OVER HERE – WHAT THE DICKENS
By ATWadmin On June 25th, 2008Summer has arrived and with it baseball, barbeques and beach books. If I venture to the beach I always bring a couple good beach books (and forty gallons of sunscreen, a case of beer and a large umbrella which serves as a sort of flag for my Mahons embassy among the bathing beauties). If you are looking for a wildly popular author who actually enjoyed critical and commercial success, may I suggest what might be a suprising choice – Charles Dickens – whose work was hiding in plain sight when it came to me.
I know, I know, some wise ass out there will say A Christmas Carol doesn’t really go with sand and surf. And they would be right. But damn if that old boy couldn’t write a tale. I happend to grab A Tale of Two Cities off the shelf a couple weeks ago and it is terrific. I am halfway through. I mean I know how it ends and have seen two or three movies of that work, but the writing and wit are fantastic. And Boz could do drama and melodrama like no one else. I will readily admit having seen more off Dickens work in movies and television than having read it, and I think in my mind I always just figured some day I’d get around to reading him. I have read Great Expectations a few times and David Copperfield once. Each work is so rich with characters and storyline that I am starting to think my failure to have read other works by him is almost criminal.
Anyhow, I suggest that if you are picking out some books for yourself this summer, give a thought to this master of the English language and champion of human decency. It may not be a far far better thing than you have ever done, but it would be a good idea none the less.
I’m not too fond of Dickens. I often find his narrative and style patchy, which as many of his books were written as weekly instalments for newspapers is hardly surprising. He also often drowns in sentimentality (I hold with Oscar Wilde: "One would have to have a heart of stone to read of the death of Little Nell without bursting into tears – of laughter!")
He tells great stories, however, and has a great eye for detail, and as a result his books give a perfect picture of Victorian England.
Mahons: I actually love "A Christmas Carol." I like the original, the Disney remake, any remake for that matter. It’s such a great story. Even if the writiing is patchy, as Noel points out.
May I add to the reading list :
any novel by Jane Austen. Clear and unsentimental writing. Classical.
"Lord of the Flies" for a realistic look at human nature when Western notions of civilization are abandoned.
Or, "Catcher in the Rye" — brilliant dialogue, brilliant use of profanity, and a walk back in time for youthful days when discovering that someone was a phony meant something deep and troubling.
I agree with Patty about Jane Austen. Persuasion is my favourite, but Emma is a close second.
That opening line; "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. …" has got to be one of the most memorable, – haven’t we all felt that sentiment at somne time?
For a prophetic look I think Clockwork Orange is closer to the mark, especially here in the UK…mind you, some of our local youth are straight from the Lord of the Flies…so perhaps there isn’t much to choose.
Noel: Each to his own I suppose. Frankly I thought A Tale of Two Cities would be stiff, but it is turning out to be simply excellent. Oscar Wilde’s quips are almost always funny, but not necessarily definitive of the subject. While Dickens could be sentimental, I don’t think his works drowned in it. Don’t forget Chesterton’s quote "It is not the death of Little Nell, but the life of Little Nell I object to."
His complicated plots, command of the language and wonderful characters are almost without rival.
Patty: Don’t let Noel’s view bother you, he thinks Fagin was a Zionist and therefore won’t give Dickens his full due. I know Alister Sim’s Scrooge is supposed to be definitive, but I also like Albert Finney’s version. Jane Austen is of course a delight as well.
I’m about halfway through Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott. Very interesting trying to understand the Scots patois of a couple of characters. Much of it resembles our Southron dialect here, which makes sense, since the south was settled by peoples from Ulster, Scotland, and the borderlands of Northumberland.
These are among my favorite beach books, or just good reading distractions on a nasty night.