Happy Birthday Charles Dickens

[charliesmum]

200 years ago Charles Dickens was born.

What's your favourite book/story of his? (Presuming you enjoy his works, that is.)

Mine is Our Mutual Friend. I think it's his masterpiece. The characters are amazing, and the story is fantastic. Complicated but great.

My favourite bit is the fact that he created a good Jewish character because a Jewish woman wrote to him and told him he wasn't doing them any favours by creating Fagin. He listened, and he created a character who voiced the woman's concerns.

Also he did an entire chapter that was a conversation between two characters. They are never named in the chapter, but becuase he'd created them so well, and gave them such distinctive voices, you knew exactly who was speaking. Brilliant.

My least favourite is probably Great Expectation, or maybe Tale of Two Cities. My 11th grade English teacher was SO funny when he riffed on Lucy - he complained that all she ever did was faint. And when we watched the movie, he said 'oh, there she goes' and the whole class disolved into laughter.

So...Thanks Charles Dickens. Oh, and thanks for helping the Doctor defeat the Gelfs.

Comments

[wrestlingdog.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love Dickens like it's my job. My mother's whole side of the family is full of huge Dickens fans, so I was basically raised on him. (I have an uncle who names all his pets after Dickens' characters. So far he's had Fan, Ebenezer, Dora, and Wilkins.)

As far as my favorite book: I can't narrow it down to just one. I'm torn between David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby, and A Christmas Carol.

It's also Eddie Izzard's fiftieth birthday!

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

It is so fitting that Eddie Izzard and Charles Dickens share a birthday.

Also, love the icon!

[jpgr.livejournal.com]

It's sad for an English major to admit, but I've only ever completed 2 Dickens novels: A Tale of Two Cities and Nicholas Nickelby, the latter of which I wrote a paper on in college.

(I did better with him that Jane Austen as I've only ever read Northanger Abbey)

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that about Our Mutual Friend. Thanks for the recommendation!

[cerisaye.livejournal.com]

My favourite is Bleak House because it is just so amazingly complicated, with its wicked critique of Chancery courts, lawyers and the legal system, and the usual vast array of Dickensian characters- Esther is one of his least annoying heroines. There was an excellent BBC adaptation with Diana Rigg as Lady deadlock in the 80s.

[wolfgangmozart.livejournal.com]

But... Sidney Carton :( Tale of Two Cities always provides a much needed melodramatic fix for me, LOL.

I don't know that I've ever read Our Mutual Friend (how can this be?), but now I'll have to check it out.

[madeleinebella.livejournal.com]

I loved Tale of Two Cities, but it did take me an embarrassing eternity to get through. Certain parts grabbed me and I adored the cadence of particular lines, but somehow the writing style was so soporific for me that I could only read little bits at a time, with terribly long stretches in between.
I saw a theatre production before finishing the book, and fell in love with Sidney Carton immediately. :) Ah yes, the melodrama - what's not to love.