Charles Dickens

[Angela9]

Please help me to know where to start. I have never read anything by Dickens.

A Christmas Carol - it’s that time of year!

@LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD

I feel like I know the story very well but have not read the book. Not sure if it will be too predictable if I already know the story, or if the writing will be good enough I won't care

My favourite is David Copperfield, but I’d start with something shorter like Great Expectations.

A Christmas Carol - it’s the perfect time of year to reflect and if you enjoy it, many suitable linked experiences.

Great Expectations is a good place to start, or Oliver Twist. Our Mutual Friend is my favourite.

Our Mutual Friend is my favourite too.

But as an introduction to Dickens, Great Expectations is excellent. Stick with it OP; if you haven't read much Victorian literature before his style takes a little getting used to but he's an excellent storyteller.

It's funny, I rarely read the book section (need to come here more) and was looking earlier at a bookstore which Dickens book I should read and Our Mutual Friend was one I was eyeing. So thank you for this thread and suggestions :)

Little Dorrit is my favourite

I would go for David Copperfield. It's my personal favourite, and a lot of it is based on his own life too.

David Copperfield is also my favourite. A Christmas Carol is a great intro even if you know the story.

David Copperfield, Great Expectations or, my favourite, Nicholas Nickleby.

Great Expectations. Love it.

I agree with everyone saying to start with Great Expectations.

But I am also in agreement with HuaShan about Little Dorrit (which I'm currently re-reading). It is unquestionably my favourite.

Oh this is odd, because our sweet son in law gave us a gift of an old fashioned sat of ALL the Dickens books and I'm starting with his American papers , it's fascinating because you can tell where he gets some of his themes from. I knew that he didn't get on well there (some of the press were upset because he told the truth!!!!) but it's eye opening about their social care in the 1840s. The Atlantic crossing was unbelievably bad.

Not so fond of Great Expectations (Pip’s a prat) but David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby and Martin Chuzzlewit are all packed with great characters.

I reckon that Pip is true to life. A lot of people turn their noses up at their family when they are trying to live a fake life.

Yes I love Little Dorrit too. It does go on a bit and I wish that she married differently but of course it's Dickens

I would dive straight in to one of the big ones. The best thing about Dickens is the wide expanse of society featured in each novel - all the plots and sub-plots featuring vast numbers of characters from every walk of life, and comedy set alongside tragedy. You have to read one of the long novels to get that experience of being absorbed into those huge, detailed, fictional worlds. My favourites are Bleak House and Nicholas Nickleby. If you're daunted by the 800+ pages, remember that they were mostly (all?) published as monthly serials, so its easy to read a chunk and take a break for a couple of weeks if you get bored...

seaside I'm reading The Life Of Dickens which is in the American Letters book, it's fascinating.

A Tale of Two cities is one of my favourites, also Our Mutual Friend and Martin Chuzzlewit, the last 2 are 2 of his longer books but worth the effort

ppeatfruit Who do you think she should have married? I'm struggling to think of another likely partner for her.

Unless it's Doyce. I have to admit, I'm rather fond of Doyce.

I'm conflicted tbh, what was the name of the young man who loved her so, son of the prison keepers?

I'm reading Dicken's life and his whole family was in the debtors prison for a year or 2 except him (he was working at age 10 which upset him because his family were middle class) . So Little Dorrit is true.

Bleak House and Little Dorrit are my favourites, but I love them all. I haven't read Barnaby Rudge and haven't managed to finish Martin Chuzzlewit, but other than that I think I must have read them all except possibly some of the short stories. Dickens would have been a nightmare in real life, but what a writer!

A good place to start might be some of his short stories. Try The Signalman. This is in a book called Three Ghost Stories by Charles Dickens. You'll get used to the style.

I read Barnaby Rudge. The characters aren't as engaging as they are in some of the other books but it's a great insight into a piece of history that you don't hear much about - The Gordon Riots. Great Expectations for dramatic scenes and, a few things that make you laugh "reared by hand." etc. A Christmas Carol is always topical. I liked Our Mutual Friend, a great story of obessive love, but has some really irritating characters, like Jenny Wren. Over the years, I've learned to speed-read bits of Dickens. Particularly with ones like The Pickwick Papers where you glance down the page and see that the story is going nowhere but there is a bit of unnecessary digression, so you skip it. Not for the purists but I find it gets me through.

Have a lovely time reading them all!

I've recently bought his Christmas books 1 & 2 I do enjoy his book and read a Christmas Carol every year as it's my favourite. The proper version is different from the other tellings of the story mostly aimed at children.