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Author Topic: The GMG Pickwick Club  (Read 32724 times)

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Offline Bogey

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #260 on: March 12, 2017, 10:45:38 AM »
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Online vandermolen

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #261 on: March 13, 2017, 05:39:02 AM »
Quote from: Bogey on March 12, 2017, 10:45:38 AM
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5812668/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_1

Might be right up our alley, folks!
Glad you're back!
See 'Missing Members' thread.
Here's looking at you... :)
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"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

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Offline k a rl h e nn i ng

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #262 on: March 13, 2017, 05:40:26 AM »
A 2019 release  8)
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Karl Henning, Ph.D.
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Offline aligreto

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #263 on: April 04, 2017, 07:31:38 AM »
I have never read Barnaby Rudge but have just commenced doing so.
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Offline Jaakko Keskinen

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #264 on: April 04, 2017, 07:41:25 AM »
Quote from: aligreto on April 04, 2017, 07:31:38 AM
I have never read Barnaby Rudge but have just commenced doing so.

Rudge is IMO the most underrated novel by Dickens. And The Old Curiosity Shop, if you count it as underrated.
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Offline aligreto

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #265 on: April 04, 2017, 08:23:30 AM »
I do find The Old Curiosity Shop to be a great read, oftentimes quite brutal in its portrayal of its time. But that was the mark of Dickens.
I obviously cannot comment on Barnaby Rudge yet. Interestingly, I know absolutely nothing of it so I am quite unsure what to expect which makes its commencement all the more interesting.
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Offline aligreto

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #266 on: May 11, 2017, 08:22:59 AM »
Quote from: aligreto on April 04, 2017, 07:31:38 AM
I have never read Barnaby Rudge but have just commenced doing so.

Barnaby Rudge is proving to be a bit of a struggle. I must admit that I an finding it difficult to engage with both the plot and the characters. I will battle on for the moment nonetheless.
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Offline Jaakko Keskinen

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #267 on: May 11, 2017, 08:42:49 AM »
Reading Copperfield in english. About one fourth done. Murdstone is a frighteningly accurate description of a true sadist. Can't wait till Steerforth resurfaces in the story, along with Rosa Dartle (easily the greatest woman character Dickens ever conceived) my favorite character.
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"Javert, though frightful, had nothing ignoble about him. Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand."

- Victor Hugo

kishnevi

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #268 on: May 22, 2017, 06:09:57 AM »
Have started reading Bleak House (which I have actually never read before). 
The edition I have has the advantage of Phiz's illustrations.
http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/art/illustration/phiz/bleakhouse/index.html
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Offline aligreto

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #269 on: June 30, 2017, 08:55:45 AM »
Quote from: aligreto on May 11, 2017, 08:22:59 AM
Barnaby Rudge is proving to be a bit of a struggle. I must admit that I an finding it difficult to engage with both the plot and the characters. I will battle on for the moment nonetheless.

Abandoned just over half way through which is something rarely done here. I felt that the characters were weak and the plot was incoherent, laborious and wandering.
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Online vandermolen

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #270 on: July 01, 2017, 01:10:05 AM »
Quote from: Alberich on May 11, 2017, 08:42:49 AM
Reading Copperfield in english. About one fourth done. Murdstone is a frighteningly accurate description of a true sadist. Can't wait till Steerforth resurfaces in the story, along with Rosa Dartle (easily the greatest woman character Dickens ever conceived) my favorite character.
Yes, Rosa Dartle is quite special! However, Betsy Trotwood remains my favourite character, I especially like her relationship with the kite-flying Mr Dick.
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"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Offline Jaakko Keskinen

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #271 on: July 01, 2017, 01:16:17 AM »
Yes, Betsey is awesome!
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"Javert, though frightful, had nothing ignoble about him. Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand."

