Charles Dickens Books

"Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens can truly be seen as a critical work of fiction, one that I recommend everyone read at least once.

On the surface, the book seems dull, dry, boring and two hundred pages too long. However, as one delves into the book, it is amazing how moving Dickens' descriptions and attention to detail are.

The story follows the main character, Pip, an orphan,throughout his simple journey through life. The plot develops slowly but wisely, as Pip encounters a convict who changes his life, as all characters in the novel due. He later meets Miss Havisham, an old, lonely, somewhat disturbed woman, has the power to change Pip's life. He soon finds love in the eyes of a young woman named Estella, and finds anger and compassion as he grows to realize that life is nothing more than what he expected it to be.

This novel should be praised for it's amazing characters and wonderful development of plot. Every character makes his or her mark on the novel, and the plot will keep you interested, as you will see.

A great summer read (or, for that matter, all seasons!) !

Always concerned with issues of class, social injustice, and employment, Dickens shows in Hard Times, written in 1854, a broader concern with the philosophies and economic movements which underlie those issues. Three parallel story lines reflect a broad cross-section of society and its thinking.

Mr. Thomas Gradgrind runs a school founded upon the principles of rationalism, a belief in the importance of facts, the antithesis of romantic "fancy" and imagination. Basically a good man, he denies the importance of emotion--for himself, his children, and his students. Only Student #20, Sissy Jupe, the daughter of a circus clown, fails to conform to his notions, and in a hilarious, satiric scene at the beginning of the novel, Dickens shows the absurdity of Gradgrind's teachings.

Gradgrind's friend, Mr. Bounderby, is a banker and factory owner, aged fifty, who claims to have risen from the gutter to his present lofty position through hard work. Bounderby treats the employees of his Coketown factory as machines, rather than as humans, and his eventual marriage to the teenaged Louisa Gradgrind is seen by both as a marriage of "tangible fact," having nothing to do with affection.

The third story line involves Stephen Blackpool, a worker in Bounderby's factory, trapped in a marriage to an alcoholic who periodically appears and extorts money from him. Stephen is in love with Rachael, an adoring factory worker, but his appeal to Bounderby for help in ending his marriage is met with cold, rational pronouncements. Shortly after, Bounderby fires Stephen "for a novelty," forcing him to seek employment elsewhere.

As the story lines overlap and intersect, often with consummate irony, Dickens keeps a light enough hand to prevent the story from becoming a polemic, though his criticism of hypocrisy, corruption, and "progress" at the expense of humanity is clear. His humor, often dark, keeps the plot moving, and several of his characters, which are often caricatures, do grow and change. Characteristically, Dickens uses names symbolically-Gradgrind grinds the emotions from his graduates, hires Mr. M'Choakumchild as a teacher, and lives at Stone Lodge. Mr. Bounderby proves to be a bounder. Some of the circus performers, like Sissy, live at Pegasus Arms.

The dramatic conclusion, which involves the pursuit of an innocent character widely believed to have committed a robbery, draws all the themes together, showing the parallels, contrasts, and ironies which connect these characters, regardless of their social level. Less epic in plot than some of Dickens's other novels, Hard Times provides an intimate look at a changing economy and an important commentary on the philosophies of the times. Mary Whipple

This short, quick read is a collaborative effort led by Charles Dickens with contributions by Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell and the poet Adelaide Anne Procter. The premise is that an elderly woman moves to London and, after seeing an eye peeking out from the window of a supposedly empty house across the street, becomes obsessed with the place. Her long-time suitor and her servant both set to work trying to outdo each other in discovering the mystery of this house to let. They uncover the stories of several former occupants, all of which are enjoyable; Gaskell's contribution, "A Manchester Marriage," is outstanding. Overall, however, "A House to Let" amounts to a collection of short stories loosely strung together. They are very well-written and are certainly worth the time if you like these authors, but this book isn't quite in the same league as the major works of these authors.

If the true mark of a masterpiece is that any person can find his own interpretation therein, this little book is ample proof that Dickens' enduring tale, "A Christmas Carol", is a masterpiece, indeed. Each of the critics in this little volume has a different interpretation of Dickens' intent though none is so bold as to suggest that his purpose might have been to provide entertainment or make money.

Among the expected interpretations are those that discuss the dichotomy between the industrial revolution and family values, rural and urban life, and Scrooge as the embodiment of "economic man." Other selections interpret Scrooge as Everyman - each of us experiences Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come every year - or interpret the ghostly visits as dream sequences based on Scrooge's impression of himself and his impressions of what others think of him. One selection discusses the fairytale elements of the story.

Another, one of the more bizarre interpretations, compares Dickens' story to a parable about the conversion of Jews to Christianity, an unconvincing argument that, nevertheless, contains a few interesting ideas. E.g., in the Bible, Ebenezer is a stone and in "A Christmas Carol" Ebenezer Scrooge is stone-hearted; Jacob Marley represents Israel who rejected Christ; and in contrast, all of the Cratchet family have New Testament names. This is rather slim support for the thesis, but interesting none-the-less.

One of the most compelling interpretations is that Scrooge is undergoing an ersatz gestalt therapy session, that he is meeting the demons of his past and conquering them (particularly the image of himself as a lonely child), reckoning with the demons of the present, and confronting the main demon of the future - death. Although this is an appealing interpretation, it is anachronistic to claim that Dickens would have actually intended this, given that he wrote the story in 1843, several decades in advance of Freud's work. However, that this, and the other authors can find so many levels of meaning in this story does demonstrate again the universality of the work and does give the reader something further to ponder, especially on a second, fifth or tenth reading of this seasonal favorite.

