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Original poster

Help me with Dickens, please!

57 replies

CurlewKate · 27/02/2025 10:39

I feel as if I ought to like Dickens. And I have tried for 40 years. I love long books, I love a classic. And when I've finished one, I enjoy it in retrospect! But it takes me YEARS to build up to another one.

I want to give him one more chance- so which shall it be? I've read Oliver Twist, Great Expectations (my favorite so far) David Copperfield, and Bleak House. And A Christmas Carol, of course.

Choose for me!

OP posts:
Original poster
CurlewKate · 27/02/2025 12:53

@rumred Oh, I love Trollope! Is it your first time? Jealous if it is...🤣

Do people find Austen hilarious? I don't. Except for a few bits of Northanger Abbey- they are proper funny. And I'm not referring to Catherine growing up and beginning to "long for balls".....

OP posts:
AdaColeman · 27/02/2025 12:55

I'm a huge Dickens fan, especially for the wide range of characters and the intricacies of his plots.

l'd suggest that you read Nicholas Nickleby next, as the plot gallops along at a good rate, and there is a lot of humour involved with the plot and characters, so it's an easy read.

My favourite is Little Dorrit, with all its twists and turns, and many reveals.

CaptainMyCaptain · 27/02/2025 12:59

I love Jane Austen, she has a sly wit and no waffle each word is a gem.

I can't bear Virginia Woolf.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Books
DisplayPurposesOnly · 27/02/2025 13:01

You've read all the good ones.

Move onto Dickension, the BBC drama:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vbmfq

RosesAndHellebores · 27/02/2025 13:04

All.I'm.going tonsay is that reading should be pleasurable.

I'd far rather read a bit of David Lodge, HE Bates, Daphne Du Maurier and Penelope Lively than Dickens or, indeed Salman Rushdie. In fact I'd rather read Brisget Jones all over again than Dickens.

OctoberandApril · 27/02/2025 13:19

RosesAndHellebores · 27/02/2025 13:04

All.I'm.going tonsay is that reading should be pleasurable.

I'd far rather read a bit of David Lodge, HE Bates, Daphne Du Maurier and Penelope Lively than Dickens or, indeed Salman Rushdie. In fact I'd rather read Brisget Jones all over again than Dickens.

You have just commented on my writing skills on another thread 🙄

ManxDi · 27/02/2025 13:24

I think the funniest is The Pickwick Papers and it's the one I go back to if I'm feeling out of sorts.
There are always lots of names to get used to, but this one has fewer central characters and I think it's ridiculously funny, whist also being a sad indictment of the times.

AphraBehn · 27/02/2025 13:27

I've decided that there are so many other books that I haven't got to yet, I don't feel I need to read any more Dickens.

Have read a few, started and abandoned many more.

Happyinarcon · 27/02/2025 13:31

You have to consider that many of the Dickens books came out in instalments, so the original audience was reading them week by week, back when the only other forms of entertainment were strolling round the rose garden, local gossip or the odd drunken street fight. They probably work really well in that format, but are a bit heavy when read as a complete novel

Cestfoutu · 27/02/2025 13:32

You could try Little Dorrit or Hard Times as they aren't too dauntingly long and have straightforward but interesting plots.

SammyScrounge · 27/02/2025 13:35

Cattery · 27/02/2025 10:59

A Tale of Two Cities

Just what I was going to say!

The book.has one of the finest endings of any novel.
The opening sentence if the book is very dine too.

SammyScrounge · 27/02/2025 13:37

SammyScrounge · 27/02/2025 13:35

Just what I was going to say!

The book.has one of the finest endings of any novel.
The opening sentence if the book is very dine too.

Show quote history

'Dine' should read 'fine'

ZookeeperSE · 27/02/2025 13:37

Just seconding (or tenthing) A Tale of Two Cities. One of the greatest books ever written (or least of those I've read!). I was going to write how it made me feel and then I realised actually I don't know, or can't it in to words. To say I loved it sounds wrong and doesn't do it justice (difficult to describe without spoilers). I recently saw The Devil May Care in Southwark and it has a distinct nod to A Tale of Two Cities, which reminded me to read it all over again.

