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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Sometimes when a man is a stalker it's a good thing and sometimes when a man is a stalker it's a bad thing. My name is Charles Dickens and I will not be elaborating
What could be better to read on vacation than a long, meandering late Dickens novel filled with dead bodies? Well, I once had a go-go boot-wearing Victorianist professor assign this book in week 9 of a ten-week quarter, and the guilt of only reading the first fifty pages has been haunting me since.
So I read it, and liked it. There was a little too much obvious social critique via the Veneerings, and I'm not sure the overall economic ethic was clear or convincing, but it really did keep one reading.
Compared to other Dickens, there's an excess of both grim violence and treacle-y descriptions of happy marriage and babies. As a 20th centuryist, I'm far more comfortable with the blood than the twee sentimentalism, but it's a palatable balance.
So I read it, and liked it. There was a little too much obvious social critique via the Veneerings, and I'm not sure the overall economic ethic was clear or convincing, but it really did keep one reading.
Compared to other Dickens, there's an excess of both grim violence and treacle-y descriptions of happy marriage and babies. As a 20th centuryist, I'm far more comfortable with the blood than the twee sentimentalism, but it's a palatable balance.
This would have been so much better without about four subplots that barely tie into the main story.
The main plot is both transparently obvious and a bloody mess, the Noddy Boffin sub-plot suddenly and unsatisfactorily truncated, the doe-eyed heroine more saintly than ever, the afflictions of the likes of Sloppy and Jenny Wren treated as comic-relief, and Mr Riah is a clumsy apology for Fagin...
Brilliant, of course.
Brilliant, of course.
challenging
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dicken's novels are complex with many different characters and different plot lines going in different directions. It took me about a third of the book to figure out what was going on, but then once you have the major characters straight, then the story opens up and it becomes more enjoyable to read. Having read the BBC movie of it previously was also really helpful in understanding what was going on, although it kind of ruined the spoilers :)
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes