I am not finished the book yet… I will be as soon as I post this blog, I've only got a few pages to go but I already want to say that I have been surprised by Dickens.I've wanted to read Hard Times for years -- always kept putting it off.
I bet that a lot of you are the same, there are books on your shelves that you've been meaning to "get to" for the last 24 years. Usually these are the "classics".
Things like The Odyssey or Ulysses.
Occasionally you take one of these down and note that there are fossils embedded in the sedimentary layers of dust.
And you put it back -- to accumulate yet more paleontological data!
Well, a few days ago I took Dickens off the shelf, blew off the pre-Cambrian mould, and opened the crackly covers.
Lo and behold! This thing is GOOD!
It's bursting with humor and suspense and Victorian grime!
Granted, I am well aware that Dickens was the Stephen King of his day -- pumping this stuff out according to a restrictive timetable -- but I cannot deny -- I am enjoying it.
It's a grand story, wonderfully predictable at times, and at others, not so much.
Which reminds me, I've got a few pages to go...
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This is so great to hear! I am trying my hand at Victorian Literature and am for the most part enjoying it. I have yet to crack open a Dickens though - their size alone stops me cold. But if they're as good as I keep hearing, I'll have to get over myself and give him a try.
ReplyDeleteI, for one, am a HUGE Dickens fan. I don't know why people poo poo him. His characters are amazing. I think he was a brilliant observer or he human tragi-comedy. To Mr. Dickens.........here here!
ReplyDeleteYup, I've got some precambrian mould on this one myself.
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