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Such is the difference between yesterday and to-day. We are all going to the play, or coming home from it.
I have a history with this story.
When I was a child, I had a book of Dickens stories that I thought were the real thing (I wasn’t happy when I found out they weren’t) and this one, with its depiction of Little Nell was my favorite. I suppose that’s not surprising, as it has all the elements of a fairy tale, especially the incarnation of repulsive evil, Quilp, who has the characteristics of a Rumpelstiltskin, terrorizing the put-upon (most of it in helping her beloved grandfather who has gotten them into their mess), epitome of goodness, Nell.
I moved on to “real” Dickens starting in high school, but I didn’t read this until I was around thirty years old. The book itself has a special place in my memory, illustrated by the 5 stars I originally gave it (as a pre-GR read). I bought it in London at a Blackwell’s and read it on the plane ride home. If I wasn’t enthralled with it this time, I certainly was then. Now, with more Dickens-experience, I can’t give it 5 stars. It's an early novel and was written on the fly, especially in its beginning, for weekly installments.
Dickens used one installment to vent his spleen at injustice that is still, of course, relevant today:
Let moralists and philosophers say what they may, it is very questionable whether a guilty man would have felt half as much misery that night, as Kit did, being innocent. The world, being in the constant commission of vast quantities of injustice, is a little too apt to comfort itself with the idea that if the victim of its falsehood and malice have a clear conscience, he cannot fail to be sustained under his trials…Whereas, the world would do well to reflect, that injustice is in itself, to every generous and properly constituted mind, an injury, of all others the most insufferable, the most torturing, and the most hard to bear; and that many clear consciences have gone to their account elsewhere, and many sound hearts have broken, because of this very reason; the knowledge of their own deserts only aggravating their sufferings, and rendering them the less endurable.
My reread was with the local Dickens Fellowship. Several of us met online this month and we'll have the opportunity to do so next month. We’ll finish discussing this work and find out what Dickens we’ll be reading together starting in September. I’m up for whichever is chosen.
I have a history with this story.
When I was a child, I had a book of Dickens stories that I thought were the real thing (I wasn’t happy when I found out they weren’t) and this one, with its depiction of Little Nell was my favorite. I suppose that’s not surprising, as it has all the elements of a fairy tale, especially the incarnation of repulsive evil, Quilp, who has the characteristics of a Rumpelstiltskin, terrorizing the put-upon (most of it in helping her beloved grandfather who has gotten them into their mess), epitome of goodness, Nell.
I moved on to “real” Dickens starting in high school, but I didn’t read this until I was around thirty years old. The book itself has a special place in my memory, illustrated by the 5 stars I originally gave it (as a pre-GR read). I bought it in London at a Blackwell’s and read it on the plane ride home. If I wasn’t enthralled with it this time, I certainly was then. Now, with more Dickens-experience, I can’t give it 5 stars. It's an early novel and was written on the fly, especially in its beginning, for weekly installments.
Dickens used one installment to vent his spleen at injustice that is still, of course, relevant today:
Let moralists and philosophers say what they may, it is very questionable whether a guilty man would have felt half as much misery that night, as Kit did, being innocent. The world, being in the constant commission of vast quantities of injustice, is a little too apt to comfort itself with the idea that if the victim of its falsehood and malice have a clear conscience, he cannot fail to be sustained under his trials…Whereas, the world would do well to reflect, that injustice is in itself, to every generous and properly constituted mind, an injury, of all others the most insufferable, the most torturing, and the most hard to bear; and that many clear consciences have gone to their account elsewhere, and many sound hearts have broken, because of this very reason; the knowledge of their own deserts only aggravating their sufferings, and rendering them the less endurable.
My reread was with the local Dickens Fellowship. Several of us met online this month and we'll have the opportunity to do so next month. We’ll finish discussing this work and find out what Dickens we’ll be reading together starting in September. I’m up for whichever is chosen.
The Old Curiosity Shop: One of the worst-titled books in literature, but well-written, nonetheless. The curiosity shop is the setting of the book at the beginning, and for perhaps the first 20% of the book. For the remainder of the book, the various characters are on the move. As this is a Dickens' novel, you can probably guess that there are plenty of social issues scattered throughout. There is poverty, gambling, characters with grotesque physical deformities, and corruption. The story itself is well-written and has a unique plot.
Little Nell is a young girl (about 14) who lives with her grandfather in the curiosity shop. At night, he locks up the shop and goes out, leaving Nell locked up inside. Grandfather has a gambling problem and a problem with money as a result, which the landlord, Daniel Quilp (who is a dwarf) doesn't look too kindly upon. There are also a brother and sister lawyer duo that assist Quilp in being an all-around bad guy, and a 20-something year old ne'er do well who does a lot of drinking but who ends up being an important character. I rather enjoyed the story and it kept me engaged throughout. I think the emphasis on the deformities was rather over the top and heavy-handed. There are some 19th-century swearing, and free-flowing alcohol throughout.
Little Nell is a young girl (about 14) who lives with her grandfather in the curiosity shop. At night, he locks up the shop and goes out, leaving Nell locked up inside. Grandfather has a gambling problem and a problem with money as a result, which the landlord, Daniel Quilp (who is a dwarf) doesn't look too kindly upon. There are also a brother and sister lawyer duo that assist Quilp in being an all-around bad guy, and a 20-something year old ne'er do well who does a lot of drinking but who ends up being an important character. I rather enjoyed the story and it kept me engaged throughout. I think the emphasis on the deformities was rather over the top and heavy-handed. There are some 19th-century swearing, and free-flowing alcohol throughout.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
How curious indeed!
Dickens at his best, by turns funny and sentimental, and every character portrayed with artful care.
