Link humus-plate / pimp me like the dickens

[larryhammer]

In our irregular series of filthy-minded poets, angevin2 brings us 16th century hot boar-on-boy love.

The serious probabilities of Monopoly.

Oh Helvetica!

I've finished only one novel by Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities, and that was back in high school. David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and Bleak House all lost my attention partway though, though I otherwise kinda liked the last. It's not a Victorian allergy -- I read Trollope and Gaskell with joy, and like Thackery and Collins well enough. I'm feeling the vague desire to try again, so a challenge: convince me with your recommendation to try another.

---L.

Comments

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

I read Two Cities a few years ago, but you've done that one.

I'd say Great Expectations. It covers a lot of bases from humor to fear to creepiness. In Junior High, it kept my attention all the way through.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Oh, and Robert Graves made his own version of David Copperfield, using Dickens's words, but editing as though he were not being paid by the word. You might be able to find that used online or get it as an interlibrary loan. Fondren Library at Rice University had it in 1984, if that helps. Might still be there.

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

Nicholas Nickleby is fun. I first read it because I was in the play (in high school), and the extremely expurgated version we used gave me no clue as to what my character (Mrs. Nickleby) was like -- so I went to the book. I was very much surprised to find I enjoyed it. I was, moreover, surprised at Dickens's sense of humor, which I hadn't previously recognized (I think I'd read Oliver Twist before that).

It skewers education of a certain type, economic swindles, government involvement in same, popular culture (in this case, traveling theatrical groups), and greed. So it's mostly still relevant. ;)

[larryhammer]

Aren't those his topics in most novels?

---L.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I'm kinda with you on Dickens--though I did mostly enjoy Great Expectations.

[larryhammer]

That does make giving that a try tempting. And I think we have a copy, somewhere in the stacks.

---L.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Nicholas Nickleby is the most Trollopean Dickens I've read, though calling it "Trollopean" is still a stretch. Have you tried any Scott?

[larryhammer]

I've found Scott a mixed bag, in the dozen or so I've read -- Old Mortality and The Heart of Midlothian were especially strong, but some others (like The Antiquarian) I found unfinishable.

---L.

[hank.livejournal.com]

I'd second "Nicholas Nicklebly," as an enjoyable book.

Dickens could be good or bad, and I think "David Copperfield" is about his worst. It put me off his work for years. "Great Expectations" and "Bleak House" are heftier, but "Nicholas" is fun.

[larryhammer]

Fun is a plus. Especially if Great Expectations (the other contender) is as weighty as Bleak House.

---L.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I'd leave any Dickens except his humour well alone except in controlled doses well spaced over time. Read the Georges instead (Gissing and Eliot).

[larryhammer]

I have a copy of Romala I haven't gotten to. Somewhere around here -- probably behind the stack of overflow romances.

---L.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

I can't remember whether you've mentioned this or not, but A Suitable Boy is Trollope by Vikram Seth.

[larryhammer]

Indeed it is. And lovely stuff, too.

Okay, and heavy on the wrists. But still. Have you tried his other novels?

---L.