I realize you started this conversation hypothetically, but I seriously doubt Dickens will be neglected in the future - the novel is too central to our culture, and Dickens is too central to the novel's development as a form. Few people place A Christmas Carol above Bleak House, and I think the disparity between academia and the general reading public is less clear-cut than you suggest. But I could be way off-base here; the vast majority of my interactions with people is at bookstores or libraries, so I'm definitely not someone with their finger on the cultural pulse.
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Yes, I was originally speaking hypothetically, and I certainly didn't mean to imply that Dickens had fallen from Esteem academic or literary circles. The future, of course, is a big place, and writers who were once considered indispensable to cultural self-understanding--Scott in Britain, for example, or Longfellow in America--have experienced unexpected falls, if not from Grace, then at least from the cool kids table. I agree, though that Dickens is likely to go that way academic circles, not only (as you point out) because of his role in the novel form, but even his importance to the language itself. But I repeat: in academic or literary circles.
Originally Posted by entropic island
). We have two memorable characters in the Defarges, as great as any Dickens has ever created and who can be compared favourably to the Macbeths, and whatever the book's shortcomings, you really can't beat that sublime speech at the end. For me it was one of those earth shaking literary moments - I was reading along, not impressed, thinking it was not up to Dickens' usual standard, and as I already knew the plot, was waiting in a cynical way for Charles Darnay's supreme sacrifice, and then he starts his speech at the foot of the Guillotine and I was touched beyond belief. I was blown away! Is there any more celebrated passage in the whole of Dickens? Surely this book will be remembered for the sake of this one passage alone.