- Victor Hugo

Online vandermolen

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #272 on: July 02, 2017, 12:01:58 AM »
Quote from: Alberich on July 01, 2017, 01:16:17 AM
Yes, Betsey is awesome!
I love her appearance at the beginning of the book where, in pressing her nose against the window when looking in, she gives Davy's mother such a fright that she goes into labour.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2018, 02:56:09 AM by vandermolen »
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"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Offline aligreto

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #273 on: December 09, 2017, 06:59:42 AM »
Given the season that is in it and given the fact that I have not partaken of any of Dickens’ wit or wisdom in quite a while I have decided to embark upon “A Christmas Carol”.
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Offline lisa needs braces

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #274 on: March 13, 2018, 12:11:09 AM »
My reading of novels has slowed down considerably over the years. Started reading Dickens in 2004, with a Tale of Two Cities -- loved it very much, then started reading his oeuvre from Oliver Twist and up, skipping a couple of the works (The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge), but I have been stuck on "Little Dorrit" for almost eight years, starting over several times and once making it all the way to the half-way point. Not a bad novel by any means -- the web has rotted my brain.

However (I might've mentioned it this thread) in 2013 I revisited Bleak House and loved it even more the second time. That book is a sustained marvel throughout.





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Online vandermolen

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #275 on: March 13, 2018, 02:58:15 AM »
Quote from: -abe- on March 13, 2018, 12:11:09 AM
My reading of novels has slowed down considerably over the years. Started reading Dickens in 2004, with a Tale of Two Cities -- loved it very much, then started reading his oeuvre from Oliver Twist and up, skipping a couple of the works (The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge), but I have been stuck on "Little Dorrit" for almost eight years, starting over several times and once making it all the way to the half-way point. Not a bad novel by any means -- the web has rotted my brain.

However (I might've mentioned it this thread) in 2013 I revisited Bleak House and loved it even more the second time. That book is a sustained marvel throughout.

Great Expectations, David Copperfield and a Tale of Two Cities are all favourites of mine. I must read Our Mutual Friend and Bleak House!
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"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Offline Biffo

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #276 on: March 13, 2018, 03:32:09 AM »
Quote from: vandermolen on March 13, 2018, 02:58:15 AM
Great Expectations, David Copperfield and a Tale of Two Cities are all favourites of mine. I must read Our Mutual Friend and Bleak House!

You should definitely read Bleak House, possibly his greatest novel, certainly one of his most ambitious; several concurrent plot lines tie together wonderfully. He tried the same thing in Our Mutual Friend but I find it a bit of a shambles; the motivation behind the story is pretty feeble, nevertheless it has many wonderful scenes.

I would rate Great Expectations his finest novel if he had stuck to his original ending, instead he compromised for fear of upsetting his reading public.
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Offline k a rl h e nn i ng

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #277 on: March 13, 2018, 03:35:12 AM »
I, too, ought to read Bleak House (for that matter, I should watch the PBS series, which Bogey was so kind to send).


I was hung up for the longest time on the namesake of this thread.  I probably owe it to Dickens to start Bleak House . . . it's right there, on my Nook . . . .
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Karl Henning, Ph.D.
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http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Online vandermolen

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #278 on: March 13, 2018, 06:42:32 AM »
Quote from: Biffo on March 13, 2018, 03:32:09 AM
You should definitely read Bleak House, possibly his greatest novel, certainly one of his most ambitious; several concurrent plot lines tie together wonderfully. He tried the same thing in Our Mutual Friend but I find it a bit of a shambles; the motivation behind the story is pretty feeble, nevertheless it has many wonderful scenes.

I would rate Great Expectations his finest novel if he had stuck to his original ending, instead he compromised for fear of upsetting his reading public.

Thanks Biffo. I'll start with Bleak House then, although I know the story from an excellent BBC dramatisation ( ::)).
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"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Offline aligreto

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Re: The GMG Pickwick Club
« Reply #279 on: March 13, 2018, 09:19:17 AM »
I have recently commenced reading Martin Chuzzlewit for the first time. I am only a short way in and I find the characters engaging.
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