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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
I like Dickens very much. I think I need to ruminate on this one more. I know there is a point he's making in there that I'm just not seeing yet. Perhaps about Little Nell being a victim of all the short-sighted fools around her.
“The Old Curiosity Shop” is one of those books people tend to to know just one thing about - namely that Little Nell dies. I find it remarkable just how many of those books Dickens has managed to write - that is, books with plots or characters that people are aware of without maybe even knowing the title of the book. That was a very convoluted sentence. What I mean is that after now having read all of Dickens’ completed novels I find it striking how many things I was aware of before reading the books. Not sure that was less convoluted, but oh well.
In any case, while Little Nell and her death is what is generally known about this book, it wasn’t exactly my favorite thing. Over the course of the last 15 months, I’ve come to realize I prefer Dickens when he’s funny and angry rather than when he is writing about self-sacrificing, unselfishly good women. To be honest, during the Nell parts of the book I was rolling my eyes more often than not, and her death didn’t move me as much as deaths in other of Dickens’ books. There’s another plot thread though, about Nell’s childhood friend Kit and his adventures, and I rather enjoyed that. It’s obvious that at this point Dickens wasn’t as good at threading different plots together yet, and so it sometimes feels a little clunky while reading.
I didn’t expect this to become a favorite, and it didn’t, although Kit and Dick Swiveller have been added to the list of my favorite characters (which is not an actual thing I have, but I did like them a lot). Speaking of lists - here’s the thing people actually have been asking me about, a list of Dickens’ novels in order of my preference:
1. Bleak House
2. David Copperfield
3. Great Expectations
4. Dombey and Son
5. Our Mutual Friend
6. A Tale of Two Cities
7. The Pickwick Papers
8. Nicholas Nickleby
9. Little Dorrit
10. Barnaby Rudge
11. The Old Curiosity Shop
12. Martin Chuzzlewit
13. Hard Times
14. Oliver Twist
A few notes about that: while I feel comfortable about my top three and the very bottom of the list, everything in between was very difficult to rank for me. Also, this is very much *my* preference, and I am not only judging on literary quality but also on sheer enjoyment. “David Copperfield” will probably always remain my favorite of the heart, but “Bleak House” is truly the culmination of all that Dickens can do. At the same time, because reading is complicated, I’m not sure that I’d say if you only read one Dickens, read “Bleak House”. It very much depends on what you’re in the mood for and how much patience you have.
One thing I don’t feel conflicted about is ranking “Oliver Twist” last - I did not enjoy it at all. I can appreciate the impact it had and its message but as a book it did not work for me.
I have now read 9.914 pages of Dickens - I still have “Drood” waiting for me, so at the end I will have read 10.000 pages of Dickens. You know, this was one of those weird obsessive projects I sometimes start, but I have no regrets.
In any case, while Little Nell and her death is what is generally known about this book, it wasn’t exactly my favorite thing. Over the course of the last 15 months, I’ve come to realize I prefer Dickens when he’s funny and angry rather than when he is writing about self-sacrificing, unselfishly good women. To be honest, during the Nell parts of the book I was rolling my eyes more often than not, and her death didn’t move me as much as deaths in other of Dickens’ books. There’s another plot thread though, about Nell’s childhood friend Kit and his adventures, and I rather enjoyed that. It’s obvious that at this point Dickens wasn’t as good at threading different plots together yet, and so it sometimes feels a little clunky while reading.
I didn’t expect this to become a favorite, and it didn’t, although Kit and Dick Swiveller have been added to the list of my favorite characters (which is not an actual thing I have, but I did like them a lot). Speaking of lists - here’s the thing people actually have been asking me about, a list of Dickens’ novels in order of my preference:
1. Bleak House
2. David Copperfield
3. Great Expectations
4. Dombey and Son
5. Our Mutual Friend
6. A Tale of Two Cities
7. The Pickwick Papers
8. Nicholas Nickleby
9. Little Dorrit
10. Barnaby Rudge
11. The Old Curiosity Shop
12. Martin Chuzzlewit
13. Hard Times
14. Oliver Twist
A few notes about that: while I feel comfortable about my top three and the very bottom of the list, everything in between was very difficult to rank for me. Also, this is very much *my* preference, and I am not only judging on literary quality but also on sheer enjoyment. “David Copperfield” will probably always remain my favorite of the heart, but “Bleak House” is truly the culmination of all that Dickens can do. At the same time, because reading is complicated, I’m not sure that I’d say if you only read one Dickens, read “Bleak House”. It very much depends on what you’re in the mood for and how much patience you have.
One thing I don’t feel conflicted about is ranking “Oliver Twist” last - I did not enjoy it at all. I can appreciate the impact it had and its message but as a book it did not work for me.
