A Tale of Two Cities
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A Tale of Two Cities
After Great Expectations I really doubt I will read Dickens in next 5 years.
Wow, lots of Dickens fans here. I must say you guys have read more than a couple of his books! I noticed that lots made mention of David Copperfield, which I might wanna check out sometime. I've only read A Christmas Carol and I must say it's always been an all-time favorite book of mine. Sometimes I reread it just to pass the time on a sad day.
I read "A Tale of Two Cities" the summer I was 12. This was mainly because I had just started to really get into the reading thing (I had just finished "Wuthering Heights" - I recieved it as a graduation gift for graduating from elementary school). I absolutely loved it. So, I voted for that one.
I will say, though, that "Nicholas Nickleby" is a close second. Honestly? If it would've been completed, I would probably say "The Mystery of Edwin Drood".
My favorite is definitely "A Tale of Two Cities," which to me is about redemption, and that's my favorite kind of story. Followed by "Oliver Twist," then "David Copperfield."
I love Great Expectations. Therefore it was my vote (although I love most of Dickens work!)
Dickens best...Great Expectations
I have only read Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, A Christmas Carol, and A Tale of Two Cities. The last happens to be my favorite. :)
id say a tale of two cities. david copperfield is up there also and gee its hard not to like the pickwick papers....
I said Tale of Two Cities just because that's been my oldest favorite. But I recently read Bleak House and and slowly fell in love with it. I'm currently reading David Copperfield but I'm missing the humor and sarcasm, the rediculousness from Bleak House.
Great Expectation .. David copperfield.. and christmas carol too.... but i like everything he wrote
I'd have to say Great Expectations. It's so frickin' hilarious. A Tale of Two Cities is second.
I like Bleak House, Great Expectations and Little Dorrit the best. I feel they're all equally good, but I voted for Great Expectations as it was my first Dickens, and so has a special place for me.
David Copperfield
Bleak House, followed closely by Nicholas Nickleby. I just finished Nicholas for perhaps the fourth time and enjoyed it more than ever. Pickwick is also a favorite.
The other day I was pondering a legal proceeding with which a friend is involved, and was struck with little Miss Flite, waiting for her judgement, surrounded by her birds named Joy, Hope, Faith, Despair, and others. Tears came to my eyes as I thought of her waiting forever, growing more and more insane but gently so. I am thankful that my friend's 'judgement will arrive soon' and sobered by the comparison.
I would say Pickwick Papers right now. I have about three novels of his left to read, but out of what I've read, Pickwick Papers is my favorite!
Love your blue-flying-bird !!!!! :O ooops! that was meant for 'Pensive'
BTW, I voted for Bleak House, although I enjoy David Copperfield & Great Expectations almost as much.
david copperfield definetly, because of the characters. enjoyed every one of them
I'm torn between a few, Hard Times being one of them. Who'd've thought Dickens had written a novel about the grim north?
It's the only Dickens novel that doesn't include scenes set in London, as far as I can remember.Quote:
Originally Posted by kelby_lake
I've just voted for Bleak House. I know out of context Ada and Esther are embarrassingly drippy in their own way, but in the context of the whole they work. It is all utterly grotesque and so much more convincing than worthy realism. (Mary Ann Evans, you know who I mean.)
Mrs Jellyaby, Harold Skimpole, Inspector Bucket, the cousin with her guitar, Mr George, the junk shop owner who goes up in smoke, Mr Guppy, Miss Flite, Granfather Smallweed, old Mr Turveydrop... all utterly individual, totally outrageous as studies in realism, and yet so, so true to life. More true than boring all realism can do.
A reference to Middlemarch? ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by ruggerlad
No more than the rest of George Eliot's works. I used to love her novels, but she now seems a bit on the worthy side. I can see theoretically why she is a better novelist than Dickens - more intelligent, better informed, not so outrageously sentimental and melodramatic, giving us character's inner life - but for the reasons stated, Dickens beats her hollow.
I think that Dickens comes out as the better novelist. Eliot's politics outweigh her ability to tell a story.Quote:
Originally Posted by ruggerlad
Sorry about the delay in reply. I don't understand that comment. Dickens repeatedly includes political campaigns (Poor Law Oliver Twist, legal injustice Bleak House, Yorkshire schools Nicholas Nickelby, debtors' prison and snobbery Little Dorrit, industrial exploitation Hard Times and so on).Quote:
Originally Posted by kelby_lake
And although I don't want to be siding with repression, I get the impression there can be something self-righteous about him when he is in campaigner mode.
By contrast, George Eliot is so concerned to see the good in everyone, which can be admirable in a person but a bit limiting in a novelist, and you'd be hard pressed to deduce her (progressive) political opinions.
Hard Times is a good, though odd, novel. It's the only Dickens novel set in the North and it's very industrial and grim. There's lots of grotesquerie and tragicomedy and the book may not live up to the promise of its opening- a classically Dickensian satire on education- but there is still much fun to be had, and it's half the size of a normal Dickens novel.Quote:
Originally Posted by karanae84
Okay, both of them are overtly moral but Dickens does do a better job with satire and is the most entertaining writer of the two. There are some interesting characters in Middlemarch but they're nowhere near the vividity of Dickens at his best. Even his sentimental characters (cough cough Tiny Tim) are still interesting.Quote:
Originally Posted by ruggerlad
My favorite Dickens work is David Copperfield.
Great Expectations or Bleak House is probably his greatest. But my favorite is A Tale of Two Cities.
mine too aj...with david copperfield a close second.
im reading a Charles dicken's biography right now. the author wasn't particularly enamored of bleak house. made me not want to read it.
Bleak House is definitely the best Dickens novel I've read, and Harold Bloom considers it his masterpiece. Many artists dislike their best works; it just reflects their own personal relation to their creation.