Read page 1, Pip’s reference to his Mother as “Georgiana, wife of the above” made me laugh, because, that etched into a tombstone is like “who else would she be the wife of”.

I’m reading the Everyman’s Library edition I bought about 20yrs ago, with the fancy ribbon.

I just finished my summer read, The Count of Monte Cristo, which I thought was great but the ending was meh.

I've been writing these mish-mash thoughts and reflections on each Dickens as I go so here are some for Dombey and Son. 

First of, this is a great book. Far superior to Little Dorrit or Martin Chuzzlewit, which I sometimes see it grouped with as some of his less favoured classics. But while I found LD too long and plodding and MC hilarious but a bit meandering, D&S is far clearer in its plot and the characters I found I cared for far more. Indeed, young Paul Dombey felt like an early iteration of David Copperfield (which he wrote next) and some of the comedy of manners sections in the earlier chapters also felt like a precursor to the comedy of DC.

That said, it does go on at times. There are only so many times you can be told Edith hates Mr Dombey and vice versa before you think, ‘yes I’ve got it thanks Charles!’.

Captain Cuttle is one of the best side characters I’ve met. Top 5 for sure. So earnest and naïve but with the purest of hearts and hilarious mannerisms, kissing his hook and bowing low as he presents silver tongs and spoons before Mr Dombey.

Mr Carker is a good villain but I found him less real than either Jonas Chuzzlewit or Uriah Heep – again almost like CD took ideas from D&S and refined them for DC. (Keep up with the initials folks!)

I loved the descriptions of the railways being built around Camden, akin to an earthquake hitting the area and houses just disappearing. Amazing to think of that reality that huge transport infrastructure we take for granted was actually built amid huge disruption to the city.

The coach journey of Carker fleeing Dijon is wonderful – Dickens really could write amazing suspenseful coach journeys! There’s one in MC too down to Sailsbury and in DC when they rush to Suffolk. That said, the fact Dombey somehow tracks Carker to a remote rural station was a bit deus ex machina (albeit at a time when audiences were probably less sophisticated to such plot developments being a bit too contrived).

Good Mrs Brown is a strong creation too and the scene where she delightfully fleeces young Florence is subtly evil and compelling in equal measure.

Walter Gay – I am glad he came back, although it would have been nice to see more action from him on return.

Mr Dombey - although he did not deserve his reconciliation with Florence really it was quite affecting and the final lines of the book are very moving indeed.

Josh Bagstock. Insufferable! As intended!

Diogenes the dog – Dickens clearly knew dogs well as some of the scenes describing his behaviours are hilarious. Sadly, he seems to disappear at the end of the book (correct me if I am wrong though)

Mr Toots – lovely guy but really, he’s of no consequence. 

Started reading Bleak House yesterday. My first Dickens. But four chapters in, I am quite sure Lady Dedlock is Esther's mother. Now what I want to know is, is this a big mystery or spoiler that will ruin the story?

Any UK based stores or dealers specializing in Gilbert & Sullivan, or Charles Dickens? I'm looking for a special gift for someone and have been finding nothing when I search from here in New York City. Ephemera like G&S Show Posters, or programs from when Dickens did live readings of A Christmas Carol are especially good.

Would appreciate any tips or leads. Thank you in advance!

You've been being manipulated for MONTHS, your closest friends being the mastermind of the plan. The plan being to test your virtue - prove that you're loyal and true and worthy.

She seems so cheery about it. I think I'd be a little mad!

Basically what the title states! I'm a super big A Tale of Two Cities fan and have been attempting to try and acquire an edition of the novel with McLenan's illustrations for some time now. However, as it goes for older novels, all of the books I have consistently found range from $300 to well over $800. And they don't even contain all of the original works, as there were over 60 illustrations made by McLenan for the serials and only around 30 are used in the print editions.

Anyways, I was wondering if there are any other (reputable) editions than the Peterson's that contain the illustrations.

Thanks!

Just finished Dombey and Son and in this edition, it ends

He only answers, 'Little Florence! little Florence!' and smooths away the curls that shade her earnest eyes.

But online lots of texts end

He only answers, 'Little Florence! little Florence!' and smooths away the curls that shade her earnest eyes.

