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 haven’t finished yet, but hopefully will be Monday!

I only listened to Katie's introductory video and not the reflections one as I was afraid of spoilers.

Hello - missed you guys last month as I was very behind and finding it a bit hard going. But I’ve 2 chapters to go and back in the swing.

I loved the scene in the storm with the horrid grandfather - I do want to know where all this ends up!!

Is he horrid? Or just consumed by the demon of gambling? That was a very creepy and unsettling section!

I am about to start writing my review : I am cheered by Sally Bass and Dick Swiveller, who have livened things up.

As an aside, I decided to read Katie's intro video to this book and noticed from another video that she has written a book - one that I was eyeing up in Waterstones last week and didn't realise at the time it was her who wrote it. Hope it does well for her!

Or watch, even, not read!! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Yes, cludgie, that's why we were discussing her in the first place upthread !

Haha so you did! In my defence I'm up to my eyes in a really exciting ethics-related essay atm, along with helping an unwell relative so I'm not as on the ball as I usually am (which isn't saying much to start with!)

I Hooe everything goes well in both departments and I will forgive you! Try a little Mrs Jarley long suffering sighing as a remedy.

Thanks Piggy, things are getting a bit better on both fronts as the week goes on, bonus is I've even found time to actually be up to date on my TOCS chapters! Can't ask for more than that IMO

I know he’s an addict @Piggywaspushed but stealing from your granddaughter - so dark!

I love Katie and am so thrilled for her to be published - I saw one of her videos talking about watching her book being printed at the place she used to go when she worked at a publishers. Can’t wait to read it

This has been a section of very strong Dickensian characterisations! I enjoyed Mrs Jarley’s creepy waxworks and her long suffering ‘air of a martyr’ while she sleeps soundly and keeps Nell awake : ‘I sometimes wonder how I bear it’.
Enjoyable too were the Miss Monflathers posse competing for favours. I was tickled by these passages, and Miss M’s disappointing disdain for the awful wax figures. I liked this ; ‘ Of course the teacher who had not said it, indicted the rival who had, whom Miss Monflathers frowningly requested to hold her peace; by that means throwing the informing teacher into raptures of joy.’ I always like school descriptions in literature. What an awful cow Miss Monflathers is.

The passages with Nell’s grandfather are horrific- Dickens captures the beast of addiction in a suitably Gothic but also quite credible way, I think. Sympathies lie with Nell but I can also feel pity for the old man so consumed by his demon.

The best bit, of course, is the ‘dragon’ Sally Brass and the idle waster Swiveller. There are some fantastic sections here. I haven’t listened to Katie yet but I know she has things to say about Sally. What do we think of her? They call her ‘fellow’ and ‘chap’ don’t they? Is she Victorian gender fluid? A suppressed lesbian? Just mannish? It’s interesting that her upbringing seems to have desexualised her so Dickens implies she doesn’t know how not to be mannish. I see her as formidable. I haven’t read this before, so no clue how this pans out but Dickens is very obviously playing about with the idea of a single woman in a business with masculine qualities (‘passed her life in a legal childhood… in a state of lawful innocence, her ‘accomplishments …of a masculine and strictly legal kind’) and how that defines her. I am not sure what will evolve of the burgeoning Swiveller /Sally apparent affection.

I loved Dick in this section. Some of his gripes and quips are fantastic:
‘I hope you may be unexpectedly detained, ma’am. If you could manage to be run over, but not seriously, so much the better’ (I might save this for a colleague)
‘she dragons in the business, conducting themselves like professional gentlemen, plain cooks of three feet high appearing mysteriously from under ground; strangers walking in and going to bed without leave or licence in the middle of the day!’ sums up the weirdness of the whole thing!

I also liked him moaning about the purloined stool (‘I hope it hasn’t got any fevers’), attempting to do no work whatsoever and the necessity after getting sloshed on ‘temperate beverages’ to have ‘three modest quenchers at the public-house’.
TOCS is certainly an alcohol soaked novel!

Thanks for your end of the month summary Piggy. The scene where Neil's money is stolen was very creepy and I thought at first it might have been one of the Londoners on to them. Poor Nell!

When Katie said in her intro video that she much preferred the London chapters to the Nell ones, I couldn't picture it as I was really getting into Nell and grandfather's adventures. Then I could hardly put my kindle down when I hit London - the man getting straight into bed, trying to discover if he was still alive, the Swiveller-Sally dynamic - loved it all!

Except, I must say, I did not love the last scene with the servant girl. Kind of hope Sally gets run over too after that....

Yes, that was thoroughly weird.

Does the Katie intro video have spoilers at all?