TressiliansStone · 27/02/2025 13:43

GriefSubmittedHighways · 27/02/2025 12:08

I'm most of the way through A Tale of Two Cities at the moment. I agree that it is masterly, and I am enjoying it hugely. But I think I find it a little bit less accessible than most other of his books . Partly this is because there are more references that, while they would have been readily understood at the time, require a quick google to get on top of now. But it is also because his use of extended metaphor and other rather abstract devices when conveying destiny and/or popular tides of thought and action is sometimes quite hard going.

It is still a massively brilliant book, though. I love the many symmetries and contrasts he draws between British and French oppression and unrest.

I have always thought of Bleak House as Dickens' most masterful and wonderful book. They are all brilliant though. Apart perhaps from Pickwick Papers. Haven't read that one because it sounds a bit tiresome.

Ah, yes, this is a good point. I'm very familiar with a great deal of the stuff referenced, so for me it tickles taste buds left right and centre.

CaptainMyCaptain · 27/02/2025 13:44

Happyinarcon · 27/02/2025 13:31

You have to consider that many of the Dickens books came out in instalments, so the original audience was reading them week by week, back when the only other forms of entertainment were strolling round the rose garden, local gossip or the odd drunken street fight. They probably work really well in that format, but are a bit heavy when read as a complete novel

They were also read aloud as family entertainment so there would have been a discussion about each installment rather than racing through a whole book.

Sedgwick · 27/02/2025 13:56

Pickwick Papers is very funny and a relatively easy read. It was initially written in instalments for a newspaper. @ManxDi it’s one of my comfort reads too.

TheBirdintheCave · 27/02/2025 13:56

The Old Curiosity Shop. I wept buckets.

I LOVE Dickens. He wrote so beautifully.

C8H10N4O2 · 27/02/2025 14:05

I find a lot of Victorian prose to be heavy going but with good stories. Dickens' novels works better for me as "weekly parts" and audiobooks but if reading straight through then I'd umpteenth Tale of Two Cities over most of the others.

Not sure why I find Dickens harder going than Trollope (love the Barchester Chronicles), Collins or even Conan Doyle but I do have the same issue with Stephenson (again good stories but hard going).

HauntedBungalow · 27/02/2025 14:07

Justonemorecoffeeplease · 27/02/2025 11:01

I would recommend Our Mutual Friend. It is Byzantine in its plotting and cast of characters but then that's Dickens for you. It was his last novel and there is a sense of melancholy that runs through it.
There was also a rather lovely TV adaptation on the BBC some years ago.

This is my recommendation too.

Also, the opening scene is incredible.

RosesAndHellebores · 27/02/2025 14:34

OctoberandApril · 27/02/2025 13:19

You have just commented on my writing skills on another thread 🙄

Show quote history

I commented on your misuse of the English Language, not typos.

Mauro711 · 27/02/2025 15:22

Cestfoutu · 27/02/2025 13:32

You could try Little Dorrit or Hard Times as they aren't too dauntingly long and have straightforward but interesting plots.

Agreed. I really enjoyed reading Hard Times, it's a good book.

TonTonMacoute · 27/02/2025 16:16

I love Dickens but I don’t see the point of reading stuff you don’t really enjoy because you think you should.

YYURYYUCICYYUR4ME · 27/02/2025 16:33

Can't say I have a favourite, but his writing, and the point he was making in many of his books (including the symbolic names he uses) made more sense to me after studying Hard Times with the OU.

Fairyvocals · 27/02/2025 16:38

Definitely Our Mutual Friend! It has a similar sort of variety and scope to Bleak House.

AnnaMagnani · 27/02/2025 16:42

You've already read the good ones.

I abandoned Tale of Two Cities as the love affair was so nauseating.

You've read more Dickens than probably 99% of the UK, it's OK to leave it now and read someone you like.