Dickens question

[theman0091]

Hey all, I'm new to the forum, so hello!
That being said, I wanted to ask for some advice.
I just finished the book I was reading (East of Eden by Steinbeck; good stuff!) and I thought I'd read Dickens next. I've read Tale of Two Cities in high school but I thought I'd try another of his. I'm kind of in the mood for something dark, so I was wondering, between Bleak House, Great Expectations, and David Copperfield, which would you say I should read?
Thanks

[mal4mac]

All of them :) They are three of his best and and are much better than A Tale of Two Cities IMHO...

The darkest of them is Bleak House, but its quite long and involved (in a good way...) If you want a faster, racier read, try Great Expectations - it's also pretty dark. David Copperfield is incredibly touching, but not as dark as the other two.

I haven't read "East of Eden", but like Steinbeck, who I feel has many similarities to Dickens. "Grapes of Wrath" was superb, I thought, and, in a lighter vein, I really enjoyed "Canary row". But Dickens is better, I feel. He has Steinbeck's heart, realism and prose mastery, but adds a layer of fairy tale magic with his endless stream of fascinating characters.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

In just read Great Expectations. Did I miss something, because it didn't seem very dark at all. More funny than anything.

[OrphanPip]

Great Expectations is not particularly dark, but you don't really look for darkness from Victorian idealism. It is one of the few Dickens novels that has what could be considered an unhappy ending. It's not really funny either though. It's a powerful bildungsroman, one of the best of the genre in English. Of course, I'm biased because my username comes from the novel.

David Copperfield is Dickens' fictionalized autobiography, it is essentially about the relationship between life experience and authorial creation, as well as about basic Dickensian themes, like Victorian humanistic morality and the strength of interpersonal bonds. It is probably best read by those who already enjoy Dickens, especially because of its length and relatively mundane plot.

Bleak House is the closest Dickens gets to being experimental, it is perhaps more in the social realist mode than his other novels, which blend the picaresque of Fielding with the realism of Austen.

I would recommend Hard Times as a next step for a young reader with Dickens.

[dfloyd]

Great Expectations is only dark after Magwitch reappears and Estella's parents are discovered. My copy, a Limited Editions Club edition circa 1938, has the unhappy ending. But Dickens' editor where the novel was serialized, requested he write another ending, one in which Pip and Estella get together. So he did.

See the David Lean movie made about 1945. It is undoubtedly the best commercial movie made from Dickens' novels. Pip is John Mills, Herbert Pocket is Alec Guiness, and the young Estella is Jean Simmons. Quite a cast.

The BBC and Masterpiece Theatre have made most of Dickens' novels into tv movies where there is enough time to tell the story. Some are six hours long. Bleak House has been made by both the BBC and Masterpiece Theatre, and both are excellent.

[mal4mac]

I think there is something dark in the treatment of Pip by Ms Havisham and Estella.

[jocky]

I think there is something dark in the treatment of Pip by Ms Havisham and Estella.

Which, in my opinion, is a reflection of the dark way that Pip treats Joe and Biddy. This is not to say that I think Great Expectations is a dark novel, David Lean's brilliant film will always stick in our mental set, but it is also a confirmation of life and possibilities. It is not too much a stretch of the imagination to leap from an ink blacker to a brilliant author, juxtaposed alongside a Blacksmith's apprentice to a man of Great Expectations.

There are so many themes in this classic it is difficult to pigeon hole it. The best I can say is that it ranks right up there with Hamlet.