Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 123
Results 31 to 35 of 35

Thread: Our Mutual Book Club

  1. #31
    Registered User
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    733
    I'm not much further on yet either, but I will try to keep up. I like the idea of an audio book too, it would help me greatly, as I don't have much time to actually sit and read. I'll see if I can get hold of one.

  2. #32
    Of Subatomic Importance Quark's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    1,368
    Audio books are always good for a long car ride. I have to take a trip to Cleveland soon, so I'll be sure to pack one for myself. You guys might also want to check out movie adaptations of Dickens' novels. When I find a link, I'll post some to the thread.
    "Par instants je suis le Pauvre Navire
    [...] Par instants je meurs la mort du Pecheur
    [...] O mais! par instants"

    --"Birds in the Night" by Paul Verlaine (1844-1896). Join the discussion here: http://www.online-literature.com/for...5&goto=newpost

  3. #33
    biting writer
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    when it is not pc, philly
    Posts
    2,184

  4. #34
    I am about a third of my way through this now! Haven't read all the posts on this thread because I didn't want to see any spoilers, but couldn't resist just saying a few words.

    I am loving the book so far. I put my hip out three weeks ago (I know, what am I, 80!?) and so have been in bed since July. This has actually worked out OK! When I was a child my father would always read old classics to us before bed (he was a big reader and clearly wanted us to be too!) I remember him trying to read Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island to us each year on holiday in Cornwall. It was the perfect book for it because of all the smuggler history in Cornwall and the ruggard dramatic landscape. (He also read us Jamaica Inn - the best of Cornwall classicy). Yet with Treasure Island, we kept falling asleep, each time. Oliver Twist however, because we knew the film, was a favourite of ours. He also read us David Copperfield and Nicholas Nickleby. So for me Dickens is always an author to read in bed! Doing my hip in was therefore perfect timeing, as I had just bought a best rated mattress topper from Zen Bedrooms – so now reading Dickens in bed is really cheering me up! Reading in bed is the ultimate way to do it, I have always believed, and finally I have a bed of quality that matches the quality of the literature. Our Mutual Friend is certainly more in the vein of Bleak House and Little Dorrit than those like Nicholas and David and Great Expectations. However I do not think it has the comedy of LD and it is harder to connect to thatn BH. I think because there are lot less (if any!) truly sympathetic characters. Apart from 'Our Friend' himself, we are lost and left adrift amongst quite a ghoulish and fierce cast of characters. So far, it is certainly the darkest of his novels.

    What a way for his canon to end ...
    Last edited by Anne Catherick; 09-02-2014 at 04:58 AM.

  5. #35
    Registered User kev67's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Reading, England
    Posts
    2,458
    It sounds like an interesting book. It was one of four books touching on 19th century economics discussed in a book titled, The Body Economic: Life, Death and Sensation in Political Economy and the Victorian Novel, written by Catherine Callagher. The other three were Hard Times by Charles Dickens, Daniel Deronda by George Elliot, and Scenes of Clerical Life, also by George Elliot. While Hard Times was about what Callagher termed soma-economics, Our Mutual Friend was about what she called bio-economics. Soma-economics is about striking a balance between the need to work hard to earn money and having some leisure time in which to spend it. Bio-economics is more about exploiting the carrying potential of the environment to support human life. I have not read Our Mutual Friend; I gather the recycling of waste, in particular dust, is a major theme in the book.
    According to Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence once said that Balzac was 'a gigantic dwarf', and in a sense the same is true of Dickens.
    Charles Dickens, by George Orwell

Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 123

Similar Threads

  1. Newbery Book Club
    By motherhubbard in forum General Literature
    Replies: 19
    Last Post: 11-11-2009, 02:09 AM
  2. Anyone want to help start a teen book club?
    By Drummergal42 in forum General Literature
    Replies: 79
    Last Post: 06-09-2008, 09:19 PM
  3. Book Club Proposal- 2007
    By Scheherazade in forum Forum Book Club
    Replies: 69
    Last Post: 09-01-2006, 07:28 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •