So I am basically planning on reading Dickens as a whole. So far I've read:
Great Expectations
A Tale of Two Cities
Oliver Twist
David Copperfield
Bleak House
Nicholas Nickleby
Our Mutual Friend
Barnaby Rudge
What should I read next? I'll say that I'm disinclined to ever read The Old Curiosity Shop since I know the little girl who is basically the MC dies, and knowing that in advance probably make enjoying it impossible
Start with the greeks
I've already read them, well, enough of them to be moving on.
Pickwick papers is his funniest. OCS probably his weakest novel but he didn't write stinkers
The next novel I plan to read os Great Expectations. Is it worth the time?
It's not good enough to justify its length. It's a long ass book and almost all of it is description
What's wrong with description?
It's just too much. Give it a go, by all means, but Dickens stretches out each sentence to its breaking point and it becomes very frustrating
Pickwick's my favorite, and Rudge kind of prepares you for its full-on comic mode, but read Little Dorrit, instead. Conclude with Pickwick.
If youre not prepared for the hapless seeking of Little Nell, then the original fate of little Paul Dombey is certainly not for you.
Ehmmm...
You do know Dickens is Dickens, right?
>So I am basically planning on reading Dickens as a whole.
Why would a grown man voluntarily do this to himself. Dickens had some hits but most of his work is Harry Potter tier
>bloom pic
How to tell an opinion doesn't matter in one easy step
PAID BY THE WORD
t. plebs
Dickens is one of those writers people think are shit when they first start getting into literature, but once they are fully initiated they realize he's great.
No he wasn't. He was paid by the installment. He gave an installment (called a number), that usually was three chapters or so, monthly. His typical plan was to run a novel to 20 numbers. It made for a long book when bound and sold (usually in three volumes), but that'll happen when you've been stringing the reading public along for almost 2 years.
Try reading Dickens a number at a time. Read one, then give it a rest for a week or two. The intentional drawing out of the reading experience makes for a different encounter with the text. The suspenseful ending of each number becomes more suspenseful when you can't just turn the page and continue. It's like the difference between watching a show week by week or just marathoning the boxset. It works on you differently.
>JAG: And then you overrate Dickens.
>HB: Oh no. No, no, no. How can you overrate a writer of that fecundity and power? Dickens is as close to a novelist of the stature of a Cervantes that you can find in English. Dickens is the major novelist of the English language, surpassing Henry James, surpassing even George Eliot.
>reading like a retard to amplify le epic cliff hanger ending of each segment
Kys senfam.
Try Pickwick Papers or Bleak House
Second.
The Weird irony of the Mark Knopfler song (What it Is) is that the only character NOT seeking Little Nell in OCS is Dirty Dick..
Am I the only one on the planet mildly disturbed by this?
Dickens is good, but he's not quite first-rate. I don't see the point of reading all of his novels in 2017. There are lots of other novelists that are more rewarding, like Melville, or Conrad.
>not quite first-rate
Pretty arguable user. He's certainly better than most of his contemporaries. Perhaps the funniest of all the 19C giants.
He has more great novels than either Melville or Conrad, I'd say 9 outright masterpieces.
You're absolutely mad. Dickens had a depth and breadth of feeling psychological insight that Conrad never approached.