[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 16 KB, 283x382, dickens.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1332935 No.1332935 [Reply] [Original]

So, I've just read A Christmas Carol and enjoyed it, but it was far too short. Now I know that Dickens wrote some big-ass books, and I was wondering which of these were your favorite.

>> No.1332951

The Mystery of Edwin Drood was pretty good...Oh wait..

>> No.1332962

>>1332951
Anything he's actually finished?

>> No.1332974

Our Mutual Friend is god-tier. You would like David Copperfield as well.

>> No.1332985

>>1332974

I've heard good things about Our Mutual Friend, but very little of Copperfield. Still, I've certainly read niether and humbly thank you.

>> No.1333112

My advice is to dive right into Bleak House. It's long, but surprisingly sprightly, huge, but very rich and complex too; immerse yourself in it for as many days or weeks as it takes to finish and the rewards will be great. To me it has all the most essential elements of Dickens' writing packed in together with all his worst tendencies kept in check or effectively used. Anyway, there's something special that only a big wide-angle huge-canvas long-ass book can give you.

Hard Times makes an interesting read. It's the opposite - hyperfocused Dickens, concise and intense. I don't like it. I think it shows up his flaws (didacticism, caricature, melodrama, intrusive, over-obvious symbolism). But it showcases his immense descriptive skill.

Bleak House remains THE BEST OF ALL DICKENS.

>> No.1333130

>>1333112
I dont think Bleak House is a good place to start at all. I tried to read it like 5 years ago after some of his other novels but found it way to difficult. & its also the period where his writing got technically challenging whereas most people prefer the earlier stuff (im not saying its not as good but you have to work harder to 'get it' compared to his other stuff).

>> No.1333134

BLEAK HOUSE

>> No.1333211

>>1333130

I can't comment on its difficulty except to say that I read it at 18, just before going to university, and found it readable enough. It's down to the individual.

But we think of Dickens as such a stodgy constant of the canon. That's why it's good to read Bleak House - where his writing is in many ways pretty experimental, far more so than even a lot of books released today (compare the achingly, tiresomely conventional 'Kite Runner). You get Dickens as a risk-taker, as an interesting artist engaged in serious work, not the stale home-baked christmas cake so often thought of.

Dickens is often more exciting and surprising than one expects (Little Dorritt, I think, is another good one?) - he's an incredibly lively writer. But Bleak House is his most badass performance.

>> No.1333231

>>1333211
well i havent read it yet so it might be an age thing like you say