Charles Dickens

[IlsaLund]

I have just read Great Expectations for the first time and I loved it - I found myself sneaking back upstairs to read another chapter when I had five minutes.

It's the first Dickens I have read - can anyone recommend which one I should read next?

What larks Pip!

I love Joe - I've enjoyed this book so much - I've actually been laughing out loud at some bits.

I've just downloaded lots of Dickens to my Kindle - which one shall I read next?

What about the pickwick papers?

I had always wanted to read Great Expectations after seeing the series on TV as a kid. I have just finished the book.

What about David Copperfield.

Our Mutual Friend also good, but long. IMO Great Expectations is his best book. Some are rather mawkish (e.g. Oliver Twist, Old Curiosity Shop).
Don't forget to read A Christmas Carol in December.

I love GE.
I always come away from a DIckens novel feeling as if I can actually be a better person.
Hard TImes? Bleak House?
Neither are as perfect as GE - there are some huge flaws with the characters (you will want to punch Esther, I guarantee), but the sheer Heart of these books beats away.
Nicholas Nickleby for a shorter novel, but it's not up there with GE -(I think you picked a diamond first, now you need to explore emeralds & sapphires).

I second David Copperfield. Bleak House is excellent too.

Hard times! Good shout! I agree that they may all pale a little in comparison to GE.

I thoroughly dislike Dickens but had to do loads for my degrees.

Hard Times is the only one I've really enjoyed. Characters I could actually care about and circumstances that I could relate to.

I find Dickens patronising and pedantic.

Have you read any Thomas Hardy? Now that is literature.

Great Expectation is by far his best book - apart from A Christmas Carol which I always read on xmas eve!

I read David Copperfield and enjoyed it....its by far his most personal book, semi autobiograpical actually.

I also liked Martin Chuzzlewit and A Tale of Two Cities.

Oh, and if you like the comedy of Dickens may I suggest P G Wodehouse?

Code of the Woosters is a good place to start

"Have you read any Thomas Hardy? Now that is literature"

Naaah.

I laughed so hard at the "Done because we are too menny" I couldn't take big Hardys seriously ever again

Small HArdys are fine and worth reading of course.

Hardy? Nope.

Elliot? Better...Silas Marner is pretty good.

Gaskell? Very good.

Brontes??? Didnt like Mansfield Park. Wuthering Heights is dreadful....not a single character with any redeeming features at all! But Jane Eyre is one of my faves. Wonderful book.

Austen? Sense and Sensibility far better than Pride and Prejudice IMO

catinthehat2 - Far From the Madding Crowd? The Woodlanders? Return of the Native?

All brilliant for me.

I know I am almost committing treason by not liking Dickens, but it just leaves me cold and wanting to hurl the book against a wall. Strange.

ooops I will admit to thinking Tess of the D'ubervilles is ok

I loikes Under The Greenwood Tree. I really & truly feel it is going against the grain of the universe, but the big novels suck, and the small ones are just wonderful.

Nicholas Nickleby, Bleak House and Little Dorritt would be my recommendations.

I also love Hardy - just in case anyone was thinking you can't like both

Hahaha - I knew we'd break you down catinthehat2!

I loikes 'em aaalll ya seeees. And I luuuuurves the ol' West Coooooooontryyyy aaaaaccent.

We'll have to agree on Hard Times, as well.

Thanks all - I love Hardy. Far from the Madding Crowd and Return of the Native are my favourites

I'm worried that I may have peaked by reading the best Dickens first!

I think I shall go with Hard Times next

Not read any Hardy other than Tess as a teenager (sorry), but you MUST read A Tale of Two Cities as your next Dickens. It is brilliant, and just thinking of the final lines brings tears to my eyes...

Ooo I am not sure about Hard Times. It's one of the breast-beating ones.

Although I suppose you don't want to read all the best ones first and get disappointed.

IMO the best is David Copperfield, followed by Great Expectations.

I actually LOVED Dombey and Son. I cried buckets, when the thing-that's-totally-obvious-is-going-to-happen happened, I wasn't prepared at all and I was heartbroken. I haven't read it again, I don't think I could cope.

GE is my absolute favourite Dickens too. I used to reread a few random pages now and then whenever I needed a fix. I didn't like the Pickwick Papers.

A Tale of Two Cities for next?

Oooh - I have a Tale of Two Cities downloaded - I might start it later once I have finished my essay

We did David Copperfield in school and I was brokenhearted for the poor boy.

My 8 year old read a few of them last year (those Usborne ones for young readers) and she was gripped and sad at the same time. We had lots of conversations about life in those times.