Bleak House by Charles Dickens

This is one of those books that I tried to read several times, but failed. In this case, it was mostly due to one of the major points of the book, but more on that later. However, after having seen the fabulous (imho) BBC production of Bleak House with Gillian Anderson et al (the full cast is amazing), I decided I had to read the book. That was over a year ago and it was so good, I’ve just read it for the second time.

Back to the reason I had difficulties reading this: One of the main points Dickens was making when writing this was that the justice system at the time was slow to function, costly and not necessarily just. To illustrate this, he goes on and on (and on…and then on some more) about how the various members of the Chancery and legal system pass the buck from one to the other, each taking their fee, until finally nothing was done and there is no money left totake. His makes his point quite well with the unfortunate side effect that it can be very difficult to wade through this and get to the actual story which is brilliant.

Esther Summerson is an orphaned girl who grows up with her evil godmother, but despite her upbringing, has a good heart. Once her godmother dies and she finishes school, she is brought together with Ada and Richard, two wards in the famous Jarndyce and Jarndyce case. Together they travel on to live with John Jarndyce, a kindly older gentleman, who has offered them all a home with him at Bleak House. Esther becomes his housekeeper and friend to Ada while Richard is encouraged in two things by John Jarndyce: one to find an occupation he can carry out for the rest of his life, the second is to at all costs avoid getting sucked into the Jarndyce case. He knows from personal experience that it ruins men.

Meanwhile, there is a mystery afoot. Lady Honoria Dedlock, wife to sir Leichester Dedlock Baronet, has come across legal letters presented to her husband by the family lawyer, Mr. Tulkinghorn. She recognizes the handwriting and asks Mr. Tulkinghorn if he knows who wrote them. This simple inquiry makes Mr. Tulkinghorn suspicious and he sets off to find out why Lady Dedlock is interested in who wrote the letters, ostensibly because he feels himself dedicated to preserving the Dedlock honour, but mostly because he likes the feeling of power it gives him.

This race to find the man who wrote the letters and why he is so important is tangled up with many different lines that run through the novel. There is the question of Esther’s parentage, who her godmother was and why she was so convinced that it would have been better had Esther not been born. Mr. Guppy comes into play when he sets out to find the answer before Mr. Tulkinghorn in an attempt to impress both Esther and Lady Dedlock. Since all those involved are also involved in Jarndyce and Jarndyce does that mean there is a connection between the two? In essence, within all of the social critique and simple stories, there is an element of mystery that keeps the reader hooked.

In addition to the Jarndyce/Dedlock/Summerson story line, there are many, many sub-plots. So many that it’s actually quite difficult to separate them, especially as most of them are bound together at one level or another. Dickens introduces so many extraordinary characters like Harold Skimpole (I will never forgive Nathaniel Parker for playing him so well that I find it hard to like him any more), Mrs. Flite, Krook Guppy and Smallweed (same to Phil Davis – it’s your own fault I associate you with villans now Phil!). It’s amazing how much of life Dickens managed to capture in all these characters. I often find myself thinking of them when I meet people who share characteristics or in situations where you can just picture then taking part.

There’s only one thing I don’t like about the book but I won’t mention it here since it would spoil it for those who haven’t read the book. I will say that it pertains to Lady Dedlock and that is arguably the more appropriate than my preference would have been (if you’ve read the book/seen the movie, you’ll understand what I mean). If you haven’t read the book, what are you waiting for?!? If you can’t get through the book, treat yourself to the 2005 BBC mini-series. You won’t regret it.

The is definitely and well deservedly a 5 out of 5 book.

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

John Harmon is a young man who was sent away in anger to school abroad. He remains estranged from his father and only returns to England upon his father’s death. According to the will, he will only receive his inheritance if he marries Miss Bella Wilfer as his father stipulated. Unfortunately for him, he goes missing on the journey home and is found drown later in the Thames. A mysterious man, Julius Handford, claiming to be a friend of John Harmon, arrives to help indentify the body and then promptly disappears.

Since John is dead, the money then goes to Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, old employees. They are a kind, friendly, jovial, but naïve couple who accept the inheritance and share it freely with others in need. Shortly afterwards, John Rokesmith contrives to meet Mr. Boffin and secure a position as his personal secretary and assistant. Mr. Boffin accepts the offer and Mr. Rokesmith is hired. At the same time, Mr. Boffin asks Miss Wilfer to come and live with them as compensation for the loss of her fiancée and therefore of all her prospects. However, as time goes on, the money goes to Mr. Boffin’s head, and he begins to turn into a miser.