I have now read 9.914 pages of Dickens - I still have “Drood” waiting for me, so at the end I will have read 10.000 pages of Dickens. You know, this was one of those weird obsessive projects I sometimes start, but I have no regrets.
This novel from 1840-41 is a mix of social commentary and twisting narrative, populated by unforgettable classic Dickensian characters. At its heart is the journey by Little Nell and her grandfather north out of London through the Black Country, filled with colourful, vivid sketches of early 19th-century life such as the dehumanising effects of industrialisation. It also presents an engaging cast of heroes and villains back in London, from Kit Nubbles and Dick Swiveller to crooked lawyers Sally and Samson Brass and the evil Daniel Quilp. Its indictment of the treatment and lot of children in Victorian England is almost on a par with Oliver Twist, making it both an angry and sentimental story, enhanced in the Penguin Classics edition by plenty of illustrations from the original serialisation.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
I'm with Oscar Wilde on this one - not one of Dickens' best. Nell and her grandfather are just too much. But still, it's Dickens...
‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ by Charles Dickens is a book about people who are much like the interesting items a quirky shopkeeper with idiosyncratic tastes might display in his knickknack store. Of course, people in general for millennia are like items in a knickknack store in truth, metaphorically speaking. Buttoned-up bankers, ungovernable artistes, bourgeois homeowners and shopkeepers, and spiritual seekers - these are the usual personality types we all land somewhere at or close by along the spectrum of human attributes, with personal kinks. Dickens gives us a tour of England’s byways in the novel too, showing readers the types of vagabonds who made a living to varying degrees of success. They populated the roads entertaining country folk and small villages. City people are looked at as well. The year 1840, when ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ was serialized, was during a time when the industrial revolution had come into its mature adulthood stage.
But the question I think which was in Dickens’ mind when he wrote this book was:
Why oh why do many people support wasters, bastards, sadists, losers and psychopaths beyond all reason? Sometimes it’s about money, business or employment, but often there seems to be an eerie admiration of sorts, even when the Evil One hurts and destroys them too. Family ties are often given as a reason, but I can’t understand this one, either. If a family member is Evil, my tie becomes untied, even if I must be there until I find a way out.
Another question Dickens seems to have had, is what and whose point of view would best carry the story he had in mind forward in serialization and keep people interested for a year or more buying the 19th-century version of ‘in-app’ monthly fees and pay his bills?
After some confusion, Dickens settles on the omniscient third-person point of view. Dickens must not have had this book completely mapped out in his mind when he began publishing it. Wow. If this is what he could do winging it, wow. Young or old, Charles Dickens had some skills! And a writing formula that proved popular with readers over time.
‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ kept me interested, drew me on. But there is a stylistic load of EastEnder’s quick’n-dirty shallow plot-of-the-month feel amidst the usual Dickens’ world of the wretched poor and starving babies under the feet of the privileged and snooty. Every introduced thread is not always followed up on. The characters are more cartoonishly broad and two-dimensional than what Dickens usually invents. The sentimentality is overwhelming. He doesn’t successfully pull it off, in my humble opinion. But. Dickens is, well, a god. Even when the book is an early proto-book, he creates something that people still refer to centuries later.
The character who people remember most is Nell Trent, a thirteen year old who sacrifices herself to save her demented grandfather. Grandfather is the owner of the curiosity shop. But unfortunately he gambles away his savings and is unable to pay back loans he takes out to continue gambling. He loses the shop. Nell takes him away on a journey traveling into the country, intending to live like the birds and butterflies. Fortunately, many people are touched by the incongruous duo, and feed them, sometimes giving them a place to stay and sleep. Nell destroys her health walking for miles without proper food or rest, and worrying. Grandfather keeps gambling whenever the opportunity presents itself, and due to his dementia, is not dependable or wise.
Christopher ‘Kit’ Nubbles, Nell’s best friend when she lived above her Grandfather’s shop, also meets a lot of people. He supports his mother and his two younger siblings. He is a strong youth who keeps to the Good while seeking work and as an employee. He also is very admired. Except by one person, a very evil jealous dwarf, Daniel Quilp.
Quilp wants to destroy Kit and Grandfather. As he is a loan shark, although disliked and feared, he has the power to destroy people. Quilp believes Grandfather has a fortune hidden away somewhere so he continues to track Nell and Grandfather on their journey, and he is jealous of Kit to the point of insanity.
There are a lot of other characters - Good, Evil and swivelers. In fact, one character goes by the name of Richard ‘Dick’ Swiveler, and he IS a dick for awhile, then suddenly he isn’t. Dickens uncharacteristically develops Swiveler from a ne’er do well to a sterling angel of vengeance too abruptly, but Dickens’ characters in ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ all have some issues of development, in my opinion.
I think I must rate this novel three stars and a half.