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Even though this book is some what shorter than his other tomes, the pace was slow and tiring. Even so, it still has the same prosaic beauty inherent in his other works. I love his language and style. Poor callow Nell, forced to take up a burden no child should. She was a saint and a redemption to mankind. Everyone who met her loved her. She was only rejected once when her grandfather and her were forced into begging.
Her light was exinguished way too early.
My Dickens-athon continues apace and I am enjoying it so much that I have had to take the weighty decision to read something other than another Dickens next. Let me say that I have yet to read a Dickens that is bad or even remotely hateful, and this novel continues to enchant because his gift is so consistent and generous. I really think that once you get 'into the groove' of Dickens and how he writes, it is impossible to dislike.
People have said to me, oh I really hate Dickens. Fair enough, but if you hate it then you would not keep reading it, so it stands to reason that you can only say that you hate Dickens if you have read only one or perhaps at most two of his novels. It was only on my third Dickens that it really clicked for me. At that stage I was so familiar with his ways that it became effortless to read.
The Old Curiosity Shop is no exception, vintage Dickens, with many unforgettable "characters". And this is both Dickens' strenght and his weakness, because critics will say that there is an extremity to the characteristics of characters that makes them into caricature. It is a valid concern, but only if you believe that all literature must be deadly serious. There is immense, often laugh out loud humour in his writing, and most of that derives from his often outlandish characterisation. In "The Shop" this is a feature as ever with some truly outstanding examples of humanity, both good and bad. Most memorable is Quilp, the evil dwarf, a creature so vile and self-serving he probably outpaces all other Dickensian villains for sheer malice (of my current acquaintance) by a country mile! At the other end of the humanity spectrum lies Nell, almost too good for the world, and much of the drama focuses on the varying fortunes of these two, with rewarding forays into a cast of supporting Samaritans and Philistines along the way.
I do have a couple of issues with this work though. First of all, I felt it was somewhat over-long. The later exposition of the fortunes of the humorously named Dick Swiveller and the Brass siblings was, for me, far too leisurely and drawn out at such a critical juncture in the tale.
It is said that in its day, this was Dickens most popular novel, although it was written and published in monthly instalments, and this is perhaps the motive behind its occasional lack of narrative urgency. Perhaps, as has been suggested, feedback from readers directed some of the novels characters' longevity.
Another curiosity (npi) of the text is the convention here adopted for characters, some of the quite significant, to remain unnamed throughout the text. We have the single gentleman, the Marchioness, the Bachelor; even Nell's grandfather is hardly identified. This though is a smaller issue to my mind.
All in all, another Dickens Delight that you won't regret reading, but at nearly 600 pages you'll need to be dedicated.
People have said to me, oh I really hate Dickens. Fair enough, but if you hate it then you would not keep reading it, so it stands to reason that you can only say that you hate Dickens if you have read only one or perhaps at most two of his novels. It was only on my third Dickens that it really clicked for me. At that stage I was so familiar with his ways that it became effortless to read.
The Old Curiosity Shop is no exception, vintage Dickens, with many unforgettable "characters". And this is both Dickens' strenght and his weakness, because critics will say that there is an extremity to the characteristics of characters that makes them into caricature. It is a valid concern, but only if you believe that all literature must be deadly serious. There is immense, often laugh out loud humour in his writing, and most of that derives from his often outlandish characterisation. In "The Shop" this is a feature as ever with some truly outstanding examples of humanity, both good and bad. Most memorable is Quilp, the evil dwarf, a creature so vile and self-serving he probably outpaces all other Dickensian villains for sheer malice (of my current acquaintance) by a country mile! At the other end of the humanity spectrum lies Nell, almost too good for the world, and much of the drama focuses on the varying fortunes of these two, with rewarding forays into a cast of supporting Samaritans and Philistines along the way.
I do have a couple of issues with this work though. First of all, I felt it was somewhat over-long. The later exposition of the fortunes of the humorously named Dick Swiveller and the Brass siblings was, for me, far too leisurely and drawn out at such a critical juncture in the tale.
It is said that in its day, this was Dickens most popular novel, although it was written and published in monthly instalments, and this is perhaps the motive behind its occasional lack of narrative urgency. Perhaps, as has been suggested, feedback from readers directed some of the novels characters' longevity.
Another curiosity (npi) of the text is the convention here adopted for characters, some of the quite significant, to remain unnamed throughout the text. We have the single gentleman, the Marchioness, the Bachelor; even Nell's grandfather is hardly identified. This though is a smaller issue to my mind.
All in all, another Dickens Delight that you won't regret reading, but at nearly 600 pages you'll need to be dedicated.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
I do love me some Dickens! Been very slowly working through his collected works with about one each year and this year it was time for The Old Curiosity Shop. An odd title for the book because it’s not about the shop at all, but rather about the grandfather and grand-daughter who lived there at the beginning of the novel. But they have to leave it early on and never return. I would have called it “Little Nell,” but hey...I’m not Dickens.
I liked this one a lot, though not quite as much as some others (Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, Tale of Two Cities). It still has the epic journey of its main characters, filled with melancholy and humor all leading up to a scene of heart-break. It’s got its villain, too, but this time the baddy was harder to take. There was much less humanity behind the villainy of Mr. Quilp, an evil dwarf, which was the one major downfall for the novel, in my opinion.
So I wouldn’t put this one on your reading list unless you (like me) want to read everything that Dickens wrote!
I liked this one a lot, though not quite as much as some others (Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, Tale of Two Cities). It still has the epic journey of its main characters, filled with melancholy and humor all leading up to a scene of heart-break. It’s got its villain, too, but this time the baddy was harder to take. There was much less humanity behind the villainy of Mr. Quilp, an evil dwarf, which was the one major downfall for the novel, in my opinion.
So I wouldn’t put this one on your reading list unless you (like me) want to read everything that Dickens wrote!
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No