There’s also a subplot revolving around the daughter of the waterman who brings John Harmon home. Lizie Hexam realizes that her brother is worthy of a much better life than he is destined for should he remain with his father, so she arranges to send him off to school before his father can stop her. She later becomes entangled in a love triangle with her brother’s headmaster and Eugene Wrayburn, a friend of the lawyer who in charge of the Boffin inheritance.

That’s the basic set up of the novel, but it is, in reality, quite a bit more complicated. There are a myriad of people who come and go in different settings, giving the reader a good idea of what life in the different social spheres is like. The upper class is incensed at the rise of such uneducated, unrefined people like Mr. and Mrs. Boffin and spurns them, while several of the lower class plot and scheme to somehow loosen Mr. Boffin’s hold on his money. As a woman, Lizzie Hexam finds herself fighting for her freedom as the two men wrangle over her affections. Most of the plots deal with money and how it affects the lives of the people in the different social stratospheres. There are also, as in all of Dickens’ works, glimpses of social ailments and injustices which need attention. Without ever directly saying as much, he demonstrates why and how society needs to be changed for the better and also how kindness can be its own reward.

Again, it’s a very verbose novel (which of Dickens’ isn’t?), but it’s really one of his best. The plot is complicated, but it’s ingeniously crafted so that all of the elements somehow fit together to create the whole story. The only criticism I have is that some of the characters’ actions can seem a bit forced. Dickens’ does work with larger than life characters, but it occasionally doesn’t seem to work. Some are too good and some go bad without real impetus. However, for the most part, they are good, solid characters, so with a little willing suspension of disbelief, you can easily ignore the failings.

All in all, it’s a great book and well deserved of a 5 out of 5.

Challenges:
Classics Challenge 2010
Typically British

A Christmas Carol

This is actually a repeat of my post for last year. I can't really think of anything to add to it (well, I could, but it would probably really start to bore people because I tend to get a little excited about the book), or change, so I'm just re-posting. Bit of a cheat really, but at least I'm owning it.

What can I say? It’s one of my all-time favourite books and I read it every year at Christmas time. It’s a little on the kitschy side with Scrooge’s utter reversal of characters, but it’s cheery and Christmassy and it’s nice to think that there was a happy ending for all. I found out just this year that this work was responsible for a Christmas revival in England. Apparently many Christmas traditions had been dying out and the season was becoming a rather dreary one, but Scrooge helped turn it around and make Christmas a festive season again. It’s fantastic that one book, one written to pay off debts no less, is responsible for doing so much.

One aspect I like about the story is that it shows not only what Scrooge has become, but what he once was as well. When introduced to people and characters with negative attitudes or mean dispositions, we often assume this is the way they have always been. It’s like imagining that your mother was once young and careless, which seems so impossible when she’s become the complete opposite in the meantime. Scrooge was once a happy person who knew how to laugh and celebrate. He became, or let himself become, what he was as a result of his experiences and disappointments in life and not because he was born dour and mean. It’s a warning to us all not to let ourselves become our own enemies. Fred has it right when he says that Scrooge is the one suffering for all his misery and not the people around him. Looked upon in that light, Scrooge could be considered to be damned twice over, once in life and once after death.

Of course, you could argue that had Scrooge never known what it was like to be happy and make others happy, his “cure” would never have worked. It was all more of a revival of his old self than the creation of a new man. Again, this ties in with the revival of the Christmas spirit in the time. It was once and just needed to be revived.

Finally, I think this book must say quite a bit about its author. Dickens was apparently quite an odd man and possibly not as moral as he should have been, but he must have been an intrinsically good, compassionate human being to have been able to write a book out of which so much good came.

An easy and enjoyable read for all ages. Love it.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

I was introduced to A Tale of Two Cities in high school and immediately fell in love with it. As with many of Dickens’ books, it’s just a bloody good yarn.

The book is more of a tangled web than a book with things disappearing from the plot, only to return later in a completely different context but with much dramatic effect. A good, short summary is impossible, especially without giving anything away. It begins with the Dr. Manettes “return to life” after having been a prisoner in the Bastille for 18 years. He is withdrawn and lost in his own world; it’s almost like he has been forgotten and left to sink to his own death as best he can. The only person able to bring him back from the depths is his daughter, Lucy, who does the best she can to help him and does succeed to a great degree after they bring the doctor back to England.