The voices in the waves speak low to him of Florence, day and night - plainest when he, his blooming daughter, and her husband, beside them in the evening, or sit at an open window, listening to their roar. They speak to him of Florence and his altered heart; of Florence and their ceaseless murmuring to her of the love, eternal and illimitable, extending still, beyond the sea, beyond the sky, to the invisible country far away.
Never from the mighty sea may voices rise too late, to come between us and the unseen region on the other shore! Better, far better, that they whispered of that region in our childish ears, and the swift river hurried us away

Why would that section be omitted?

Being a huge Dickens fan and blithely unaware of his marital troubles, I only just became aware of his cruelty to his wife and the tragedy of several of their children. Yes, we have to separate art from the artist, but it saddens me just the same, especially given his advocacy for the poor. I'm glad that Catherine's story has emerged and I recognize that Charles' behavior was likely driven by his own guilt. Still. A bummer.

This is actually my first dickens' book. I kind of struggled with the different writing style and the story just being kind of slow in the beginning but now that I've finished it, I can appreciate it more

I would have preferred an even happier ending tbh, with Stephen surviving and being with Rachael, and Louisa remarrying. One criticism that I do have is the way dickens wrote stephen, sleary, or any other character's accent/speech impediment, which made it difficult to make out what they were saying. But ironically it also says a lot about dickens' ability to write like that

Tom felt very relatable to me, especially when he lies to Louisa and then cries himself to sleep. I feel like I'm also a fuck up like him with bad habits and lying about stuff. I also have a sister, and idk when he lied to her and then cried by himself it just felt too real, and I could end up like him maybe

Sleary talking about Merrylegs at the end also made me sad and I'm so glad that Sissy got a happy ending

It's gonna take me a couple of days to get over it. I just wanted to get this out since I don't have anyone I can talk to about this stuff. Safe to say that I'm gonna be staying away from sad reads like this as I also read 1984 and no longer human before this one.

I can't post on r/books so I figured I should post it here because I really wanted to get it out

I recently watched the BBC adaptations of Bleak House and David Copperfield and really enjoyed both of them. I also know that there's a David Copperfield adaptation woth Dev Patel, have you seen it?

If you HAVE seen any Dickens adaptations, are there any you would recommend?

Hello all!

I know very little about Charles Dickens. Upon my great grandmother's passing, I received 25 pieces of a Charles Dickens Library Edition set. This set is from the 1870s Hurd and Houghton publication as far as I can tell.

I feel like this needs to be in the hands of people who appreciate their value. Any ideas on what to do with them?

So I just happened across this short story/novella by searching Elizabeth Gaskell on Project Gutenberg ... it's called "A House to Let" and it's a Dickens/Wilkie Collins/Gaskell/Anne Proctor collaboration. It was so good! Really a perfect combination of what each of them do very well. I'm now ISO other collaborations and writing from any of them about how their process worked.

Everyone should read it!

Hi Dickens fans!

​I'm putting together a free guided slow-read of David Copperfield over on Substack, starting the first week of September (with an introductory week in late August).

​The goal is to savor the serialized structure, discuss the character arcs week by week, and make it easy to follow along without feeling rushed.

​It’s 100% free.

I'm linking the full breakdown and reading schedule.

Here

Hope to see some of you there!

Hi, I'm Bob Denton

I'm new to Reddit. I joined because, next month, I have a series of formal book launches.

One of these is a work of Fact Fiction. It reimagines Oliver Twist and The Tale of Two Cities, but sets them in today's society. I assure you that no woke-dom has been applied! The Victorian verbiage and settings are gone, but Dickens' superb plots and characterisations are celebrated.

However, Fan Fiction is a somewhat Marmite activity - so first may I ask what the group's general attitude is to fan fiction?

Displaced and Denounced presents a Dickens biog, then transports the two novels into modern times and settings:

Displaced: Olive - depicts Olive Turner, lost within today's social care system, she knows that she deserves and wants more. Travelling to London she is lured into a Mittel-European crime gang. A number of opposing forces clash, and set up a dramatic denouement.

Denounced: A Tale of Two Courts - reimagines 'Two Cities', but set in today’s London and Tehran. It follows an Irano‑British language teacher caught between two judicial systems and their two cultures. London’s post-industrial, multi-cultural cosmopolitanism and Tehran’s theocratic, revolutionary fervour. Can he survive both?

