Here is a Homeschooling Blogger who plans to read ALL of Dickens this coming year! Wow, I'd like to take that challenge up myself.
With the upcoming ACS Conference, I quickly realized the sad neglect of my education. I had never, prior to this year, read anything of Dickens, other than A Christmas Carol.
So, I read David Copperfield this past year, and loved it.
I own Pickwick Papers, which is the first book Writing and Living is reading, so I could do it with her, and I should. Maybe I will.
Friday, December 23, 2005
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Thanks for the info!
ReplyDeleteActually, Chesterton's book on Dickens was on my "to be acquired" list for the year. Perhaps Santa will bring me a Barnes and Noble gift card.
Oh, and by all means do it with me. I would love the company!
ReplyDeleteWriting and Living:
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try it! I think it would be fun, knowing you're doing it too, and we can discuss the books.
I think we've already been given good advice on Pickwick: that it's a collection of vignettes rather than one long story like David Copperfield. I did try starting Pickwick a few years ago, when I'd read that when Chesterton was asked what book he would want with him on a deserted island. After first responding, "Smith's Shipbuilding Manual" or something similiar (!) he then answered, Pickwick Papers, which intrigued me. I want to know what Chesterton loved in there. So that's why I want to read it, too!
Read Pickwick - NOW!
ReplyDeleteOne of the few treats on British television this last month has been the BBC serialization of Bleak House. Really well done, though it took a few liberties with the text. The aim was to make it a bit like a modern soaop opera and broadcast in half-hour sections in prime time. It really worked, because of the brilliant acting and casting. The director obviously loves the characters. It sent me to the book, which I read (for the first time) in parallel with the series. Not sure I would ever have read it without that help. (And of course as I read each chapter AFTER seeing the TV version I realized how much had been lost in transition to TV - and this in turn renewed my wonder at the printed page. One man with a typewriter or quill pen, as against a multi-million pound team of sound engineers and cameras and actors and so forth.
ReplyDeleteStratford: Welcome!
ReplyDeleteThis leads me to wonder if Pickwick has ever been made into anything visual, TV, movie, etc. I, too, find it helpful with some books to read/watch together, or one will pique my interest in the other, like what happened to you with Bleak House.
"Pickwick Papers" is actually the only Dickens I have ever read and I found it to be wonderful.
ReplyDeleteNancy C. Brown,
I would say that Pickwick really one long story but maybe I am misinterpiting you. Anyway, Pickwick Papers is a good read.
Nancy said: "I'm going to try it! I think it would be fun, knowing you're doing it too, and we can discuss the books."
ReplyDeleteCount me in, too. I've decided that my nonfiction and fiction concentrations this year are going to be Chesterton and Dickens, respectively. I'm excited! In addition to these ongoing reading goals, I'll try to read two new children's novels (or new to me, at least) per month, plus one non-Dickens adult novel. Lofty goals, considering I'm at the fall-asleep-when-my-head-hits-the-pillow stage of pregnancy, and bedtime is the only time I have to read these days...but one should aim high, no?
Nancy, I am loving this site—thanks for all the thought-provoking entries.
Melissa, in a pinch, you can kill two birds with one stone by reading Chesterton's commentaries on Dickens. :-)
ReplyDelete