Charles Dickens: Dombey and Son

Hi everyone

This is my review for Charles Dickens’ Dombey and Son.
My gorgeous copy has 1022 pages of story and 36 pages about the novel itself.
I bought it at Waterstones.
You can find all my Charles Dickens reviews here.

“Dombey and Son is both a firm and a family and the ambiguous connection between public and private life lies at the heart of Dickens' novel. Paul Dombey is a man who runs his domestic affairs as he runs his business: calculatingly, callously, coldly and commercially. Through his dysfunctional relationships with his son, his two wives, and his neglected daughter Florence, Dickens paints a vivid picture of the limitations of a society dominated by commercial values and the drive for profit and explores the possibility of moral and emotional redemption through familial love.”

First, take a moment to admire the beautiful cover. And if you have a copy with the original drawings inside, take a look at those too because they’re gorgeous.

I really, really enjoyed this book.

It took me a whole month to finish it because I read a few chapters each day. I find it easier to enjoy Dickens this way then reading it all a week or two. Dickens wrote most of his books as serials so they were meant to be read in parts and reading them in parts definitely enhances the experience.

Dombey and Son is such a beautiful book.
The story is very moving and more emotional then I had expected. I did shed some tears. One scene especially is truly heart wrenching. It’s a tragic story with a few uplifting (sometimes even comedic) elements.
Dickens’ characterization is, as always, perfect. Some characters are clichéd or just a bit too much to be realistic but realism wasn’t his goal. He wanted to drive a point home. Florence for example is too kind, too good and too forgiving, so much so it can be annoying. But in the end, Florence’s love and kindness prove to be the only things that matter. Her father’s self-importance, pride and money didn’t save him; her love did. There are quite a few contrasts of this kind in the novel.
The novel is very well constructed, there’s a host of distinct, warm and charming characters and the writing is elegant and beautiful.

I don’t know about you, but it took me quite some time to figure out whether Carker is actually a good or an evil character.
Dickens is brilliant.

I loved it.

5 STARS

Happy reading!
Helena

Charles Dickens: To Be Read at Dusk

Hi everyone

This is a little something about Charles Dickens’ To Be Read at Dusk.
My copy has 54 pages and I got it from Bol.
You can find all my Charles Dickens reviews here.

“Three ghostly tales from a master of the form, 'The Signalman', 'The Trial for Murder' and the title story, 'To Be Read at Dusk'.”

I liked it. It’s a nice collection and I enjoyed the stories. The first one especially had me thinking.

3 STARS

Happy reading!
Helena

Charles Dickens: David Copperfield

Hi again

Finally finished Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. It took me the whole month partly because it’s a very long and slow book, partly because I haven’t been feeling very well and partly because my husband and I have been pretty busy around the house.
My copy has 982 pages of story and 3 pages about the book by Matthew Arnold.
I got my beautiful book at the Fnac.
You can find my Charles Dickens reviews here.

“Dickens's epic, exuberant novel is one of the greatest coming-of-age stories in literature. It chronicles David Copperfield's extraordinary journey through life, as he encounters villains, saviours, eccentrics and grotesques, including the wicked Mr Murdstone, stout-hearted Peggotty, formidable Betsey Trotwood, impecunious Micawber and odious Uriah Heep.
Dickens's great Bildungsroman (based, in part, on his own boyhood, and which he described as a 'favourite child') is a work filled with life, both comic and tragic.
The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.”

I really enjoyed David Copperfield.

Dickens’ characters are brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. It’s amazing how different they all are and how much I loved most of them. Betsy Trotwood has to be my favorite. I love her.
The characters are obviously very stylized, but that’s his style and they really come alive after just a few chapters. We understand where they’re coming from and why they act the way they do. That doesn’t mean I like them, but I can see what and who made them do certain things.
The story is emotional, sad and funny at the same time. There are a lot of details and descriptive passages but it’s never boring and it makes for a beautiful novel. I felt like I was living there, with these characters, going through everything they were going through.
The prose is wonderful; rich, descriptive and vivid.

But there are a few things that bothered me.
First and foremost; Dora. Dora annoys me so much. She’s been brought up to marry a rich man and be beautiful and she doesn’t want to be anything more than that. That’s what makes me mad (and sad). She doesn’t want to understand what everyone is talking about, she doesn’t want to run her house properly and she can’t cope with any sort of feedback. She cries, says David is mean and blubbers about not being good enough. I mean, really? I know Dickens mocks her himself, but I couldn’t quite get past it to enjoy her character.
Secondly; David is so, so gullible, naive and passive. There were moments throughout the book where he deserved a few shakes to be honest.

I really enjoyed David Copperfield and I would definitely recommend it.
The more Dickens I read, the more I love him.

4 STARS

Happy reading!
Helena

Charles Dickens: Great Expectations

Hi

Great Expectations is (I believe) my father’s favorite novel by Charles Dickens.
The novel has 554 pages and 17 pages on Dickens by George Bernard Shaw at the end.
I am collecting these novels in the beautiful Penguin Classics Editions and this is certainly one of my favorite covers.
You can find all my Charles Dickens reviews here.

