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Just want you to know, there's nothing snooty here. I'm reading these books solely for their entertainment value -- which is enormous -- and have no interest in scholarship, symbolism, deeper meanings, etc... I just want to see the bad guys get a taste of good old-fashioned Dickensian justice and the good guys live happily ever after (unless they die).
Also, if you have a eBook reader, you can read all the Dickens you want for free! |
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Bleak House - My first Dickens novel and still my favorite. There's the great contrast between the two narrators: one is an innocent, truehearted girl and the other is a cynical, cheeky, bitingly funny, unseen commentator. It's a great detective mystery, with a unique procession of three different "detectives." There are umpteenhundred great characters. And there's social critique of the most delicious sort. The greatest novel ever written? Maybe. On my list, it hangs out near the top with Mervyn Peake's "Titus Alone" and "Gormenghast". I certainly think that Bleak House had a major impact on Peake. Note: The narrator's repitition of M'Lady Deadlocke's full-title for humorous effect, inspired my first book, "Horton Halfpott or The Loosening of M'Ladly Luggertuck's Corset." |
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Pickwick Papers - Another favorite. This is the first novel of a reporter: he's soaked up so much about people and here it unwinds into a superb story. Chapter 13 is a dead-on parody of the 2004 U.S. election. And, of course, the book had it's influence on my own book, The Qwikpick Adventure Society. I also contend that it was the inspiration for "The Lord of The Rings." Read it and see if you don't see Bilbo, Merry and Pippin. (No Frodo, Gandalf or Sauron, but there is a Wormtongue.) Of course, you won't be able to miss Sam (and his father). |
| Barnaby Rudge - Nobody has ever heard of this book -- perhaps because the title is so phonetically displeasing -- but it is incredible. The story is woven through the actual events of London's anti-Catholic riots. So many, many bad guys in this book! Hard to decide who you hate the most. |
| Martin Chuzzlewitt - Of all the Dickens villians, this book's Pecksniff may be the worst. So awful, so smug, so self-righteous. This book doesn't get a lot of notice, but I loved it. I must note, however, that the manner in which Dickens resolves things was not quite up to his standard. |
| David Copperfield - Took me a little while to fall for this one, but I did. It's very powerful, in part because it was such a personal story for Dickens and partly because it really is THAT good. |
| Great Expectations - Another great book. Very accessible, very enjoyable. Opens with a bang. The alternate ending, bothers me a little bit. Not quite sure which ending to believe. |
| Our Mutual Friend - Certainly one of the best books ever written. Sadly, I already knew the story from Masterpiece Theater, so I was robbed of the suspense and surprise. But I still enjoyed reading it immensely. Perhaps Dickens' best plot. |
| The Mystery of Edwin Drood - I've only read half of it. (That's a joke, folks, since Dickens only wrote half of it.) It was pretty good, but I'm not sure that the second half would have been good enough to make it one of his best. |
| Little Dorritt - Certainly a favorite. Possibly Dickens' most underated book. For the first part of the book you think Little Dorritt has it kind of bad but big deal. Then Dickens turns the whole world upside down and then Little Dorritt's life becomes 1000 times worse. |
| Dombey and Son - For a long time I thought this would be an under-rated Dickens novel. Why doesn't everyone love this great book? Then I found out why. The pacing and plotting is a total mess. The characters are superb, though, and the general story is great. This is almost like a George Eliot book with lots of internal hubbub. But he just didn't pull it together. It also felt like the longest book ever written, with about 200 pages of ending. If Chuzzlewit's ending was too pat, this ending wasn't nearly pat enough. If only he could have spread the pat around. |
| Hard Times - Starts with a great first chapter and then fails to deliver anything else. The moral dilemma at the core of the plot is pointless to the extreme. |
| Oliver Twist - Boo! This book is at the bottom with Hard Times. It's just not very good, in comparison to his other books. Not sure why people make such a fuss over it. It's not even close to, say, Little Dorritt. |
| What's amazing is, that I've read so much, yet I have FOUR huge ones more to go: The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop and A Tale of Two Cities |
| Other Victorian favorites: |
| Trollope's "Framley Parsonage" is an extraordinary book, so broad in scope that it dashes between a simple country parson's money problems and sweeping political changes in London. It's part of a series called the Barsetshire Chronicles (or something like that). The second book in the series, "Barchester Chronicles" is a wild ride through church politics. |
| George Elliot's "Middlemarch" is nearly beyond description. She tries something here that's more ambitious than Dickens or Trollope. She creates not a grandly over-the-top spectacle, but a story about real people with real, nuanced thoughts and emotions. I'd say it's "modern," except I haven't read a modern author who comes close. Perhaps, in the end, it's a little less fun than Dickens, but it's so very good. Another Elliot book, Daniel Deronda, is also quite good, but was a tough read for me. Elliot's sentences can be outrageously dense. |
| Daphne De Maurier is not a Victorian author, but two of her books, "Rebecca" and "My Cousin Rachel," have a similar spirit with perhaps a dash more wickedness. Avoid "Flight of the Falcon" at all cost. |
| Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" is big and ambitious. The first half seemed like an average Victorian novel, but by the end Tolstoy has gone way beyond all that. The Kafka-like view of Russian society and politics is great. Worthy as a piece of history, as a soap opera or as journey of self-discovery. |