What is your favorite Dickens work?

[Pip]

I'm curious as to what all of you other Dickens fans hold to be your favorite work by him. I give my vote to David Copperfield

Cheers

[imthefoolonthehill]

Great Expectations followed closely by A Tale of Two Cities

[Scheherazade]

As a child, I loved David Copperfield but A Tale of Two Cities is my favorite now.

PS: I added a poll to this thread for convenience.

[Nightshade]

I really dislike a tale of 2 cities but I liked both David Copperfield and Oliver Twist but my faviorate has to be a christmas Carol.

[mono]

Hmmm, difficulty to say, as I feel tied between Great Expectations, David Copperfield, A Tale Of Two Cities, and Hard Times . . .



Great Expectations, I think; oddly, I even once named one of my cats Pip - weird, I know.

[Valjean]

My vote goes to Great Expectations. A Tale of Two Cites is a great novel, as Dickens uses it to portray the Bastille, the Guillotine, the riots of Saint Antoine, and the countless other events of the Revoltion better than any writer ever has (especially British ones). The novel lacks emotion, however, especially when compared to Great Expectations. Love, ambition, desperation, fear, regret, heartbreak, and almost any other human emotion are illstrated in this novel, and the reader is pushed and pulled by them right along with Pip. Anyone (especially male) who has not read this book is doing themselves a horrible injustice. The recent movie remake, by the way, is closer to "Days of Our Lives" than to Dickens.

P.S. A Christmas Carol is not even close

[Beaumains]

I like all of his works a great deal, but I appreciate Bleak House for it's cutting social commentary. It really shows how much Dickens detested the injustice of the living conditions of the working class in his day.

[JScottBosch]

My favorite is not on the list: Our Mutual Friend

Cheers!

[karanae84]

My favorites are Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities. I remember reading both of them in tenth grade and it was Pip who made me fall in love with the author. Friends of mine have complained about his abundant description, but I find that it allows me to live in the moment. The way that Dickens writes leaves me feeling ready to make massive decisions-just like his characters.
Of course, I have yet to read Hard Times... maybe it will prove even better!

[qjkhere]

My favorite is David Copperfield because of the way Dickens portrays pain and suffering. I also like it because most fictional women who marry for the sake of money usually do not realize how bad their husbands are treating their child and Dickens gave a perfect portrayal of that. I thought the description of the depth of the husband's control gave the story momentum.

[yellowfeverlime]

liver twist... definitely

[Pensive]

I will prefer "A Tale of Two Cities" It is a great novel. Specially, I loved the first few lines...

[Rosalind]

I will prefer "A Tale of Two Cities" It is a great novel. Specially, I loved the first few lines...

Yes! The first lines are absolutely brilliant. Dickens' detractors don't seem to realize this, and personally I think it's because they don't get past the winter of despair. Dickens is king of mockery.

I will always have a soft spot for 'Oliver Twist,' but 'A Tale of Two Cities' is my favorite, I think. On the other hand, I agree with Valjean that 'Great Expectations' does a lot better with emotions, except in the case of Sydney Carton. I think he runs a pretty thorough emotional gambit, and the scene at the end may be melodramatic, but it still makes people cry.

[DickensLover]

What are all of you thinking!! Bleak House is my favorite book of all time. I absolutely love every detail of it. It is amazing how 20 different stories and 50 main characters all twist and turn and synthesize perfectly at the end. And as far as social messages go, who could forget Jo? I loved Bleak House because I totally felt a catharsis. I was terrified when someone was about to murder Mr. Tulkinghorn, agonized when Esther couldn't admit to herself that she loved Alan, weeping during the aforementioned situation with Jo, and elated when everything worked out so nicely. They are all fabulous books though! Oliver Twist would have to be a close second. And I just read the Pickwick Papers for the first time a few weeks ago. It is definitely the funniest Dickens novel I've ever read!

[DickensLover]

"At such times, a mortal knows just enough of what his mind is doing, ot form some glimmering conception of its mighty powers, its bounding from earth and spurning time and space, when freed from the restraint of its corporeal associate."

-Dickens (Oliver Twist, IX)