“In what may be Dickens's best novel, humble, orphaned Pip is apprenticed to the dirty work of the forge but dares to dream of becoming a gentleman — and one day, under sudden and enigmatic circumstances, he finds himself in possession of "great expectations." In this gripping tale of crime and guilt, revenge and reward, the compelling characters include Magwitch, the fearful and fearsome convict; Estella, whose beauty is excelled only by her haughtiness; and the embittered Miss Havisham, an eccentric jilted bride.”

The first 180 pages were very boring in my opinion.
After that it really picks up and it’s much easier to read. The story gets really gripping, especially towards the end.
The story is full of beautiful, beautiful prose, rich details and vibrant descriptions.
I loved John Wemmick and Miss Skiffins but I could get so angry at Pip for being so haughty and thankless! And Joe for being such a pushover.

Thanks to the essay by George Bernard Shaw I’m not ‘mad’ anymore about the stupid, perfect ending because it was meant to be differently. “It is too serious a book to be a trivially happy one. Its beginning is unhappy; its middle is unhappy; and the conventional happy ending is an outrage on it.”
I just wish Dickens had written it differently. 

The novel clearly reminds us that expectations of the future and the reality can be very different and you should manage your expectations. When a promise or expectation is not fulfilled life gets very disappointing.

Happy reading.
Helena

Charles Dickens: Bleak House

Hi

To make sure I’d read another novel by the literature giant named Charles Dickens, I asked my father what his favorites are. He had to think a bit but in the end he came up with Bleak House, Great Expectations and The Pickwick Papers.
I purchased Great Expectations before, but finding Bleak House in the Fnac, I decided to start with this huge book. It’s a 1055-page long novel with a 26 pages explanation about the novel.
You can find all my Charles Dickens reviews here.

“At the novel's core is long-running litigation in England's Court of Chancery, Jarndyce v Jarndyce, which has far-reaching consequences for all involved. The litigation, which already has taken many years and consumed between £60,000 and £70,000 in court costs, is emblematic of the failure of Chancery. Though Chancery lawyers and judges criticised Dickens's portrait of Chancery as exaggerated and unmerited, his novel helped to spur an ongoing movement that culminated in the enactment of legal reform in the 1870s.”

The novel is one big satire. 

You don’t ever really understand what the court case is about but it goes on and on and on. And that’s what it’s all about.
How people get so hung up on it. Ever hoping, ever waiting until they’ve won the case.
Richard is the prime example. He’s ruining himself and his fiancé. Always expecting to win the case and become rich and therefore he doesn’t feel the need to have a job. His degeneration from a bright, respectable youth full of potential into this doubting, obsessed man is heartbreaking. I felt even more so for his fiancé.

There are two narratives in this novel: Esther and a third unidentified, overseeing narrator. I liked that. Esther’s was generally more interesting to read. The third person’s was more about the court case and the lawyers and thus more frustrating to read. But it’s also about Lady Dedlock and other characters when Esther doesn’t meet them. Esther’s storytelling shows us how she feels inside; her wishes and dreams. The third person’s doesn’t’ of course.
I love Esther. She’s a hard worker, an optimist, she’s sweet, feminine and she always puts others first. And Lady Dedlock has so many layers! She has a weakness but she also has pride and other feelings.
Dickens is a writer who is able to write in depth characters.

Dickens’ descriptions read like you’re watching a movie it’s so amazing how he is able to describe everything with a lot of details without boring us to death.

It’s a funny novel too. There’s the spontaneous combustion of an evil alcoholic, the obsessed Mrs. Jellyby, Mr. Turveydrop and the funny and frustrating at the same time Mr. Skimpole.
Dickens describes characters of every social standing and in every social situation.

But it is a very, very long book and I had a hard time getting through it. It’s pretty boring in places and just way too long.

Happy reading!
Helena

I've been reading this one since the beginning of the month.

Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol

Hi

This must be my fourth time reading Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
As it is only 94 pages (and an article of 7 pages), I'd suggest you make yourself a cup of tea and snuggle up in the sofa. This novella deserves to be read in one sitting.

I’m not going to bore with the story or the message behind it; I’m pretty sure everyone has either read this (I hope) or at least seen a movie adaptation.

This is a heartwarming story full of rich details, vivid descriptions and amazing prose. It’s a vibrant and magnificent read.
Most of the characters are designed to tug on your heartstrings and they do so very effectively.
Every part of it is larger than life; is the best or the worst there has ever been. The weather has never been finer, the carols have never been sung better.
All of this serves a purpose in making us feel the very spirit of this novel.
Even though I hate clichés, I really don’t care. It is such a wonderful, emotional and heartwarming story.
It’s as if you’re really there. Dickens’ magnificent writing sucks us right in and only lets you go after the final well-wish of Tiny Tim.

I hope you’ll have a wonderful Christmas and happy reading!
Helena

It's that time of the year!