Kevin's Watch

Charles Dickens. Or 'Chuck D' as I affectionately call him.

Arguably the greatest of the Victorian era authors - certainly the most popular. I love his work for his command of English, because he's damn funny, and because I feel that through his work I get an idea of what Victorian England was like.

Are there many Dickens readers on the Watch?

I've read Pickwick, Oliver, Nickleby, Curiosity Shop, Great Expectations, Hard Times, and I'm about to start 'Barnaby Rudge'.

I love Dicken's works. I have Great Expectations and Oliver Twist - both very good.

Read most of them, and tend to enjoy them once I can get into that style, which seems a little stilted perhaps by todays standards.

Guess Oliver Twist and David Copperfield are my favourites, and The Pickwick Papers are pretty good as well.

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Read Great Expectations, was ok, but A Tale of Two Cities is a great book. Surprised no one mentioned that, its one of my favorites. His humor/satire really comes out in that one. Just thinkin about it makes me laugh

Given your recommendation (and my wife's assertion that 'A Tale of Two Cities' is as much a classic as Great Expectations), I've begun reading 'Tale'. (Barnaby Rudge will have to wait...)

Will post a comment when I've finished it

I finished A Tale of Two Cities - wow! Absolutely brilliant! There's so MUCH in the novel, connections, plot, subtle repetition, darkness and light, Dickens' amazing prose. His most compelling and most complex novel (that I've read so far). He wrote it in less than a year - including preparation time - I was staggered when I read that.

I didn't find it as humourous (the word looks funny but it is spelt correctly) as you did Cyberweez. Its now my fave Dickens novel, narrowly in front of Pickwick & Great Expectations.

I thought his satire was great, how he pointed out alot of the stupidities of human nature. That's what I found humorous. Jerry, come on, that guy was funny. And the funeral procession? Anyway, glad you enjoyed it.

Hello Dickens fans.

I love to read Dickens. I love the historical stuff and particularly the window on the darker side of Victorian Society that Dicken's opens up. In his day Dickens was a big champion for the poor and the terrible conditions they lived and died in. I Live in London and work in Holborn which is surrounded by all the places Dickens describes. I work in the Legal profession and detest lawyers with a vengence so me and Dickens see eye to eye on that one.

So my favourite Dickens tend to be the darker ones such as Bleak House and Oliver Twist.

Not even our beloved SD can get close to Dickens characterisations. I would think Dickens has sporned more classic characters than anyone else.

Also a big fan of Dickens humour - most amusing.

the down-side for me is the sugary sweet sentimentallity that was obvioulsy popular amongst Victorian readers. Sometimes with nicey-nicey characters such as Esther I just want to throw up - get a Life!!!!

Guess what I was reading when my eldest son Barnaby was born?

happy Reading.

Dave Tubamate wrote:Guess what I was reading when my eldest son Barnaby was born?

No prizes for Barnaby Rudge hey?
I like Holborn, stayed around there only very briefly, but Holborn Station remains my favourite tube station on the Underground.

There used to be a fantastic Italian restaurant in the same road, called, IIRC, The Spaghetti House Of course, that's going back a good long while now.

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Avatar wrote:LOLS: No prizes for Barnaby Rudge hey?
I like Holborn, stayed around there only very briefly, but Holborn Station remains my favourite tube station on the Underground.

There used to be a fantastic Italian restaurant in the same road, called, IIRC, The Spaghetti House Of course, that's going back a good long while now.

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Congratulations Avatar - have a Gold Star.

As someone who has to commute on the London Underground every day I'm afraid I can't share your enthusiasm for any tube station.

The Spaghetti House is still there and still serving spaghetti. How far back is "...a good long while now" - oops! and I hope your'e not a lawyer.

Can't believe it's still there!

A good long while is about 18 years! Although the proprietor is probably a different one by now. Definitley not a Lawyer by the way.

Hell, If I'd known, I would have gone back on subsequent visits to London. I still have a business card of theirs tucked away somewhere. Will have to make a stop the next time I'm there, although that might be a year or two in the future.

I love the Tube, but I know where you're coming from. The commute is definitley the worst of it, and the miserable looking folk don't enhance the experience any.

Take it easy,

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Love his work.

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." Boy, Charlie really knew how to cover his ass.

LOL!!

hehe

If you read A Tale of Two Cities you'll realise that the theme of opposites runs all the way through the text - comparing London (best) and France (worst) at the time of the French Revolution.

I've started Barnaby Rudge. The historical part of the plot is pretty small so far (140 pages into the 570 page novel), and the scenes with Mrs Varden and Gabriel arguing are really funny. Oh, and Simon Tappertit - what a character! It amazes me how Dickens has created such vivid and entertaining characters with each new novel. In BR, Dickens has - to use SRD's terminology - thrown a lot of balls in the air, and I'm looking forward to seeing him juggle them over the next few weeks.

One other thing I'd forgotten is how long it takes me to read a Dickens novel, at the rate I'm going BR will take me a month!

Have only read A Tale of Two Cities. Amazingly intricate but also quite depressing. I don't think I'll read it again, just because I'd like to keep what emotional stability I have left. One of these days, though, I'll get around to reading more of his work.

Hi Alynna - if you want something 'lighter' from Dickens, I suggest 'Pickwick Papers' his first full novel. Its very entertaining, and very funny, about 4 guys and their travels and adventures around greater London. It doesnt have the 'darkness' of 'Two Cities' and 'Great Expectations'. Also, many of the chapters are pretty much self contained, so when reading it, it feels a bit like episode TV (same characters, different adventures each chapter/episode).

I've just started Martin Chuzzlewit. In the first 14 pages I've already heard about a certain Chuzzlewit eating with Duke Humphrey (going hungry), and giving some of his posessions to his Uncle (slang for selling it to a pawnbrokers). I'm in stitches already, this is going to be one funny read

Great Expectations is a masterpiece, as is Oliver Twist.

Interestingly, from a historical perspective in his day Dickens had no reputataion from the intellectual elites of his day. For two reasons I know of 1) because his writing was meant to be read by the commoner people of his day and 2) his texts were largely seen as propaganda decrying the detestable and abyssmal conditions of London's industrial urban poor.

Tara - ah those pesky 'intellectual elites', what would they know!

I've almost finished 'Martin Chuzzlewit'. This book marks a bridge between Dickens' early novels - which are filled with physical description, entertainment, humour, engaging (yet fairly static) characters, to the mature "later" Dickens works which are tighter, more serious, darker, and imbued with a sense of morality. "Chuzzlewit" is about many things - America, money, family. It was written in 1843 after Dickens spent some time in the USA, and he casts a very British spin on what the USA was like back then. It is also the funniest Dickens' novel I've read. It is this novel which Dickens beautifully says that a person's character derives directly from their motives.

The story lacks the subtleties of say "A tale of Two Cities" or "Great Expectations", but "Chuzzlewit" is the novel that first marks Dickens' attempt at being more than just a popular author.

As always, just my opinion