The GMG Pickwick Club

Started by Bogey, July 17, 2015, 10:30:52 AM

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aligreto

Dickens: Bleak House






This is quite a large novel. It is also somewhat different in that it is narrated by one of the main characters and, alternatively, by the author at different periods. It is essentially a story about a legal case involving a will. It is also a tale of obsession and the consequences of that obsession on various people. There are some very strong characters in this novel and the story is well told by Dickens. I have enjoyed the read [my first time].


Karl Henning

Quote from: aligreto on February 23, 2021, 02:58:31 PM
Dickens: Bleak House






This is quite a large novel. It is also somewhat different in that it is narrated by one of the main characters and, alternatively, by the author at different periods. It is essentially a story about a legal case involving a will. It is also a tale of obsession and the consequences of that obsession on various people. There are some very strong characters in this novel and the story is well told by Dickens. I have enjoyed the read [my first time].



I'm planning to read it at some point, as I enjoyed the BBC production a good deal.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
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

DavidW

It is one of the few works of Dickens that I haven't read.  It is sitting on my shelf.  The last Dickens novel I read was Hard Times.

aligreto

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on February 23, 2021, 03:46:00 PM
I'm planning to read it at some point, as I enjoyed the BBC production a good deal.


Quote from: DavidW on February 23, 2021, 03:47:52 PM
It is one of the few works of Dickens that I haven't read.  It is sitting on my shelf.  The last Dickens novel I read was Hard Times.


Covid times are a good time for reading Dickens as in this case one needs a lot of time to allocate to it. The moral of the tale is one of tremendous irony. Enjoy the read if you gentlemen do go ahead with it.

DavidW

Quote from: aligreto on February 25, 2021, 01:55:09 PM
Covid times are a good time for reading Dickens as in this case one needs a lot of time to allocate to it.

My workload during covid is actually been quite a bit more instead of less.  It is difficult for me to commit to any long novel for that reason.  Maybe this summer.

aligreto

Dickens: Hard Times

I have read somewhere that this is the least read novel written by Dickens. That is a pity as I found it to be an engrossing read. I liked the strong characters and I also liked the plot. I found both to be very creditable and engaging. Dickens was a master storyteller and this is a fine tale which is well told.

DavidW

That is funny that is not often read since it is one of his shortest.  I agree that it is a fine novel.

JBS

Quote from: aligreto on March 04, 2021, 12:26:05 PM
Dickens: Hard Times

I have read somewhere that this is the least read novel written by Dickens. That is a pity as I found it to be an engrossing read. I liked the strong characters and I also liked the plot. I found both to be very creditable and engaging. Dickens was a master storyteller and this is a fine tale which is well told.

We were assigned Hard Times in my high school specifically because it was his shortest novel.

I do think it shows all his strengths as a novelist.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Karl Henning

Quote from: JBS on March 04, 2021, 04:19:26 PM
We were assigned Hard Times in my high school specifically because it was his shortest novel.

I do think it shows all his strengths as a novelist.

Haven't read it in an age, should revisit it.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
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

aligreto

Dickens: Little Dorrit





Little Dorrit is essentially the story of the incarceration and the life of a man who was sentenced to the debtors prison, and his and his family's life especially his youngest daughter Amy Dorrit who was born in the prison. The book contains the comments of Dickens upon the system of the debtors prison, the operation of the civil service and the high regard in which an ultimate financial swindler is held. There are some wonderful characters contained in this work. The contrast between the characters of Little Dorrit and her father, both inside and outside of the prison is wonderfully written. There are, of course, many other wonderful characters here also. 

aligreto

Dickens: A Tale Of Two Cities





This is a very famous book obviously but how many people have actually read it? It is a well constructed novel that is easy to read. It is historically based but it is not a "heavy" read. It is based around a certain number of characters in, and some common to, the two cities concerned. I had forgotten the level of detail that dickens employs in his descriptive narrative in relation to the French Revolution. As always with Dickens wonderful characters inhabit the pages. I found it, once again after many years, to be an engrossing read. It was well worth another reading.

