Which Dickens next?

[Aparecium]

I’ve read and mostly enjoyed A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities. Which should I read next?

Also, can anybody recommend good audio book versions? I like to listen to a good audiobook on long drives. I’ve been listening to Martin Jarvis reading Great Expectations. Lovely voice, really excellent reader - but I hate, hate, hate the falsetto voices he uses for women, especially for Estella and Miss Havisham. Do all male readers do this?

Bleak House. I don’t ever listen to audiobooks, but surely there must be some read by women which avoid the annoying male falsetto problem?

I know what you mean. Stephen Fry’s female character voices in the Hap audiobooks are maddening. He makes Hermione sound like a csbbsgr.

The Old Curiosity Shop is my favourite.

I don’t even know what a csbbcsgr is, but I agree with you!

I’d recommend Bleak House. I’m selective about Dickens and I think some of his books are very overrated but Bleak House is one of the ones I really loved (and my other favourites are actually the others you mentioned!)

There are loads of versions on Audible, which is where I get all my audiobooks, but the one I listened to was the one published by Naxos and actually had two very good narrators, one male and one female. I thought it was a great listen.

There’s also another version on Audible that’s narrated entirely by Miriam Margoyles. Haven’t heard that version myself but it has good listener reviews.

Oliver Twist

I forgot that I had listened to Oliver on a road trip with the dc many years ago. The anti-Semitism made it a really difficult listen. Even my tweens picked up on it and were shocked. It made for good discussions on the nature of intolerance, and how it was and can still be normalised.

After Oliver was first published, Dickens was visited by a delegation of Jewish acquaintances and businessmen who talked to him about his portrayal of Fagin. Dickens had not even realised how nasty he was being, how harmful his writing was to the Jewish community, and how at odds this was with his personal philosophy and writing. As a result, he re-wrote most of the sections involving Fagin. The editions of Oliver that we read are actually less anti-Semitic than the original!

My favourite of the big books is Our Mutual Friend and I also love Little Dorrit. Bleak House is fabulous too. As you've already read David Copperfield you should be fine with the length of any of them. I'm sorry that I can't suggest any audio versions but if you happen to want videos from a huge Dickens fan I can recommend Books and Things on youtube

On our Dickensalong thread we really enjoyed Nicholas Nickleby. Dombey and Son is proving popular, too.

Re the anti semitism, after that (justified) criticism dickens created a heroic Jewish figure in the Old Curiosity Shop.
In Dickens, I sometimes wish I could get A1 to create a composite book, made up of my favourite characters. Mr and Mrs Mantalini from Nicholas Nicolby, the Marchioness from the OCS etc
Anyhow, I would suggest Our Mutual Friend. A later Dickens, with a fairly decent heroine.

Most critics would say Bleak House is his masterpiece. Harold Bloom thought so, and so did Nabokov.