Meanwhile, the erstwhile servant of Dr. Manette, M. Defarge, has begun a revolutionary group to fight the injustice of the aristocracy in France. Along with his wife, Madame Defarge, he is in charge of condemning the aristocracy and recording their crimes, a record of which is knitted into Madame Defarge’s work readable only by herself, to be used as evidence when the time is right for revolution. Eventually the revolution does begin and Manettes, along with Lucy’s husband, Charles Darnay, are drawn into the dangers of France and Paris during a revolution which saw the deaths of hundreds of French aristocrats, regardless of their true guilt or innocence.

One thing that struck me after this reading was how evil human beings really are. On the one hand, there are the aristocrats, who generally treat the common people with such utter contempt and disregard that it’s easy to see where the impetus for the revolution came from. However, the revolutionists, personified in the book by the Defarges, are so zealous in their attempts to stamp out the outrageous behaviour of the aristocrats, that they become just as contemptible, and just as guilty, as the aristocracy. It’s like when the political left swings so far left that they almost become the political right. What starts out as retribution becomes a blood bath for both the guilty and the innocent. The revolutionists become like misers counting their spoils, only with them, it’s heads they’re counting instead of coins.

Dickens, as always, has brilliant characters who inspire sympathy and hate in equal measures on both sides. The two sides, or cities, play off each other to strengthen the impression they give the reader. Lucy is the epitome of love and innocence while Madame Defarge is the personification of evil inspired by revenge and the desire for power. Dickens also verbally draws his characters so well that it’s quite easy to picture them. Madame Defarge is forever imprinted in my brain as a wizened little woman sneering evilly to herself as she knits her condemnation into her work, while Lucy all but has the golden halo above her head.

I could go on forever, but I’ll spare you my verbosity. I love this book and always will. I can especially recommend it to any first time Dickens readers since it is the shortest, yet one of the most powerful books he wrote. 5 out of 5 for this one.

Martin Chuzzelwit by Charles Dickens

Having heard that Dickens considered this book one of his best works, I was quite looking forward to reading it. It’s always interesting to see what an author likes best out of his own works as it gives a bit of insight into his own personality, only in this instance, I can’t quite put my finger on what he must have liked about it, or not for certain anyway.

The book is actually not just about Martin Chuzzelwit, but about the extended Chuzzelwit family. Martin Chuzzelwit the Senior is simply the head of the family who sets events in motion. Much of the book is about the how the characters deal with what Martin Sr. has put into motion. The whole story becomes very complicated with all of the characters who are involved. It can be a bit difficult to remember who is related to whom and how and if not related, how are they involved in the story. As much as I’d love to go into all of the characters and who is who and related to whom how, it would take an age to do so, so I’ll just refer anyone who’s interested to the Wiki page (Spoiler warning! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_and_Adventures_of_Martin_Chuzzlewit) where there’s already a good list.

The short version is that Martin and Anthony Chuzzelwit are two wealthy brothers who both lose their trust in humankind as they assume that everyone is out after their money. Such is Martin’s fear that he hires a young girl, Mary, as a servant and pays her well with the understanding that as soon as he dies, she will get no more out of him. This is supposed to ensure that she puts all her efforts into making sure that he lives as long as possible. He trusts none of his relatives because he “knows” that they want him dead so they can inherit his money. Unfortunately, Martin Sr.’s grandson, Martin the younger, falls in love with Mary and intends to marry her. That would, of course, destroy Mary’s disinterestedness in Martin Sr.’s will, so he disinherits Martin the younger who must then go off and seek his fortune alone, ultimately leading him to abandon England for the United States to try his fortune there.

The story’s villain is Mr. Pecksniff, a cousin of the Chuzzelwits who uses their mistrust of others and the absence of Martin to insinuate himself into a place of importance in old Martin’s life. He sucks up and brown noses Martin Sr. to the point of becoming an emetic. Both Pecksniff and his two daughters are a cause of outrage to the reader as he goes about promoting himself, especially by defaming honest people, whenever he feels it will be to his advantage. His is literally prepared to do anything to secure his own comfort, and is introduced into the story as a “teacher” of architecture who actually passes off his pupil’s work as his own and gleans both credit and money for the work. His character becomes more and more devious and audacious as time passes and he feels himself more secure in receiving an inheritance from Martin Sr.