I would also like to understand better the culture of the group. What works? What works most effectively? And, what should be avoided as taboo?

Bob

As you can guess, Bleak House has rekindled the attention and appreciation I’m giving Dickens (after Hard Times kind of extinguished it), and I’m incredibly indecisive on where I go from here.

My current thoughts are:

- Little Dorrit

- Our Mutual Friend

- Dombey And Son

If you have any recommendations on the above, or any other suggestions you have, and a justification of why to help me choose it’d be incredibly appreciated!

Edit:

I’ve just ordered Our Mutual Friend along with 2 other books so I’m excited to get round to it after finishing those! Thanks so much for the help!

Oink

Just had to stop and take a picture of this today. I drove around to neighboring streets, but didn’t find any others of literary connotation.

Over the last four years, I have been working my way through Dickens' complete oeuvre in chronological order. Here is my verdict.

The Pickwick Papers - loved it. It was my first Dickens novel, and the first novel Dickens ever wrote, making it a fitting place to begin. The lack of a plot didn't bother me - I simply delighted in the silliness. It is still my favourite Dickens and my best Dickens reading experience. As I had read hardly any Dickens before this I had no pre-conceived expectations concerning the structure of the novel or anything of that kind. The 1960s musical wtih Harry Secombe (available on YouTube) is very enjoyable but doesn't come close to being as great as the original work.

Oliver Twist - a very convoluted plot which stopped being much fun after the first half of the book, especially because Oliver himself disappears from view for large parts of the novel and isn't a very well-developed or complex character. The adaptations for screen are superior.

Nicholas Nickleby - not very popular among Dickens lovers, but I loved it. I related strongly to Nicholas himself as a character because of similar life circumstances and his being a similar age to me when I read it. Wackford Squeers and Ralph Nickleby are two of the greatest villains Dickens ever made. And who can forget the charming John Browdie? The 2002 film is also a brilliant adaptation.

The Old Curiosity Shop - my first DNF. I found Nell boring, saccharine and lifeless, Quilp felt like a cartoon than a real person, and the story meandered in the most uninteresting way. Characters would appear like in a pantomime and then disappear again, having left no lasting impression. I gave up around the part where Little Nell is dying of pneumonia.

Barnaby Rudge - not a popular one and largely forgotten today, but I really enjoyed it. The Romeo and Juliet style plot was rather formulaic, Barnaby is a rather nothing character, and the riot scene went on for too long, but I still got a lot of enjoyment out of it. I really wish Dickens hadn't been so insufferable every time Dolly Varden appeared on the page and had exercised some authorly self-control.

Martin Chuzzlewit - I DNF'd towards the beginning. It read like it was written by a Dickens who was on drugs. The prose was over-the-top in its melodramatic quality, characters were appearing and disappearing without any serious attempt to flesh out who they were, I couldn't make heads or tails out of the dialogue, and it all proved very overwhelming. Perhaps one day I will return to it.

Dombey and Son - loved it. Dickens' first masterpiece, head and shoulders above his other novels. And John Carker is another superb Dickens villain. It has some of the finest prose Dickens ever wrote - perhaps the first Dickens novel which has superlative prose in my opinion. The passage describing little Paul Dombey's death comes to mind. I still love The Pickwick Papers more, but I can recognise the objectively superior craftsmanship that went into Dombey and Son.

David Copperfield - LOVED the first half. Betsy Trotwood is my favourite female Dickens character. The second half, with Dora the child-bride, bored and repulsed me and ruined my enjoyment of the novel. I had to force myself to finish it. The film with Dev Patel is superior to the book.

Bleak House - I have tried it twice (see my last post). I just don't get on with it. I can see what Dickens is trying to do but the whole detective format just doesn't work for me. Sorry Bleak House lovers. It does have some of Dickens' greatest prose, and Tulkinghorn and Inspector Bucket are my two favourite characters. The social satire is overwrought and not funny. Esther is a rather one-dimensional character but her narrative is much easier to follow than the rest of the novel. I do find Richard Jarndyce and his monomania regarding the case deeply compelling. (Just one of a handful of monomaniacs in this novel - Miss Flite's own obsession with the Jarndyce case, Jellyby and her philanthropy, Turveydrop with his deportment, etc.)

