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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..
Dickens is one of my foundational, comfort authors but this was an absolute slog. Not one of his best. Read mostly because of the history of the death of Little Nell, which sent people into fits of lunacy at the time.