There are many, many side and sub plots in the novel and it eventually begins to bounce back and forth between the US and England. The US does not come out smelling of roses, however, Dickens was very careful about printing his own comments about the American episodes with the novels. He begs his audience to take the book as fiction and to forgive him for his rather exaggerated portrayal of the more negative traits of the Americans. He was actually quite fond of the country and it’s people, but it did serve his purpose in making certain points about Martin the Younger’s personality and character development. My only qualm with this was that he should have put it at the beginning of the novel and not at the end, at least in all printings of the book which took place after completion of the series (This was another of Dickens’ serial works. He didn’t intend to send Martin to America from the outset, but changed his mind after the first parts had been published.).

Did I like the book? Yes and no. I found that some parts dragged and some were really suspenseful. Many of his larger than life characters really got on my nerves, specifically I would have liked to smack the Americans for being so annoying and Martin the Younger for being so stupid and gullible. Pecksniff really gets up your nose on occasion too. Still, it’s a good work and I’m not sorry to have read it. I’m giving it a 3 out of 5 rating, 2 points lost of annoying characters and occasionally dragging bits.

In my bid to finish all of Dickens’ works I still have the following to read:

The Old Curiosity Shop
Dombey & Son
Hard Times
Our Mutual Friend
The Mystery of Edwin Drood

I’m curious how I’ll like these in comparison. I’ll be sure to let you know when I’m done with them :0)

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens wrote some very good stories in his time, but I have to admit that this particular work isn't going to make it onto my favourites list. The Pickwick Papers is basically a collection of short stories involving the same characters, Gentlemen all belonging to The Pickwick Club, which tell the tale of their humorous travels and trials around England.

Mr. Pickwick is a like-able fellow who starts up a club with his name and then starts off on adventures of his own with a couple of the club members. As the stories continue, characters come and go and come again, which can be slightly confusing with time. The stories themselves are amusing for the most part. Dickens is obviously taking the micky out of life in England at the time. The Law, social customs and courtship all feature heavily and are all made fun of in their turn. As I was reading (or listening as the case was), I couldn't help but think that they would have been hugely entertaining for people living in the day. However, I'm fairly certain there were many little hints a references I missed simply because I don't know enough about the era. Even though this obviously isn't Dickens' fault, it did detract from my enjoyment of the book.

This all makes it rather hard to rate The Pickwick Papers. I think for anyone who has a better grasp of history and the mid to late 19th century, this would be a great read. Alas, since I don't, it only rates a 3 out of 5 for me personally. Worth a read, but it's not something I'll read again any time soon. I prefer the novels with more cohesive, direct stories.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

First off, I just have to mention that I listened to David Copperfield rather than read it. I have the version narrated by Martin Jarvis (published by BBC WW) and his narration was nothing short of brilliant. He really made the characters come to life and coloured in the story. It was like seeing a black and white film in colour for the first time. I'm working my way through all of Dickens books and am really glad I got this particular audio version. I'll certainly be looking forward to hearing more of Jarvis. He made even the slower bits entertaining, although I think I could have done without getting to know Mr. Micawber quite as well as I did though his narration (tongue in cheek). Sometimes Dickens does go just a bit over the top with his characters sometimes.

Even though this is one of the most well known of Dickens works, it’s not one I would recommend to someone as their first Dickens novel. It’s quoted in Wikipedia as being the most autobiographical of Dickens’ works, which I suspect is largely due to it’s first person narration. David Copperfield himself tells you about his life from the time he was a little lad at The Rookery. The first half of the book can be a bit slow in events at times, so if you don’t care for Dickens or haven’t read any of his works yet, I could see that it might be a bit tedious. The second half more than makes up for this though. I really found myself enjoying it once Copperfield reached an age where he was able to control his own life somewhat.

This book, or perhaps the fact that I listened to it rather than read it, made me realize that one thing you must have to enjoy Dickens’ works is a good imagination. You can’t just read about what the characters are doing, you have to picture their actions to make it interesting. Once you start to do that, you can begin to appreciate his use of descriptive language rather than just finding it tediously long and circumspect. I suspect that’s always what I’ve rather liked about Dickens, but just hadn’t realized it so concretely. The scene where he mentions the cell window being six or seven deep in men’s heads as the jostle for a better position takes on much more of a comic atmosphere when you picture it happening instead of just reading about it.

