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fletcherflute 's review for:
The Old Curiosity Shop: A Tale
by Charles Dickens
3 stars-
I’ll be the first to say that Dickens is one of my absolute favorite authors. Over the last few years, I’ve been making my way through all of his novels. This is the 7th that I have read, and is maybe my least favorite so far. That’s not to say that it’s bad, but I think it is one of the most disjointed.
There are glimpses of Dickens brilliance in this novel, and I think that the setup is quite promising. I think he kind of loses track of his own plot throughout the middle. The last quarter of the book had some really engaging plot threads back in London, and that bumped the book back up to three stars for me. There are passages and chunks where I remember how much I love Dickens’ writing, but the middle of this book is just not completely redeemable.
Reading his earlier works is really insightful when comparing them to his masterworks like David Copperfield and Bleak House. There’s a certain difference in tone, but it is magical to see into his mind, and a kind of raw creativity in these early novels.
I’ll be the first to say that Dickens is one of my absolute favorite authors. Over the last few years, I’ve been making my way through all of his novels. This is the 7th that I have read, and is maybe my least favorite so far. That’s not to say that it’s bad, but I think it is one of the most disjointed.
There are glimpses of Dickens brilliance in this novel, and I think that the setup is quite promising. I think he kind of loses track of his own plot throughout the middle. The last quarter of the book had some really engaging plot threads back in London, and that bumped the book back up to three stars for me. There are passages and chunks where I remember how much I love Dickens’ writing, but the middle of this book is just not completely redeemable.
Reading his earlier works is really insightful when comparing them to his masterworks like David Copperfield and Bleak House. There’s a certain difference in tone, but it is magical to see into his mind, and a kind of raw creativity in these early novels.