Charles Dickens

Which other authors do you enjoy? Discuss them here.
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burlingtonbertram
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Re: Charles Dickens

Post by burlingtonbertram »

I think I like the early parts the best; the graveyard, the marshes, the house where Pip was brought up. Very atmospheric. Miss Havisham living in that decaying house is an absolutely classic character in a very atmospheric setting.
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Re: Charles Dickens

Post by Farwa »

Yes, the grim setting is described very well!
I was just wondering, by the way, what is your favourite book by Charles Dickens?
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Re: Charles Dickens

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A Christmas Carol
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burlingtonbertram
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Re: Charles Dickens

Post by burlingtonbertram »

Well, I usually say I'm torn between The Old Curiosity Shop or Our Mutual Friend but that is because my tiny brain always forgets Bleak House. I actually think Bleak House edges the other two but, because I haven't read it for several years, I always forget about it.

Wintertime always seems appropriate for digging out a Dickens novel, somehow. I went to see a guy doing a reading (from memory) of A Christmas Carol, a la Charles Dickens himself, last Christmas. He cut out some passages, but he spoke all of the pertinent parts so the story still flowed. He had a break half way through (can't blame him!). It was really good; incredible to be able to recite huge chunks of text like that.
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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: Charles Dickens

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Bleak House is wonderful. I first heard of it when I read Noel Streatfeild's Thursday's Child as a youngster. An orphan who is an avid reader "borrows" books to read without asking permission, one being Bleak House. His friend warns him that could be classed as stealing, but he replies, solemnly, "If I have to go to prison I will think it worthwhile if I have read Bleak House first."
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Re: Charles Dickens

Post by Eddie Muir »

I agree, Anita. Bleak House is wonderful. It is one of my three favourite novels by Charles Dickens. The other two are Great Expectations and David Copperfied. I also rate Nicholas Nickleby very highly.
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Re: Charles Dickens

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Bleak House is a real masterpiece; an intricate plot, that seems to exist in a real and yet separate world from the real one. If anyone UK forumites have ever been involved in litigation they will know that the antiquated, Byzantine British legal system creaks slowly yet inexorably on in just the same way at it did during Dickens time. Moving in almost imperceptible steps until it is ready to crash down upon everyone involved.
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Re: Charles Dickens

Post by Francis »

I believe that Dickens based it on a real case - he did hate lawyers! Probably having his father sent to prison for debt didn't help.
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Re: Charles Dickens

Post by John Pickup »

My favourite Dickens novel is David Copperfield. The evil Murdstones, Steerforth and Uriah Heep, Mr Dick, Mr Micawber and the lovely Agnes, just some of the marvellous characters in this book. A story I return to time and time again.
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Re: Charles Dickens

Post by Francis »

The first few hundred pages are wonderful - quite the best he ever produced. Very difficult to keep such a complex book with all its' character strands going to the end.
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Re: Charles Dickens

Post by Farwa »

Yes - David Copperfield is a wonderful book!
(SPOILER)I love the part in which he describes Peggotty's cheeks - comparing them to apples and then 'wondering why the birds did not peck her cheeks instead of the apples in the orchards' - it's a really sweet description!
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Re: Charles Dickens

Post by burlingtonbertram »

Francis wrote:I believe that Dickens based it on a real case - he did hate lawyers! Probably having his father sent to prison for debt didn't help.
I noticed that there is a bookseller called Jarndyce up near the British museum, not far from where Dickens once lived. Wonder if that is a coincidence (Jarndyce & Jarndyce being the legal case that forms the central theme of Bleak House)?
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Re: Charles Dickens

Post by Courtenay »

Probably not, BB - sounds like a bit of clever marketing for those who know their classics! I live not far from Rochester, near to where Dickens lived for many years, and just about every second business there has a Dickensian name. Some examples I remember seeing are Tiny Tim's Tea House, A Taste of Two Cities, and Sweet Expectations.
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Re: Charles Dickens

Post by Deej »

I love Charles Dickens as an author. My favourite book of his would have to be Great Expectations.
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Re: Charles Dickens

Post by pete9012S »

Hope the job is going ok Deej and you have settled in now?

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