Dickens - where to start?

[sophy]

Having managed to get through my life so far without reading any Dickens have decided to make this my winter project.

Need recommendation for the best one to start with please.

You have to read A Christmas Carol.
Me and dh read it every year in December. Also it is not so flippin' long, lol!

And after that, Great Expectations. Tis a fab read.

ooh, I love
The Old Curiosity Shop
Nicholas Nickleby
and
Great Expectations.

Can't narrow it down to one - sorry.

Old Curiosity Shop was a fav for me although my introduction to Dickens was with Bleak House.

Thanks for those suggestions.

Will start with Great Expectations then as have already got that.

What about Barnaby Rudge, which have also got?

Bleak House gets my vote.

Great Expectations then David Copperfield IMO. Christmas Carol is great too, as Nickytwotimes suggested. I also love Bleak House and Oliver Twist.

Happy reading - I hope you like them!

A Tale of Two Cities was my first Dickens, and I loved it - then Great Expectations and loved that too, then Nicholas Nickelby, all good.

Oh I forgot - Hard Times is a good one too.

like others have said, Great Expectations then Bleak House imo. Hard Times is also short if you want to get another Dickens under your belt quickly!

Would also suggest D's ghost stories - The Signal-Man and others.

I've never read any Dickens - though intend to at some point...DH says David Copperfield.

"A Christmas Carol" and "The Old Curiosity Shop" are both short and easy. "Great Expectations" goes on for ever. The short story, "The Signalman" is quite good fun - creepy ghost story.

Great Expectations is fantastic. Gets my vote

Great Expectations is fab and my favourite, but A Tale Of two Cities might be a better first try.

Dickens favourite of his own books was David Copperfield, because it was closest to his own life story, which si also a good one.

Another vote for Great Expectations and Bleak House here.. both wonderful. desert

Hard Times. It's shorter and less densely written. I often think it seems like a Dickens-precis. But still very good.

Be prepared to read differently. Lots of detail and description. You almost need to go into a kind of trance to read it successfully. I love it though.

Thanks for all the fab suggestions

Bleak House and Nicholas Nickleby get my vote. Great Expectations just reminds me of school.

Would avoid Hard Times and Dombey and Son like the plague. Dombey and Son tooth-achingly sentimental (which is saying something for Dickens)

Bleak house too long for a beginner imo

Great Expectations v good

Hard times - I found erm hard going

'a beginner' - but I imagine she can read - tis fab.

i think bleak house is about more than reading - it's endurance

No-one's yet voted for Our Mutual Friend which is one of my faves - it has much more rounded woman characters in it than some of them.

Martin Chuzzlewit has some good characters to love/hate. Little Dorrit has some great settings.

Has anyone here actually read Barnaby Rudge?

I love OMF and Bleak House is my favourite. I just don't think either of them are the best introduction to Dickens for someone who is new to it.

I think that that sort of writing is so foreign to many modern readers they almost need to build up to it like training for a marathon.

Martin Chuzzlewit and Tale of Two Cities are my favourites.

You must read "Oliver Twist" as well