OMG! We haven't had a Dickens thread!!! [shock]

I think this quote from Oliver Twist says it all.
“There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.”

I disliked Dickens at school and in spite of studying Eng Lit at University, managed to avoid him there. However, in the 50 years since then his writing has grown on me. Little Dorrit is a special favourite. TV adaptations have been very well done, but you can't beat reading the originals.

Right. That's a thread done and dusted then! They can't say we're not a literary lot around here now.

Did you remember that quote Glass? That's amazing!

night night.

Sorry Annobel. Didn't realise anyone had contributed!

I read Dombey and Son, many years ago. Not sure I totally knew what was going on.

I meant 'anyone else' btw.

That's right - ignore me, jings [sulk emoticon]

I've been feeling guilty because I've never managed to bring myself to read Dickens but now I know I'm not alone. I'm the same with Bronte.

Not so much now, but I loved reading Dickens when I was younger [I can't read heavy stuff much these days.I always aim to read A Christmas Carol before Christmas, and actually managed to dip into it for a few chapters this last year to get me 'into the zone'. I love his larger than life characters..can we imagine a world wothout Scrooge, Oliver Twist and my role model. Miss Havisham? However, a dearly departed internet chum with whom I agreed on just about everything, said Dickens was some sort of joke who had been thrust upon an unsuspecting public; my pal was a writer himself and his words surprised me somewhat. When I eventually manage to retire, I hope to re visit the books. I don't think we studied Dickens at school, so perhaps he wasn't thrust upon me at too young an age? At least there is a humour in his books, unlike the Hardy and Zola works that I devoured as a [somewhat melancholy] teenager!

I always thought that I loved Dickens, but I realise I have only read the popular and obvious ones, David Copperfield,Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, so maybe I,m not such a fan after all. Oh I did love Tale of Two Cities but we had to read it at school, maybe I will download more on my Kindle, if they are free! I forgot Nicholas Nickleby, my favourite.

Dickens, from my history research, was an actor and the first hyped-up superstar! The public loved him.
I keep feeling that I ought to read him, having only had Great Expectations at school, just to get into the early Victorian mind set....but it hasn't happened yet!

I loved the bit I found online where he goes to an American lecture tour, for the first time in a steam ship, and afterwards describes the saloon as 'a hearse with windows'....

Oh, I always forget the Tale of Two Cities. Yes, I loved that one. Read it twice. The ending is hard to take though.

Annobel.

For several Christmases I tried the Christmas books. Think one is called Bell, Book and Candle, and one is The Cricket on the Hearth. Lovely titles but I couldn't get into them. Anyone else read them, or tried to?

petallus, all the Bronte books are really good. Not sure if I could read some of lesser known ones now though. I remember starting to struggle a bit with Villette and Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Perhaps I should try again.

Sigh! to me: "Get off Gransnet a bit!"

I heard on the radio earlier that Simon Mayo's programme yesterday had a link to one of the Dickens novels in every record he played! Might have a quick listen to that on i- player later!

Please dont make me read Dickens!!!!

I do love Dickens, and have, over the years, read them all. Note "over the years"!

I didn't enjoy studying him, though, and it latter years it became very difficult to teach to all but the most committed students, as with many C19th authors (and C18th, 17th, 16th etc.)

I remember being very taken with "Barnaby Rudge" because it was Dickens writing about an earlier time so one had a sense of what history meant to him, and there are fascinating glimpses of London too.

Mmmm.

Right. Have downloaded Barnaby Rudge to Kindle.Only 77p! Will give that one a go.

Thanks A.

what... well done, I haven't read that . I will have a look and see what's available.

I think I'd have to be in the mood to read Dickens. There seems to be so many other interesting books available at present. He's good for Victorian social history though. Unusually for me I've enjoyed past TV adaptations of books such as Tale of Two Cities - with Peter Wyngarde!

I love Dickens and have read and re-read all of his novels. If he were alive today, he would probably be writing soaps. He wrote most of his books as serials for weekly magazines and virtually invented the cliffhanger. He also gave readings which were great one-man theatrical performances.

Herewith a little known Dickens fact: the first mention of a cocktail in literature occurs in Martin Chuzzlewit.

Any other Dickens' fans got a better trivial Dickens' fact?

Ok have now downloaded Bleak House, The Pickwick Papers and The Old Curiosity Shop onto my I-Pad, so am goinmg to have a Dickens Fest .

I am a Dickens fan! Have got a lovely bound complete works of ...and have them all on my Kindle.
NB ...cheaper to get full set than buy individually.

Trivia ...Think in Bleak House absentgrana there is the first use of someone's death by self-combustion. It was even referred to by Ducky in NCIS.

Love the way he develops his characters ...would rather take the complete works of Dickens than that of Shakespeare on my desert island.

Think my favourite ones are ...Bleak House, Little Dorrit and Our Mutual Friend.

Oh ...and all the bits that are set in Kent