DavidW

Quote from: aligreto on March 23, 2021, 06:26:27 AM
Dickens: A Tale Of Two Cities





This is a very famous book obviously but how many people have actually read it? It is a well constructed novel that is easy to read. It is historically based but it is not a "heavy" read. It is based around a certain number of characters in, and some common to, the two cities concerned. I had forgotten the level of detail that dickens employs in his descriptive narrative in relation to the French Revolution. As always with Dickens wonderful characters inhabit the pages. I found it, once again after many years, to be an engrossing read. It was well worth another reading.

It is one of my all time favorite novels.  I've read it several times and I'm planning on rereading it in the next year or so.

aligreto

Quote from: DavidW on March 23, 2021, 06:59:26 AM
It is one of my all time favorite novels.  I've read it several times and I'm planning on rereading it in the next year or so.

Great. I had not read it in many years and I found the re-read very rewarding.

Florestan

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

aligreto

Dickens: Great Expectations





This was an interesting reading of this work. I thought that I had remembered it but I was wrong. The book is full of wonderful characters with a straightforward, basically linear plot. It is also a book that is packed full of wonderful images, sometimes portrayed almost photographically. The standout ones are obviously those of the early scenes with the convict as well as those scenes associated with Miss Havisham. But there are many more that are wonderfully evocative which had been forgotten by me. Also the rich tapestry of characters was also something that came to light again for me. The writing of Estella's character was wonderful and the description of Wemmick's character and his domestic environment have become some of my favourite portrayals by Dickens. Wonderful writing indeed.

Karl Henning

Cross-post:
Now that I'm back in touch with my Nook (as it were) I am re-reading Our Mutual Friend in earnest
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
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

aligreto

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on May 04, 2021, 05:33:36 PM
Cross-post:
Now that I'm back in touch with my Nook (as it were) I am re-reading Our Mutual Friend in earnest

I am about half way through it at the moment, Karl. Comment will follow when I eventually finish it.

aligreto

Dickens: Our Mutual Friend





I honestly found this to be a difficult and tiresome read for three reasons.
Firstly I found that the language was very ponderous and did not encourage long reading spells so it took me quite a long while to finish this large book.
Secondly, the plot or the development of it [as well as that of the characters], was quite tedious for me. I constantly found it going nowhere.
Finally, it was overly long and should have been seriously edited. Having said all of that, the content and characters, in themselves, were quite interesting.

The disparities between the two different ends of the social scale are well documented as usual by Dickens. However, this is not one that I would return to. Although the plot and the characters were fundamentally interesting, I did not find it to be a compelling read and I was never really invested in the work. I was glad to be finally finished with it, to be honest. It was too laborious a read for me.

Karl Henning

Quote from: aligreto on May 27, 2021, 12:00:52 PM
Dickens: Our Mutual Friend





I honestly found this to be a difficult and tiresome read for three reasons.
Firstly I found that the language was very ponderous and did not encourage long reading spells so it took me quite a long while to finish this large book.
Secondly, the plot or the development of it [as well as that of the characters], was quite tedious for me. I constantly found it going nowhere.
Finally, it was overly long and should have been seriously edited. Having said all of that, the content and characters, in themselves, were quite interesting.

The disparities between the two different ends of the social scale are well documented as usual by Dickens. However, this is not one that I would return to. Although the plot and the characters were fundamentally interesting, I did not find it to be a compelling read and I was never really invested in the work. I was glad to be finally finished with it, to be honest. It was too laborious a read for me.

Completely understand unwillingness to return to a laborious read, Fergus! I first began reading it while I was in the sub-acute rehab facility.  I found that I needed to re-start chapter 2 twice. I wondered if perhaps my brain was still readjusting to the task of reading.  The third time I did just soldier on.  In the event, once I got going, I was good. And, FWIW, I'm enjoying re-reading it now.  And although I love the BBC serialized production, I do enjoy the greater color in the text.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
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

aligreto

Cheers, Karl, and good for you.
I posted above that I was about half way through the book on May 5th [cannot remember when I actually started it] and only finished it on May 27th which says a lot to me.  ;D
That must be some kind of record for me.
The other thing that I noticed was that the struggle also prevented me from delving into another, "lighter" book as a digression. Such was the demand on my [feeble?  ;D] powers of concentration to enable me to keep up and locate both plot and characters at any given point.
Oh well.