But the question I think which was in Dickens’ mind when he wrote this book was:
Why oh why do many people support wasters, bastards, sadists, losers and psychopaths beyond all reason? Sometimes it’s about money, business or employment, but often there seems to be an eerie admiration of sorts, even when the Evil One hurts and destroys them too. Family ties are often given as a reason, but I can’t understand this one, either. If a family member is Evil, my tie becomes untied, even if I must be there until I find a way out.
Another question Dickens seems to have had, is what and whose point of view would best carry the story he had in mind forward in serialization and keep people interested for a year or more buying the 19th-century version of ‘in-app’ monthly fees and pay his bills?
After some confusion, Dickens settles on the omniscient third-person point of view. Dickens must not have had this book completely mapped out in his mind when he began publishing it. Wow. If this is what he could do winging it, wow. Young or old, Charles Dickens had some skills! And a writing formula that proved popular with readers over time.
‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ kept me interested, drew me on. But there is a stylistic load of EastEnder’s quick’n-dirty shallow plot-of-the-month feel amidst the usual Dickens’ world of the wretched poor and starving babies under the feet of the privileged and snooty. Every introduced thread is not always followed up on. The characters are more cartoonishly broad and two-dimensional than what Dickens usually invents. The sentimentality is overwhelming. He doesn’t successfully pull it off, in my humble opinion. But. Dickens is, well, a god. Even when the book is an early proto-book, he creates something that people still refer to centuries later.
The character who people remember most is Nell Trent, a thirteen year old who sacrifices herself to save her demented grandfather. Grandfather is the owner of the curiosity shop. But unfortunately he gambles away his savings and is unable to pay back loans he takes out to continue gambling. He loses the shop. Nell takes him away on a journey traveling into the country, intending to live like the birds and butterflies. Fortunately, many people are touched by the incongruous duo, and feed them, sometimes giving them a place to stay and sleep. Nell destroys her health walking for miles without proper food or rest, and worrying. Grandfather keeps gambling whenever the opportunity presents itself, and due to his dementia, is not dependable or wise.
Christopher ‘Kit’ Nubbles, Nell’s best friend when she lived above her Grandfather’s shop, also meets a lot of people. He supports his mother and his two younger siblings. He is a strong youth who keeps to the Good while seeking work and as an employee. He also is very admired. Except by one person, a very evil jealous dwarf, Daniel Quilp.
Quilp wants to destroy Kit and Grandfather. As he is a loan shark, although disliked and feared, he has the power to destroy people. Quilp believes Grandfather has a fortune hidden away somewhere so he continues to track Nell and Grandfather on their journey, and he is jealous of Kit to the point of insanity.
There are a lot of other characters - Good, Evil and swivelers. In fact, one character goes by the name of Richard ‘Dick’ Swiveler, and he IS a dick for awhile, then suddenly he isn’t. Dickens uncharacteristically develops Swiveler from a ne’er do well to a sterling angel of vengeance too abruptly, but Dickens’ characters in ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ all have some issues of development, in my opinion.
I think I must rate this novel three stars and a half.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Boring.
Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring.
Did I mention it was boring?
Apparently, I'm not a Dickens fan, because my book club friends who like Dickens LOVED this book. I found it boring. (I may have mentioned that.) In honor of it being some Dickens anniversary, we read this book eight chapters a month. This, however, didn't add to the excitement of the book for me. If anything, it made it even more boring. (Are there actually degrees of boring?)
So, I'm finished. Finally.
Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring.
Did I mention it was boring?
Apparently, I'm not a Dickens fan, because my book club friends who like Dickens LOVED this book. I found it boring. (I may have mentioned that.) In honor of it being some Dickens anniversary, we read this book eight chapters a month. This, however, didn't add to the excitement of the book for me. If anything, it made it even more boring. (Are there actually degrees of boring?)
So, I'm finished. Finally.
Some very good characters but the story is not very strong, and don't believe one part of the ending,why would the Marchioness word be taken against lawyers?
Runder opp fra 3,8, - hadde en periode hvor det gikk veldig veldig sakte med lydbøker (babyen har sluttet å sove på tur, og når skal man ellers høre?), hørte ganske mange kapiteler med bare et øre og husker ingenting. Så oppdaget jeg verdens beste kombo; puslespill + lydbok og kom sikkelig inn i historien og ble sikkelig betatt. Har en stygg mistanke om at en liten del av sjela mi egentlig vil lese type løkkeskriftbøker (eller bare se TV), men så synes ikke hjernen min at det er OK, så da får jeg utløp for sentimentalitetsbehov via Dickens.
(Runder kanskje ned i morgen, dere vet hvordan det fungerer, akkurat når er jeg litt høy på slutten).
ETA: Rundet ned til 3..
(Runder kanskje ned i morgen, dere vet hvordan det fungerer, akkurat når er jeg litt høy på slutten).
ETA: Rundet ned til 3..