If you like Dickens, you’ll love this one, if you don’t, you may want to try the audio book (which I can recommend either way). I loved it and will certainly read it again sometime.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Another brilliant story from a man who was a master of telling a good tale, even if he is occasionally a tad wordy. I think if Dickens had had a good editor, his books would only have been half as long as they are.

Great Expectations is almost a reversal of the usual Dickens’ tale. Instead of beginning with a good, meek, kind-heated child who overcomes having been victimised by both his situation in life and the world around him, he starts with a young boy of lower class who has a decent, if poor home, good friends and love and turns him into an ungrateful being by providing him with unexpected and unmerited wealth. In this light, Great Expectations is a more mature, or realistic, work than many of his others. It is more likely that a child will become greedy than it is that he will remain good-hearted and meek regardless of being ill treated.

Pip is an average boy growing up in an average village with his sister and her husband Joe. He is expected to grow up and live the same sort of life as they, following in Joe’s footsteps at the forge. One night, entirely by chance and accident, the course of Pip’s life is changed when he meets an escaped convict out on the moors. Pip helps the convict by providing him with food and a file to remove himself of his chains. The point is, however, not how he helped him, but why. Pip didn’t do it out of pity or kind-heartedness, but out of fear. He was petrified of the convict and of the consequences of helping him out. Although his fear can be excused by the simple fact that he is a child, his actions having arisen from his fear and not from compassion for a fellow sufferer are pivotal for the development of the story.

After the convict is discovered and returned to the ship from which he escaped, life goes on pretty much as before. He eventually is sent for my Mrs. Havisham, who ostensibly needs him as a companion. In reality, she has designed Pip to grow up and love Miss Estella, who is destined by Miss Havisham to break Pip’s heart in revenge for her own jilting years before. Pip eventually realises what Miss Havisham is doing, but is still unable to avoid falling into the trap laid for him. His desperation at his unrequited love, his longing to break through the evil spell Miss Havisham has cast on both him and Estella, and his disappointment at not being able to do so all help to further focus Pip’s attention onto himself and his own misery.

Having set Pip up in the manner, Dickens suddenly ejects Pip from a life of toil without his beloved Estella into a life of idle luxury, when he comes into great expectations of wealth and property. He does not know who his secret benefactor is. He is only told that it will not be revealed to him until his benefactor deems it appropriate, thus Pip assumes it must be the only wealthy person he knows, Miss Havisham. Pip, grasping at straws, unknowingly uses his assumption to set himself up for even more heartache, namely by assuming that if Miss Havisham is his benefactor, that he must also be destined for Estella as well.

At this point the reader might assume that all will continue well for Pip, but his own fear, avarice and thoughtlessness take Pip on an entirely different course. Dickens sets Pip up like this in order to show that money alone will not cure social ailments, as perhaps some of his other works have suggested. Wealth can be its own curse and corrupter as well as being a boon, and Pip falls to it’s darker side. In this sense, Dickens’ title is apt. Expectations are after all, only expectations and not given facts. Just because a person is given the means to do good, does not mean that he will choose that course. As mentioned, Pip’s earlier experiences in life have already started to lead him down an entirely different path, which the introduction of wealth facilitates rather than changes.

It’s all actually quite clever when you think about it. Had Pip been another Oliver Twist who had absolutely nothing and no hopes of ever having anything, he might have been more kind-hearted and fallen less of a pray to worldly evils. He might have developed sympathy for others in the same situation as he. However, Pip was provided with the basics of life from the beginning and had people who cared about him. This paradoxically helped to make him the selfish creature he became instead of a second Oliver. It makes one wonder if Oliver would have been a less caring and happy creature had he had a different start to life or if it is his suffering and the resulting compassion that made him what he was.

Again, another good story with more good life lessons. Two thumbs up for Great Expectations.

A Christmas Carol and Other Stories

Again another work by Dickens. I’ve already reviewed A Christmas Carol, so I won’t go into it again. The other novels were interesting in their own way, but much less Christmassy. The lacked a certain something, but I can’t really pin point what. Scrooge just made a better subject to write about. Having said that, I did quite like The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain. I suppose that might be because he’s a more Scrooge-like character than the rest. It’s interesting to see the effects of the bargain he struck with his ghost, especially as regards the effects of his new coldness on others. It kind of reminds me of the driver’s education videos we saw during my driver’s training courses where they show how one person who reacts kindly while driving causes others to react the same way, whereas the nasty ones make everyone miserable. He’s also given the chance for redemption, which he happily embraces and the story has a nice ending which gives you a warm feeling.

