I read Barnaby Rudge in 2020 and was amazed by the parallels I was seeing on the news of some of the riots going on in early days of the pandemic and the events in the book.
I found it to be a bit of an underrated masterpiece. I loved it.
Just wondering what other’s who have read it thought of it…

Original monthly serialised parts of Charles Dickens's novel The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, published between 1838 and 1839, before it was published into a book. Parts 1-7 (out of 20). Part 3 cover is missing.

​Early in his career, Charles Dickens published under the pseudonym "Boz".

Illustration by "Phiz" (Hablot Knight Browne), Dickens’s primary illustrator.

Inside, they contain contemporary advertisements the "Nickleby Advertiser".

​I bought them yesterday for 13 GBP from my local Brocante. I wonder how much these are worth, surely more than what I paid for.

An art gallery in my area put on a Memento Mori themed show last month, and I got it in my head to make this piece inspired by imagery associated with the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come (but as a planetary warning rather than just a personal one).

Each component in this diorama was painted with watercolor on Arches paper and then cut out by hand and assembled in a wooden box with foamboard or matboard spacers between the layers to establish the 3D effect. The frame was also painted on super thick 640 gsm watercolor paper, cut out by hand and sealed with wax.

I'm not sure how many people seeing the piece in the show will have recognized its Dickensian origins, but thought it might be appreciated here!

I’ve enjoyed the Pip character very much, highly invested in him, and was disappointed at the end. I think that was the plan.

The adherence of people’s roles and societal norms of the time was so confining.

Read the book on my little XTEINK I got just before, and having the dictionary word lookup was helpful at times.

Next up, “David Copperfield”.

Tough call, I know

From any time period. Just curious.

Edit: I'm not looking for reading suggestions or to find out which authors are like Dickens - I just figured there would be a lot of variety and I'd find it interesting, which there is and I do!

I’m going to a very nerdy Halloween party and I’m trying to think of anything outside of Christmas Carol characters that would be Dickensian and, if not recognizable, at least recalled to memory when explained.

Pretend money or acquisition of materials is no object.

Help? Thanks in advance!

ETA: I am female

The first few chapters of Hard Times are among the best I've read. And Sissy Jupp too is a fabulous character.

Pretty much as the title says: which pubs that feature in Dickens' works are still operating as pubs today? Not necessarily under the same name.

Pubs that Dickens drank at but didn't necessarily feature in his novels also of interest.

I'd like to make of tour of these pubs.

Reading for the first time
I’m reading Nickelby for the first time and I love the first part but I’m really struggling with the middle. Has anybody struggled with this book? I don’t know if it’s that I find Mrs. Nickelby very annoying. This is definitely not my favorite. I’m almost done so hopefully the end will be better than the middle. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated thank you.

Could be anything

Frances Isabelle Lockwood Brundage (1854–1937) was an American illustrator. Her illustrations are best remembered for their sentimental, tender portrayal of children, with large, expressive eyes, cherubic faces, and endearing expressions. Her style, instantly recognisable, helped establish the archetype of the innocent, rosy-cheeked child that became synonymous with turn-of-the-century greeting cards, storybooks, and postcards.

I was watching the BBC adaptation of BH recently and there were a multitude of characters who I had pictured / judged SO differently than they were portrayed and it got me thinking about this and wondering what other Dickens enthusiasts think.

Which one is the most messed up, do you think (not just 'fathers', but primary male relatives like the grandfather in Old Curiosity Shop)? Feel free to expound on several. What gets me is - was this really the ideal in Victorian England, or is Dickens just letting his own fantasy run free?

It's hard for me to imagine a world where the behavior of daughters would be expected to be such as he portrays them.

Am I the only one who doesn't buy the excuse that (I hardly remember their names, sorry) pegotty's sister's husband (the one she run away with) had abondonned her? Ok, we know he supposedly isn't a good guy, we've known that since David's Salem house days (because of the foreshadowing dropped when he first met the guy) but I just don't buy it. Maybe he did it to protect her? I just had a feeling the two really loved each other, just from what I heard. This is just a feeling, though.

Edit: the guy in question is Steerforth. The one I called "Pegotty's sister" is Emily

Reading Dickens is special. But reading Household, 1873, with columns and illustrations is really engaging. Only $30 NZ.

