Dickensalong 2023 : The Old Curiosity Shop

[Piggywaspushed]

Come along and join me in this year's Dickens readalong.

We have chosen The Old Curiosity Shop which was originally published by Dickens across 88 weeks in his won periodical.

Obviously 88 weeks is a bit much for our modern concentration spans and multitasking minds , so I propose an 8 month read. There are 73 chapters in total, not split into volumes or books (thanks for this Dickens!!) but I found little stars every few chapters so think these indicate breaks:

January - Chapters 1- 8
February - Chapters 9- 16
March - Chapters 17 - 26
April - Chapters 27 - 36
May - Chapters 37 - 45
June - Chapters 46-53
July - Chapters 54 - 63
August - 64 - end

I hope that's all OK. It's not as long as some of the others we have done so 8 instalments seems to work.

All welcome - old curiosities, and new!

I should add to the above - just my opinion, obvs!

I agree Terpsichore - when I was reading this bit I kept thinking ‘is this character/plot strand going to go anywhere or is it just Dickens filling in time?’

Piggy the Garlands were the father and son in the trap, who left Kit looking after their pony while they visited their solicitor* and then gave him a shilling. A couple of chapters ago.

*Might not have been their solicitor, am away and haven’t got book with me to check!

Um, I did read this section but a couple of weeks ago and now I appear to have very little memory of it and nothing useful to say. Which perhaps does align with what everyone else is saying about it not being Dickens’ best bit.

Oh yes, them. The nice lady and the naughty horse. That will be important yes.
I think I forgot because of horses in Anna Karenina!

I think with Dickens you have to be patient and play the long game. We were a bit spoilt with Collins when it was very exciting all the time. I thought Nell and Grandfather sneaking out of the shop was very suspenseful. Quilp hanging upside down in his sleep like a bat was grotesque.

I agree about the long game, IsFuzzy, but I did feel here that Dickens was much less sure of his purpose than in, eg, David Copperfield, where I was happy in being led along a path that had a sense of having been mapped out to a degree. Here I sensed that he hadn’t quite worked out at this point exactly where the story was going and was lobbing in different elements to try them out - hence the nice Garlands (a bit like the Cheeryble brothers in Nicholas Nickleby) and the Punch & Judy men (a bit like the travelling troupe in Hard Times).

But I expect he’ll steady the ship in coming chapters…

Yes, Terpsichore. We'll* *see what happens in the next installment. I'll reserve judgement for the moment :) All we know so far is that Grandfather has a gambling habit, Swiveller and Quilp have plans to marry Nell and Kit is a good egg.

I have the penguin classic version on my kindle and it includes illustrations - does everyone’s? All the characters are so hideously over drawn except our fair maiden.

They are aren't they! The Dickens grotesques, and the contrast with Nell is great. He draws similar comparisons with her surroundings.

Yes, I also have illustrations on penguin classics version for kindle. Though I'm swapping between a Viney Watson hardback when at home.

I agree possibly allegory and influence in places with the Pilgrim's Progress. I think we can guess who Quilp might be in the scenario, also.

Agree also about the similarities between the Garlands and Cheerybles. I think Nell is, as I possibly noted last time, a slightly younger version of the childlike Amy Dorrit, and both of them self sacrificing and having assumed the role of their supposed guardians.

Did someone mention Victorian childhood. Nell reminds me of some of the child characters you see in the Victorian morality tales.

I have spent the past few weekends trying to get myself to sit down and read this and I’m afraid I just can’t. I’m not even sure how I got so far last time I read it. I thought reading together would help, but alas once again Dickens is not for me.

I do enjoy the chat and will look out for the next read.

I have finally caught up with you all and will try and be less tardy with my March chapters! Nothing to add to your insightful comments. Can't say I'm enjoying it all that much so far. Many grotesque characters! Agree with however said the baddies seem almost like pantomime villains. Quite at a loss as to imagine what might come next and all the Pilgrim's Progress references have gone completely over my head.

See you at the end of the next instalment!

... which is , of course, chapters 17 - 26!

Thank you Piggy!

Timely bump!

And another bump from my alter ego :)

Clocking in and marking my place!

I am behind this month so will catch up with the thread in a few days!

I'm also behind, only by a couple of chapters, and will join in soon. Just marking place!

Our picaresque journey continues.

I scribbled a list of Dickensian tropes on a post it note!

Kindly old people - check
(deformed, depraved and malcontent) deceivers - check
circus performers - check
graveyards - check
dead child in gloomy deathbed scene - yup, that too but it's OK he's dead because it releases him from life, folks!
the comfort of the innocence of a young child, preferably an angelic female - of course.
A pursuit of innocence by malevolent forces - obviously

The beginning of chapter 26 is a salutary reminder of how common death in childhood was, as Nell surveys all the mounds that grew green above the graves of children.

Thank goodness for the naughty little pony! The pony makes me chuckle. I do hope more pony encounters will follow.

The 'Pilgrim's Progress' parallel is ever-more explicit, isn’t it?

I really enjoyed this section, albeit no fan of saccharine Little Nell, I’m afraid. I particularly liked the old woman who comes to visit her husband's grave. There was something very profound in the way Dickens handled that short passage about the way time telescoped backwards and forwards, so she as an old woman could look back and feel a kind of detached pity for her young husband, but also still experience the immediate pain of her own loss.

We're also having a lot of death, and especially the death of young people, sneaked into the narrative…just saying…🤫

Hello all! This is quite the meandering story, isn't it? I thought, going on the title, that the action would take place in the shop or close by?! I wonder if we will come across these characters again or if we will keep on meeting new ones. We have to wait and see!

Piggy's post-it note of tropes is excellent. Spot on and I agree with all of it. I also liked the scene that Terpsichore mentioned. It had depth. I will add the description of Swiveller's winding walk home from Quilp's haunt as a passage that I enjoyed reading. I like how Quilp pops out of nowhere. He's a really malevolent presence in the story.

I was trying to guess at Nell's age. I'm thinking fourteen. She is very wise for her tender years. She reminds me of Little Dorrit. Young, sweet, wise. Saccharine! :)

I'm a bit behind too but agree with you @Terpsichore in your description of the graveyard scene feeling profound, there was something a bit sad and quite atmospheric about it.

Also, I wonder what was regarded as 'old' back in those days? Seeing as life expectancy was shorter, would later middle age have been regarded as 'really old'?

I think about thsi when teaching A Christmas Carol. I think Scrooge is in his late 50s?