The other stories in the collection sometimes seemed a bit wordy and obscure, but I may re-read the book at some point, just to see if I can get a better grasp on them.

Little Dorrit

This is another one of Mr. Dickens epic works. I read it in audio book format, which ran 47 hours, so it’s not for people who like to finish books quickly.

I liked this book for many different reasons. It seemed a bit gentler than many of Dickens’ other works in that there wasn’t an out and out villain, as in Oliver Twist or Nicholas Nickleby. Even Rigaud wasn’t as evil as I was expecting him to be. I think Dickens was wise to tone down the exaggerations in his characters, otherwise they threaten to become quite boring in their wickedness.

It was, on the other hand, a more complicated story than the other books and I had to read many passages over again just to make sure that I had understood them correctly. Of course, the government at the time, especially its legal and financial departments, was anything but transparent. Even the people who should have known how it functioned had either given up trying to decipher it, or never bothered to try in the first place. Had he made the story too easy to understand, it would have detracted from that particular point, so I can forgive him for it.

What I particularly liked about the story was its portrayal of the debtor’s prison, the Marshalsea. The description is fairly vile, but Dickens makes a few good points about it. The first of which is that while Mr. Dorrit really isn’t happy to go to prison, the very act of being shut away brought him a sense of peace. He no longer had to live in dread of what would happen to him, he no longer had to fear his creditors and he was basically taken care up at public expense. His relief at being locked away, safe from the public brings to light the contradiction of locking a man up and paying for his bare minimum, when he could be out working to pay for himself and to pay off his debts. Debtor’s prisons were, in fact, a sort of governmentally sanctioned kidnap of the person in order to ransom him for the sum of his debts since the aim was to move his family and friends to pay the debtor’s debt for him. In a case such as Mr. Dorrit’s, where no such means were available, locking him in prison was pointless and only served to make his children idol and base by not allowing them amongst people who might set better examples.

Typically Dickens, was the presence of kind-hearted people throughout the story who were willing to help the Dorrit family, and later Mr. Clenham, out in their state of dire need. Both inmates and non-inmates alike were there to help Little Dorrit out in her bid to keep her family from falling apart completely. Basically, there was enough goodness to go around to help balance out the enmity of life, so the all around tone of the book was a positive one.

Of course there were the silly characters one loves to hate like all of the Dorrits, except Amy, Mrs. Clenham, and Flora, who were all annoying to one extent or the other. There were also the villains like Rigaud and Flintwich to spice the story up a bit, so it never got boring despite not keeping up with the pace of Oliver Twist. I quite liked this book and can recommend it to anyone.

A Christmas Carol

I should have reviewed this book ages ago, but completely forgot.

What can I say? It’s one of my all-time favourite books and I read it every year at Christmas time. It’s a little on the kitschy side with Scrooge’s utter reversal of characters, but it’s cheery and Christmassy and it’s nice to think that there was a happy ending for all. I found out just this year that this work was responsible for a Christmas revival in England. Apparently many Christmas traditions had been dying out and the season was becoming a rather dreary one, but Scrooge helped turn it around and make Christmas a festive season again. It’s fantastic that one book, one written to pay off debts no less, is responsible for doing so much.

One aspect I like about the story is that it shows not only what Scrooge has become, but what he once was as well. When introduced to people and characters with negative attitudes or mean dispositions, we often assume this is the way they have always been. It’s like imagining that your mother was once young and careless, which seems so impossible when she’s become the complete opposite in the meantime. Scrooge was once a happy person who knew how to laugh and celebrate. He became, or let himself become, what he was as a result of his experiences and disappointments in life and not because he was born dour and mean. It’s a warning to us all not to let ourselves become our own enemies. Fred has it right when he says that Scrooge is the one suffering for all his misery and not the people around him. Looked upon in that light, Scrooge could be considered to be damned twice over, once in life and once after death.

Of course, you could argue that had Scrooge never known what it was like to be happy and make others happy, his “cure” would never have worked. It was all more of a revival of his old self than the creation of a new man. Again, this ties in with the revival of the Christmas spirit in the time. It was once and just needed to be revived.

Finally, I think this book must say quite a bit about its author. Dickens was apparently quite an odd man and possibly not as moral as he should have been, but he must have been an intrinsically good, compassionate human being to have been able to write a book out of which so much good came.

