:
"It is a melancholy truth that even great men have their poor relations."

I love it! Now I must cogitate---it sounds, like all of Dickens' quotations, familiar!

"You have been the last dream of my soul."

I don't have any idea but I will take a stab: Perhaps David Copperfield to Agnes?

N.J. wrote: "Natalie wrote: ""You have been the last dream of my soul."

I don't have any idea but I will take a stab: Perhaps David Copperfield to Agnes?"

It was said by Sidney Carton in ..."

A Tale of Two Cities

When found, make a note of.