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David Copperfield |
This is my first Dickens novel and very enjoyable it was too. A real 'what happened next?' page turner with an unfeasibly decent hero (despite a constant ability to fall head over heels in love), some very dodgy villains and a host of amusing and noble supporting characters. Not forgetting the rush of convenient deaths and handily remarkable conveniences preceding a happy end. You'll find it's impossible to avoid reading choice extracts out loud though.
(Clive Yelf - bwl 82 Autumn 2016) |
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David Copperfield |
Having just read Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead I had to re-read this classic to find out just how close the two were. What struck me most was how fresh and alive the writing still is and how even the most absurd or grotesque characters come across as real and believable human-beings and what a cracking story-teller Dickens was and is. No wonder people rushed out to buy the latest instalment as it appeared every week.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 108 Spring 2023) |
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Dombey and Son |
Dickens and his publishers must have made a packet by publishing this novel in monthly parts, £50 - in today's money - for a complete set. No wonder the tale has so many consecutive story lines. Paul Dombey is a successful businessman but a cold fish emotionally, however he finally warms up when he realises the strength of his family.The expansion of the railway is an interesting and constant background to the story, which is a good solid read.
(Chris Cozens - bwl 74 Autumn 2014) |
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Great Expectations |
Driven by the recent BBC travesty of an adaptation I had to read the book again and watch David Lean's black and white masterpiece. If school put you off Dickens then there's no better introduction to this master storyteller than the tale of Pip, the blacksmith's little nephew, bequeathed by an unknown benefactor to become a gentleman, learns by his mistakes and lapses to become one in the truest sense. Hang the washing and the housework, I couldn't put it down!
(Jenny Baker - bwl 109 Summer 2023) |
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Martin Chuzzlewit |
This was a tough read. Not that it was all bad, but it felt like someone copying Dickens and getting it all slightly wrong. The working-class side-kick was annoying, the plot meandered, the coincidences overly contrived (feel for the family that lost a child every time they appeared) and the character plot-twist at the end stretched credulity. Some good stuff too of course but it's never a good sign to be relived when you've finished.
(Clive Yelf - bwl 87 Winter 2018) |
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Martin Chuzzlewit & Barnaby Rudge |
To celebrate the Dickens' anniversary I decided to read a couple I couldn't remember having read before. I'm taking them together (doubling the words available!) because of their similarities. What is immediately striking is that every single character is either a caricature or a stereotype. The baddies are irremediably bad and all come to sticky ends; the goodies are mercilessly good and end happily. Women over thirty are figures of fun; younger women are pure, loving, self-sacrificing . . . Having said that, the fact remains that Dickens was a marvellous storyteller: even at his most torrid and credibility-stretching his imaginative use of language carried me along willingly (well, I did skip a bit). Unusually for Dickens, Barnaby Rudge takes place during the (luridly described) Gordon Riots, giving him an excuse to preach nondiscrimination. Chuzzlewit, on the other hand, is pure Victorian fiction with - it must be said - some wonderful characters. All in all great stuff!
(Annabel Bedini - bwl 64 Spring 2012) |
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The Pickwick Papers |
Erratic, delightful and infuriating. With a good helping of amusing and confusing. And meandering. Not dissimilar to an Eddie Izzard flight of fancy where you wonder "Where's this going?" only to reach a hilarious conclusion, usually involving Samuel Weller but occasionally the revered and august Pickwick himself. Putting inconsistencies to one side it's a pretty good read, even if it has the air of being made up as it goes along, which no doubt it was.
(Clive Yelf - bwl 85 Summer 2017) |
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The Pickwick Papers |
It abounds with wit and the foibles of people like those we have met, and perhaps a bit of ourselves mixed in. And the beautiful Victorian prose. Perhaps Toole had read this before he wrote A Confederacy of Dunces (see bwl 29). It's a bit Pickwickian.
(Herb Roselle - bwl 106 Autumn 2022) |
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