I thought this section really picked up and I enjoyed it a lot more. I was struck by the depiction of Nell’s grandfather’s gambling addiction - I tend to think of Victorians not having a sophisticated understanding of that sort of thing, but obviously they did. (I suspect I consistently underestimate Victorians.) I think he’s not an evil man as such, but his addiction means he makes bad choices.

I found the depiction of Sally Brass a little uncomfortable - Dickens seems to find the idea of a female lawyer inherently ridiculous, obviously a woman couldn’t do it without somehow becoming a ‘chap’.

Hello all! Thank you for your review, Piggy! It was excellent and I agree with everything you wrote.

This installment had its highs and lows. I was so glad when Mrs Jarley adopted Nell and Grandfather; they were due a break. It was good to Nell flourishing under her care. I loved how Mrs Jarley adapted the waxwork exhibits to the audience. She has great business acumen! A change of wig on this one and it's Lord Byron!

The scene where Grandfather steals Nell's money must be one of the best passages in the book. It was hair-raising and I felt miserable for Nell afterwards. I thought it was a brilliant description of the mind of an addict and I felt sorry for Grandfather but more so for Nell. I was hoping that Nell could confide in someone, that nice Miss Edwards maybe, although she isn't able to do much in her lowly position. I agree that Miss Monflathers is a cow. I hope she gets her comeuppance.

I think Katie described TOCS as episodes of fun adventures or words to that effect. I'm bemused by the meandering nature of the plot and wonder what Nell and Grandfather could find themselves caught up in next. I prefer the London scenes as well. The description of waking up the lodger was hilarious. Is that fellow only to be known as the single gentleman? Will we ever find out his name? The child beneath the stairs is very disturbing (also nameless) and the scene where Sally Brass doles out her tiny portion of meat was very harrowing.

I only listened to one of Katie's videos. She mentions the characterisation of Quilp and Sally Brass as two of the more unpalatable aspects in the book. Dickens seems fascinated by Sally Brass and I'm trying to figure out why. I think it's because of her intelligence and her capability. It's very odd. Dick Swiveller brought some much-needed humour to the story. It's hard to know how Sally can bear his slipshod attitude to work. I thought she would have put him out on his ear after one day!

Also, there were some nice turns of phrase. Mr. Slum's shoes 'in the winter of their existence' was good and the office chair squeezing clients dry, was another.

It definitely feels as though something shifted with Dickens in this section and he can now see a way to pull things together. Up till now I felt he was rather scrambling around trying to find a direction - sending Nell + grandfather off on their journey did strike me as him playing for time a bit until more inspiration struck.

I’m enjoying the comic capers of Dick Swiveller - and I read up a bit on Mrs Jarley. Seems like there’s not much doubt that Dickens was poking fun at Madame Tussaud, who showed her waxworks as a travelling show at that point.

Piggy no spoilers, she just discusses the characters more than anything. As Fuzzy mentioned, she's not keen on the portrayals by Dickens of Sally and Quilp, which is fair enough I'd say.

That's interesting about Madame Tussaud, Terpsichore.

I agree with Terpsichore that this section felt like it had a bit more point to it (although it remains to be seen what that point is) - previously it was just Nell and Grandfather wandering the country meeting odd characters with no clue how relevant any of them might be, whereas now we’re back with a character we know.

I am intrigued as to the identity of the sleepy lodger and whether he turns out to be important or just another diversion.

I was also intrigued by Dickens’ description of Sally’s faint moustache looking a bit like eyelashes! All very odd.

The part with Mrs Monflathers made me reflect that during that time it must really have been pot luck whether the school you attended gave you any sort of decent education or not. As far as I’m aware anyone could open a school then and there was no requirement to have any sort of qualifications, so there must have been schools run by all sorts of people who may
ir may not have been suited to the job! It’s a wonder anyone learnt anything really (as an aside the Brontë sisters tried to set up a school in the parsonage but sadly for them there were no takers. I wonder what sort of education they would have provided?)

Anyway can set up a private school now, in theory (there's a weird anti vaxxers one somewhere) which gives me the shivers!

I'll have to listen to Katie/ read on because at the moment I like Sally Brass! I don't see that Dickens is criticising her. Yes, he has a slightly Victorian fasciation with her manliness and not being able to bag a man but I see her somewhat in the same vein as David Copperfield's aunt. One of those Victorian women who 'never marries' - some sort of latter day euphemism!

*anyone

True, I had forgotten about the free schools nowadays!

I see her somewhat in the same vein as David Copperfield's aunt. One of those Victorian women who 'never marries' - some sort of latter day euphemism!

I definitely thought of Betsey Trotwood, Piggy, not in terms of character exactly - I think Sally Brass is a bit less sympathetic - but in terms of eccentricity. Perhaps what George Gissing would later in the 19thc characterise as an 'Odd Woman'.