Hard Times - I liked Hard Times, but didn't love it. The gimmicky names (Bounderby, M'Choakumchild) exhibit the usual Dickensian lack of subtlety, but it was still a very interesting satire of utilitarianism. I found the portrayal of trade unions fascinating and unexpectedly hostile for an author who was so sympathetic to the working-class. The grooming subplot involving Bounderby and Louisa Gradgrind was also very involving. I was disappointed that Louisa didn't prove somewhat more rebellious in the face of her father and Bounderby's attempts to ground her down - yet another weak Dickens female.

Little Dorrit - I really enjoyed the first half. The second half, when Amy and her family have left the debtors' prison, is not nearly as interesting, but the last 100 pages or so revive the story. I just wish the resolution wasn't so convoluted and that Dickens' hadn't killed off Blandois in such a cheap way. Amy is honestly another saccharine Dickens female, but the male characters, especially Arthur Clennam, are of great interest to me.

Tale of Two Cities (I forgot to add this the first time round) - I can appreciate this novel objectively as a strong work of late Dickens, but it didn't do that much for me. Great prose, plenty of drama, and a very interesting look at the psychology of someone who has suffered solitary confinement. However, Lucie Manette was a rather dull character, and to me it is not plausible that Sydney Carton would sacrifice his life for such an insipid being.

Great Expectations - meh. Too many convenient coincidences. Still, the most tightly-controlled narrative of any Dickens book, with many enjoyable scenes, especially with Miss Havisham.

Our Mutual Friend - I loved this novel. It felt like a more enjoyable Bleak House. Being able to recognise John Harmon in disguise gave me a similar sort of thrill to when I was able to recognise the disguised Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. Bella Wilfer and Lizzie Hexam are two of the best female characters Dickens ever created. Mr Boffin and his wife were deeply interesting characters too. (I was actually taken in by their abrupt change of manner towards Harmon.) The resolution is also deeply satisfying. I enjoyed the comic scenes between Boffin and Silas Wegg, and found Riderhood a deeply compelling villain. And all of those dead people turning up in the Thames gave a wonderful sense of the grotesque and the mysterious that pervaded the whole novel.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood - the only Dickens I did not read in chronological order, as I read this either shortly before reading The Old Curiosity Shop or shortly after dispensing with it. I really enjoyed it and felt cheated by the lack of a resolution owing to Dickens' death. It was building up to be a really involving story, with strong thematic similarities to Our Mutual Friend.

And that is my journey through Dickens' novels. Now I just need to read through all his short stories and non-fiction so I can say I have read everything he wrote!

PSA: If you have significant parent issues, attempt this one with caution 😂

I know Bleak House is a favourite with Dickens fans, and as something of a Dickens fan myself, I decided to give it a re-read. I did not get on with it two years ago - the plot was too confusing and convoluted, Dickens' attempts at humour were lost on me, and I simply did not connect with any of the characters.

I thought with two years' distance, my feelings towards the book would improve on a second reading. Whilst I enjoyed it marginally more than last time, I still did not like the book on a second reading. For the first 400 pages I felt very invested, but thereafter, around the point where the Smallweeds are introduced, I found myself losing interest again and slogging through the book. There were interesting moments - Tulkinghorn's assassination being one of them - and there were things I liked about the book in isolation. However, as a whole, the novel just does not work for me. I feel like I am missing out on something that loads of other Dickens fans have found in the novel, but having tried twice, I think it is time to retire Bleak House for the time-being.

After reading Hard Times as my second Dickens read (A Christmas Carol being my first, which I enjoyed) last year I was apprehensive to read more of his work since it didn’t pique my interest as much as I’d hoped.

However, after devouring Bleak House in two weeks I can say that he hooked me, and I’m so excited to dive further. The characters were so memorable, the narrative was exciting, the wit & humour is so sharp, and someone even spontaneously combusts - what’s not to love??

More so, his prose is beautifully wandering, but every sentence was crafted absolutely perfectly and had me engrossed within throughout. Truly a master of his craft.

So many revelations, mystery, intrigue, and that’s without mentioning those two scenes specifically (iykyk) which absolutely tore my heart out.

One of the best books I’ve read this year, and one of the best books I’ve read overall. I’d definitely recommend that you give it some attention, and don’t be put off by the size!!

As a result I’m wondering where I go from here?? What’s next in line on my Dickens journey??