He delivered 87 around the UK in less than a year. Dickens, in short, was a fascinating man up to and including his very last moment. There are few better distractions or sources of solace in art. And his works are available for free on Project Gutenberg, which helps as the lockdown continues in many parts of the world. Dickens can immerse you in a scene entirely. He wrote a number of other Xmas stories. Thanks for the recommendations! I will add all of these to my ever growing!
When I was living in Slovakia, books in English were few and far between and very expensive on a Peace Corps budget. I spent one joyous winter re-reading the works of Charles Dickens.
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Like this: Like Loading Who is the illustrator? Yoishi Loading The Pickwick Papers is the perfect, witty novel to get you into Dickens. The book tells the life story of David Copperfield, from his birth in Suffolk, through the various struggles of his childhood, to his successful career as a novelist.
Scenes of London Life offers a genuine window into Victorian London through satirical short stories that take you from the colourful chaos of gin-shops to the destitution of pawnshops. If you want to be transported to another place, Scenes of London Life is an accessible way in. The novel was the last that Dickens completed, and is a savage indictment of the corrupting power of money. As an introduction to Dickens, I have just completed Bleak House. What a wonderful book! Many an hour did I spend reading long excerpts to my fiancee.
Dickens is probably my favorite author and picking out the best is hard to do. The Mystery of Edwin Drood might have been my favorite if Dickens had lived to complete.
I read it in denial, knowing it was going to end only half finished, and yet hoping against all hope to see the mystery revealed. I have read most of his novels but I first came to love Dickens while reading this veiled autobiography. If someone read Dickens with not a critical eye but a affectionate and understanding mind,David Copperfield will certainly be the best.
The reader just needs to feel the pulses of the writer while reading. I have to have Dickins on my bedside table at all times. Bleak House is so wonderful to read and what full bodied characters Mr. Dickens presents in this story. Esther Summerson gives us a higher standard of what can be done with meager beginnings especially in present day society where no standard has become the status quo.
Shake me up Judy! Such sneaking regard for the sheer joy of The Pickwick Papers! I would like to put in a claim, though, for the somewhat overlooked early novels, if only for their sheer energy, exuberance and sense of fun. Nickleby and Chuzzlewit are both highly entertaining books, once they get past their opening chapters, and I would also give mention to Barnaby Rudge. At the other extreme I agree with Ken above about the sheer energy of the earlier novels. What a pity, though, that he never read Jane Austen.
Bleak House, absolutely 1. I also have a personal affection for Pickwick Papers because I had the most fun reading it. I have not read them all, but clearly Bleak House is a great great novel and if the majority here think it the best, who am I to disagree?
And I admit to have read it eight times since High School and never tire of it. My copy was picked up at a jumble sale. You do these things, for things that are precious. Funniest , The Pickwick Papers. The best written , life affirming and my personal favourite , Great Expectations.
Dombey and Son 2. Bleak House 4. A Tale of Two Cities 5. Hard Times 7. David Copperfield. Incredible imagery and impact and desperately sad. My definite least favourite is Great Expectations. It was a trial to get through in high school and I gave up on it when I pickd it up a few years later. The others? Nearly all a good read although Oliver Twist is hard pressed to judge. We know the plot before reading the novel. Some novels like the Pickwick Papers can be selectively read. David Copperfield?
I love David Copperfield so, so much. But none came close to the sublime experience I had reading David Copperfield. I never thought a book could transport me to another place and time like The Hobbit did for me when I read it at age 14 on the banks of the Columbia River, until I read a great hardback pring of David Copperfield at age 22 in the lonely confines of a cheap studio apartment by the light of an oil lamp.
Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Like many people, I was saddened when it was publicized that Philip Roth had quietly announced his retirement in an interview with a French magazine.
By chance, the news came near the end of a year during which my attitude toward Roth changed from appreciation to obsession. This year, I read 15 Roth novels in a row, the literary equivalent of binge-watching multiple seasons of a serial television drama.
The more I read, the more I appreciated how Roth writes not only with technical virtuosity and aesthetic mastery, but also with profound spiritual intent. In this way, he reminds me of the year-old Japanese master chef portrayed in the recent documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. At the top of their fields and now in their twilight years, both come across as men who vacillate between narcissism and humility, perfectionists for whom life is work and work is life.
I hope these inspire fans to revisit his books, detractors to give him another try, and newcomers to read him for the first time. Work hard. With 31 books in 51 years — from Goodbye Columbus to Nemesis , Roth cranked out copy like Danielle Steele , James Patterson , or Stephen King , not like a precious literary genius. But he just kept on writing. But his recent books are equally elegant, the kind of short novels that demand to be read in one sitting. If you think you work too hard, think about Roth and think again.
People are animals. Their lives are filled with sex, mostly adulterous sex, mostly sex with younger women. In his silliest novel, The Breast , a philandering professor David Kepesh wakes up to discover that he has become a giant mammary.
For all the misery their lust causes them and their wives and lovers, these guys rarely seem to learn from — or apologize for — their peccadilloes. While these tales both celebrate and caution against lechery, they are not pornography.
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