Using the most modern equipment at his disposal, Mr Bradley Headstone has been able to calculate with an astonishing degree of accuracy that the major works of Mr Dickens come to a total of four million, seventy seven thousand, nine hundred and fifteen words.
If the labour of reading the entire corpus is to be divided equally over a period of twelve months, it will be beholden on Mr Headstone to read three hundred and thirty nine thousand eight hundred and twenty six and a quarter words per month, or eleven thousand one hundred and forty one and four fifths of a word per day.
Mr Headstone is pleased to observe that 2012 is an intercalary year - in the common tongue, a leap year.
He would like to record his thanks to that noble Roman emperor Julius Caesar for providing him with an additional day on which he may devote himself to his Herculean task.
Mr Charles Dickens