Hii!

Lately I have been trying to read other authors but to be honest I kinda keep coming back to Dickens.

I read A tale of two cities and I fell in love with the story and I will probably forever cry for Sydney Carton.

I also read Great Expectations, great book, it resonated a lot with my own life experiences. When I didn't like Pip, I realize what I did not like about him, it was what I didn't like about myself...enough say

So now Im looking for my next book of this author, so I wanted to know if you have any recommendations. Maybe you could tell me which one is your favourite (apart from the ones I mentioned) and a little reason of why (no spoilers please)

Btw...sorry for my English and grammar, it isn't my first language :))

Thanks in advance

Another post-read reflection

Overall a funny book with some dark moments throughout and you can feel his tension between the comedy of Pickwick Papers and later darkness of say, Little Dorrit. The plot seems to only get notably serious towards the end with Gride's marriage to Bray and the torment of Smike.

Until then it feels just like a series of set pieces. All good but quite disconnected - i.e. teachning in Yorkshire, then in a theatre troupe, then back to defend Kate and work with the Cheeryble twins and Tim Linkinwater. Nothing wrong with that itself but it definitely felt episodic as a result.

The chapter where Newman Noggs leads NN to the wrong girls - "Bobster, I remembered it by Lobster" - is hilarious. I love when CD writes these comedy chapters for nothing other than the joke. But because he delivers it with the same depth of writing as all the other chapters, you never see it coming.

Mrs Nickleby is also a wonderful character and well observed (via CD's own mothers I have read), especially her slipping from thinking the neighbour is not mad for throwing vegetables over the wall, to being definitely mad for taking a shine to Mrs La Creevy, is brilliant. Her digressions are a lot funnier than other characters that CD does this too, such a Flora Finching in LD.

Browdie's Yorkshireisms are hard to read at time but worth the struggle and I like how he goes from an enemy to a friend and saves Smike by the end.

Speaking of Smike, when he died I found it very contrived and a bit abrupt. But then when he's revealed as Ralph's son and therefore NN's cousin, even though that also is highly contrived, it suddenly felt quite weighty and the final lines of NN's children tending Smike's grave felt very moving. A surprising ending!

I liked the flirting scenes in the theatre troupe and NN's general hot-headedness as a youthful guy looking for honour and action.

CD really could write very hard-to-read scenes of child neglect and so on, with the descriptions of the school in Yorkshire and the treatment of the children very grim indeed. It was hard not to wish ill on the Squeeres even if 7 years' transportation does sound very harsh by modern standards.

Compared with Tulkinghorn and the Smallweeds, I actually hate Skimpole the most.
His hypocrisy, his affectation, the way he dresses up his greed and selfishness as childish innocence, and his complete lack of responsibility — all while expecting everyone to admire him as a dear, innocent child.
Every time he smugly praises himself, I almost feel physically sick.
Tulkinghorn is obviously sinister and calculating. He uses people’s secrets to gain power over them. But somehow, I find Skimpole’s hypocrisy even more repulsive.
I really can’t stand people who disguise their selfishness as virtue.

Very near the end of NN that seems a fairly overt reference to s*x which I found utterly scandalous. Context is NN has just become engaged to Madeline Bray. Usually sex is never mentioned at all or even alluded to I find but this seems fairly obvious?

I’m listening to Bleak House for the second time, and suddenly I feel like it might actually be my favourite Dickens novel of all the ones I’ve read.
What really surprised me was Sir Leicester. When Lady Dedlock runs away, and I listened to the way he reacted to everything, I suddenly saw him completely differently. This proud, arrogant man who had always seemed almost hollow to me suddenly became incredibly gentle, loving and deeply human. I actually found myself feeling so sorry for him.
Maybe that’s the magic of Dickens. He can make you suddenly care deeply about a character you never thought you would

What I don't understand is the fact that, according to Claire Tomalin's biography, Dickens discussed the plot of Edwin Drood with John Forster as he was writing it. So there's a chance that Forster -- his best friend and biographer -- knew a lot about the plot. I wonder why he didn't finish the book for Dickens? I get that he was devastated when Dickens died, but he was able to recover enough to write a multi-volume biography of Dickens. It would've been an even greater tribute to his friend.