An easy and enjoyable read for all ages. Love it.

Oliver Twist

It’s funny, but I had tried to read Oliver Twist before, but never got much further than the description of the workhouse and its residence. Reading it this time, however, I realized that it’s just a bloody good book. The story, although at times a little unrealistic, which we’ll forgive because it’s Dickens and he’s trying to make his point through exaggeration, is addicting. Never a dull moment, so to speak. It takes so many twists and turns that you can hardly help wondering what will happen next. It might have been quite the cliff hanger, if I hadn’t read, or rather listened to, it all the way through within a couple of days. It’s certainly a book I’ll read again.

Oliver is a boy who is born into abject poverty in a workhouse and remains a ward of the parish until the age of nine when some unfortunate circumstances lead to him being apprenticed out to a mortuary. Throughout the entire book, it seems as though his changing circumstances might night be as bad as all that for him, but for the greed of his fellow human beings. At every turn Oliver is ill-treated and ill-used, with only very few people willing to help him, and most of those are unable to do so to the full extent of their desire. As I said, it’s a little extreme, but most of Dickens works are and he uses this to highlight both the failings and the successes of society while raising up the attributes he feels people as a whole should be striving towards. Oddly enough, it’s really only the successes one finds so difficult to believe in. It’s quite obvious that no child would or could ever be as good hearted as Oliver, especially having had his start in life, but it’s quite easy to believe that the villains of the story are all as bad as Dickens describes them.

Part of what makes the book so good is that Dickens so accurately portrays the motives and interests of the characters, meaning that he seems to have given quite a bit of thought as to how each of his characters would react given the circumstances. Nancy, even when offered a much better life in exchange for allowing herself to be taken out of the gutter, refuses to grab on to her one chance because of her love for a scoundrel. It would have been to utopic for her to be grateful and to say yes. So while Dickens is willing to rely on a bit of willing suspension of disbelief, he’s not totally dependent on it. It’s his trueness to the characters themselves and not the exaggeration of their general dispositions that makes the book so intriguing a read and keeps it from becoming all together too soppy.

What I also like about Dickens in general, and in particular in this book, is that Dickens gives us a view into several different levels of society. You don’t just see the upper class, or upper middle class, but everything from the truly wealthy to wretched poverty. Not only that, but he also gives you insight into what each class thought of the other, be it by showing how Nancy reacts to Rose Maylie or though Mr. Bumble’s and the Board’s thoughts on the paupers. Granted, you do have to temper all of these scenes to get a true picture of what life was like, but reading the book with that knowledge proves very interesting.

So, truly Dickensian, excellent plot, good characters, and a good view of life in the age, in short, one really good read.

Nicholas Nickelby

This was a really fun book. There are heroes, heroines, villains, and unsavoury characters aplenty throughout the story and the twist and turns it takes before coming to it’s conclusion are enough to keep you wondering just what was going to happen next. The book was originally released as series released on a monthly bases for which even the Americans were clamouring for the next instalment. It’s easy to imagine them waiting for the next episode to reach them and then sitting around together reading, discussing and conjecturing about what would happen next. In some respects, it’s quite like a popular soap opera in which the viewer can’t wait to see what dastardly plans the villain will come up with next and just how the hero(ine) will get themselves out of a seemingly impossible situation.

Despite all of the hardships they suffer, the Nickelbys remain cheerful and are ready to do what they must to survive, which keeps the reader rooting for them. Their kind heartedness and refusal to discriminate against people who aren’t in the same class as themselves are not only pleasant to read about, but are also the reason they are able to elevate themselves in the end. Without the help of people who are either as or more down trodden than themselves, they would have remained penniless and unable to thwart their evil uncle’s plans. In general, it’s Dicken’s usual style of pointing out human and social faults while showing the reader the means to remedy them, or at least make them bearable. I found myself thinking as I was reading that Dickens must have been a very kind hearted man, otherwise he could not have praised the advantages of kind heartedness and generosity and make convivial company seem so inviting.

The other thought that kept crossing my mind as I read, was that Ralph Nickelby could have been Scrooge for all of this evilness, hatred and greed. I wonder just how long his chain was when he finally died and if he was ever able to stop roaming the earth, or if he’s still there, trying to escape his heavy burden of sin.

All in all a good book which I can recommend to anyone.