Back To The North Kent Marshes
Aug. 19th, 2023 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo Several years ago I set myself the task of reading the whole of Dickens in order of publication. I finished Dombey and Son and there I stuck.
I'm afraid I just couldn't face rereading David Copperfield. I know it was Dickens' own favourite but I find it terribly unsatisfactory. It's wonderful for as long as David is a child, then loses direction. Dickens could have written revealingly about the struggles of a young man trying to make his way as a writer but he chose not to and the latter part of the book- though it contains wonderful things- is pointless. It's a transitional work. It goes deeper into the workings of the human heart than anything he'd written before but the construction is woeful. He must have known this because when he came to write Bleak House he'd pulled himself together.
I know the later Dickens better than the early Dickens. Part of the point of the completist exercise was to refresh my memory of the early books- most of which I'd only read once- and one (Barnaby Rudge) not at all. I discovered that my favourites are Oliver Twist and The Old Curiosity Shop. Martin Chuzzlewit is a bit of a bore and Barnaby Rudge is dreadful. Dombey and Son- like David Copperfield- starts off brilliantly but- like Copperfield- goes to pieces towards the end because Dickens hadn't been planning ahead. Also Florence Dombey is the wettest of Dickens's many lachrymose heroines.
All the later books I've read several times. I love them- and Little Dorrit best of all. Second favourite is Great Expectations. I'm out of reading matter and suffering symptoms of Dickens withdrawal and I've taken Great Expectations off the Shelf. It's been quite a while since I last read it. It's his best made book- the weirdest and most visionary. I read the first two chapters last night. They're terrific in the Gothick sense of the word. Also extremely funny.
I'm afraid I just couldn't face rereading David Copperfield. I know it was Dickens' own favourite but I find it terribly unsatisfactory. It's wonderful for as long as David is a child, then loses direction. Dickens could have written revealingly about the struggles of a young man trying to make his way as a writer but he chose not to and the latter part of the book- though it contains wonderful things- is pointless. It's a transitional work. It goes deeper into the workings of the human heart than anything he'd written before but the construction is woeful. He must have known this because when he came to write Bleak House he'd pulled himself together.
I know the later Dickens better than the early Dickens. Part of the point of the completist exercise was to refresh my memory of the early books- most of which I'd only read once- and one (Barnaby Rudge) not at all. I discovered that my favourites are Oliver Twist and The Old Curiosity Shop. Martin Chuzzlewit is a bit of a bore and Barnaby Rudge is dreadful. Dombey and Son- like David Copperfield- starts off brilliantly but- like Copperfield- goes to pieces towards the end because Dickens hadn't been planning ahead. Also Florence Dombey is the wettest of Dickens's many lachrymose heroines.
All the later books I've read several times. I love them- and Little Dorrit best of all. Second favourite is Great Expectations. I'm out of reading matter and suffering symptoms of Dickens withdrawal and I've taken Great Expectations off the Shelf. It's been quite a while since I last read it. It's his best made book- the weirdest and most visionary. I read the first two chapters last night. They're terrific in the Gothick sense of the word. Also extremely funny.
