If you were reading Charles Dickens for the first time....

[Theknitwitch]

... what would you read.
Thanks

[MsAmerica]

I started chronologically, because I was determined to keep going. Well, okay, I got bogged down after about a half-dozen.

[OCSockOrphanage]

NIcholas Nickleby gets my vote, depending on your age. Great Expectations is perhaps the most accessible of the long ones,

[BratFarrarsPony]

as everybody else has said - Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, a Christmas Carol

[CelticPromise]

Wobbly A Tale of Two Cities is worth sticking with. I found 1/3 dull as shit, middle third improved and the last third was amazing.

[annandale]

You see I'd say Bleak House, as it was the first Dickens I actually managed to read and enjoy, but I read it aged about 33.

[HappyFlappy]

*Oliphant - not elephant!

I swear to God this autocorrect has given me grey hair!

[HappyFlappy]

Re: Margaret Elephant - try "Miss Marjoribanks" = an excellent comic novel.

[HappyFlappy]

Ooooh! Yes Highland

And the Five Towns stories, Riceyman Steps etc - and didn't he write The Grand Babylon Hotel? He was a very prolific author. How did I forget him?

[EstelleRoberts]

My favourites are Little Dorrit, Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend. However, I wouldn't recommend you start with any of them! I would go with the majority on here, and read in this order: Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield. Then move onto A Tale of Two Cities, Nicholas Nickleby, Martin Chuzzlewit, Bleak House (as mentioned, a brilliant proto-detective novel. Real stay-up-till-3am-to-read-one-last-chapter stuff), Hard Times. Then move onto Our Mutual Friend and Little Dorrit. The others you can pick off at your leisure.

Enjoy! I'm envious you are about to discover them for the first time!

[highlandcoo]

Sorry! Back to the Dickens recommendations.

Our Mutual Friend is my favourite but would advise Great Expectations as an excellent one to start with. David Copperfield is also a good read.

[highlandcoo]

I haven't heard of Margaret Oliphant, Flappy. Off to Google her now.

YY to Mrs Gaskell and can I put in a word for Arnold Bennett? The Old Wives' Tale is excellent. Also Clayhanger.

[SonyaGluck]

Never keen on Carlyle. Too heavy for me, I'm afraid, and very dour.

When I was about 17 or so I picked up The French Revolution in a second hand bookshop. Mainly, I think, because I'd read the 'sea green incorruptible' reference in one of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels and also I had a habit of buying tomes that I thought made me look clever. But I was quite genuinely interested in the French revolution.
I think I managed four pages.

Back to Dickens, I agree with the people who have said Great Expectations is probably the best one to start with. I think my personal favourites are Little Dorrit and Bleak House but they are both door stops in comparison - so a bit daunting.

I do like some Dickens but on balance I also prefer Trollope and George Eliot. I've never really got on with Wilkie Collins, though.

[HappyFlappy]

Agree, Mitzy - Dickens is sickeningly sentimental - turns my stomach!

I like Wilkie Collins, Anthony Trollope and George Elliot MUCH more. Also Mrs Gaskill (Cranford is fabulous!), Thackeray and the Brontes. And have you read any Margaret Oliphant from that era? Superb!

Never keen on Carlyle. Too heavy for me, I'm afraid, and very dour.

[MitzyLeFrouf]

Oh yes Happy, a 'wet lettuce' is exactly what he is. Stephen something or other. I cheered when he died!

I'm sure this marks me out as a total philistine but I prefer Dickens on screen rather than on the page. Wilkie Collins on the other hand makes for far better reading.

[HappyFlappy]

So many recommendations for Hard Times! I thought it was absolutely awful.

Me too, Mitzy

The "hero" is a right wet lettuce!

[INeedNewShoes]

I'd avoid Tale of Two Cities and The Pickwick Papers

[PurpleTraitor]

Great expectations

[ExitPursuedBySpartacus]

Tess of the D'Urbevilles

😏

[80sMum]

David Copperfield.

[tobee]

Nicholas Nickleby is probably my favourite. I think it's pretty perfect. But David Copperfield is probably the best to start with, especially for younger readers.

[FurbysMakeSexNoises]

Great Expectations followed A Tale of Two Cities

[Sgtmajormummy]

Bleak House!

It's like a rollercoaster ride. Enough to rival any modern blockbuster.
If only they'd employ somebody to make each storyline into an individual novel and remove all the dreary references to the legal system of the day.

[hackmum]

Great Expectations, because it's relatively short, but still a very enjoyable novel with a good twist.

I believe Hard Times is the shortest of his full-length novels but not quite as enjoyable.

[MitzyLeFrouf]

So many recommendations for Hard Times! I thought it was absolutely awful.

[Sleeperandthespindle]

Never 'The Old Curiosity Shop' though. Unreadable.