The Inimitable

[poliphilo]

I read Pickwick Papers as a child and wanted to be Sam Weller.  Afraid that nothing would ever live up to the splendiferousness of Pickwick, I left Dickens alone through early adolescence- and then- at seventeen- fell deeply in love with Little Dorrit. I've read all the major novels except Barnaby Rudge (most of them at least twice).  My politics- an apple-cheeked Christian socialism fuelled by rage at the Merdles and Tite-Barnacles (who still run the world)- are essentially Dickens's politics. I love many other novelists, but Dickens is in a class apart- and there have been times in my life when (like Charlie Chaplin) I couldn't be bothered with reading anyone else. No-one- before or since (and that even includes Shakespeare)- has ever been so lively. 

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Impossible to answer.

G.K. Chesterton said they were like lengths sawn off a single log.

The critical consensus seems to have settled on Bleak House, but an earlier generation would have said David Copperfield. Great Expectations is the most nearly perfect. My personal favourite is Little Dorrit.

[sovay]

My personal favourite is Little Dorrit.

I didn't read that one until after I'd seen Christine Edzard's amazing 1988 film, but I loved it when I did. It might be one of my favorites just for the language alone.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I love that movie.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

I shall happily settle for four bests, then, and thanks. Being an applied-science type left great holes in my education. I was able to avoid him completely except for a couple of short stories.