There is also a short biography of Dickens, a chronology of "A Christmas Carol", and a bibliography. In the preface, the editors note that this book, as well as the series to which it belongs, is written with "young adults" in mind. Perhaps, but the material should also appeal to any reader whose comprehension level allows him to ponder what he is reading or has read. Although the book is short, its ideas are so many and varied.

(One note, the hard-cover binding is very tight and makes it difficult to keep the book open. The paperback might be a better choice.)

Set in Cloisterham, a cathedral town, Dickens's final novel, unfinished, introduces two elements unusual for Dickens--opium-eating and the church. In the opening scene, John Jasper, music teacher and soloist in the cathedral choir, awakens from an opium trance in a flat with two other semi-conscious men and their supplier, an old woman named Puffer, and then hurries off to daily vespers.

Jasper, aged twenty-six, is the uncle and guardian of Edwin Drood, only a few years younger. Drood has been the fiancé of Rosa Bud for most of his life, an arrangement made by his and Rosa's deceased fathers to honor their friendship, and the wedding is expected within the year. Jasper, Rosa's music teacher, is secretly in love with her, though she finds him repellent.

When two orphans, Helena and Neville Landless, arrive in Cloisterham, Helena and Rosa become friends, and Neville finds himself strongly attracted to the lovely Rosa. Ultimately, the hot-tempered Neville and Drood have a terrible argument in which Neville threatens Drood before leaving town on a walking trip. Drood vanishes the same day. Apprehended on his trip, Neville is questioned about Drood's disappearance, and Jasper accuses him of murder.

Tightly organized to this point, the novel shows Jasper himself to be a prime suspect, someone who could have engineered the evidence against Neville, but Dickens unexpectedly introduces some new characters at this point--the mysterious Dick Datchery and Tartar, an old friend of Rev. Mr. Crisparkle, minor canon at the cathedral. Puffer, the opium woman, is reintroduced and appears set to play a greater role, since she solicits information from the semi-conscious Jasper and secretly follows him. This is the halfway point in the projected novel, and Dickens clearly planned to develop these new (or reintroduced) characters to deepen the mystery.

More modern in many ways than his previous novels, the characters here are not simple stereotypes--some are good people who have real flaws and make mistakes. Dickens's tying of Jasper to the church choir, where he was a soloist, suggests some examination of the theme of hypocrisy, in which the good Mr. Crisparkle would be Jasper's antithesis. The opium scenes, vividly drawn, carry the unusual suggestion that opium leads to a kind of intoxication similar to that of alcohol, and Dicken does not use these scenes to offer dire warnings about the drug--at least at this point. Especially intriguing because it is unfinished, this novel continues to fascinate mystery lovers and literary scholars more than a century after its first publication. Mary Whipple

A handsome young man who finds himself the sole support of his mother and sister after his father's death, Nicholas Nickleby is hopeful that his uncle, Ralph Nickleby, a weathy speculator in London, will assist the unfortunate family in its hour of need. Ralph's cruel response, however, is to make Nicholas the assistant headmaster at a notoriously abusive school in northern England and to make his beautiful sister a seamstress and part-time hostess at his own parties. There she is subjected to innuendo and to the drunken intentions of men whose accounts help keep Ralph a wealthy man.

This early novel is pure melodrama, with the good characters being unbelievably good, and the evil being unbelievably bad. The multiple adventures of Nicholas through a variety of settings, both in the city and in the countryside, create a broad picture of life in England in the 1830s. Nicholas's job as assistant headmaster exposes him to the horrors of so-called boarding schools for young boys, which were essentially warehouses for young children where they were forced into physical labor, kept malnourished, and beaten regularly. These abuses, based on Dickens's personal observations, so horrified his readers that major reforms of these schools eventually resulted. When Nicholas, in frustration, finally beats headmaster Wackford Squeers for his abuse of the children, Nicholas and Smike, a crippled boy who has been the headmaster's slave, escape together.

Their interlude with a traveling theatrical company, led by friendly Vincent Crummles, gives Nicholas much needed emotional support and provides Smike with a temporary home--until Nicholas is called to return to England to rescue his sister from unwanted attentions fostered by her uncle. Eventually Nicholas works in London for the saintly Cheeryble brothers and meets Madeline Bray, the love of his life.

Long recognized as one of Dickens's best novels for its wide assortment of characters, the novel mixes delightful humor with the pathos. The complex plot employs coincidence and miraculous interventions to save the day for the good characters while well-deserved disasters befall the evil ones. Dickens's vibrant descriptions bring people, places, and scenes fully to life, and the realistically described social conditions provide a clear vision of life's travails.

Despite its great length, the novel is a fast read--and fun--but it is soap opera-like in its ups and downs, and the main characters are not fully developed. One knows little about Nicholas except what one "sees"--that he has a kind heart and acts on it--but we know little about his inner life. (David Copperfield and Pip in Great Expectations are still ten and twenty years away.) Sentimental and occasionally bathetic, the novel involves the reader in the social abuses, some of which were improved as a direct result of this book's publication. n Mary Whipple

In depth exploration of the process of the Royal Shakespeare Company's two-part, nine-hour masterpiece based on Charles Dicken's "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby," from original idea to triumphant theatrical run to televised serial. Leon Rubin was one of the original collaborators, and though some of the text may seem a bit too glowing, he has written an interesting account of what started as a theatrical experiment. Lots of black and white photographs ranging from the initial rehearsal period to opening night. It's a great shame that this book is out of print; if you can find a second-hand copy, it is definitely worth it, especially if you have seen and experienced the play.

In this tale we follow a young child named Pip who starts of as an orphaned child living with his big sister(like 10+ years or older big) and her blacksmith husband (Uncle Joe) who has no future other than staying in her working class. That all changes with new found riches thanks to an unknown source. Along with those riches Pip is to be trained into a Gentleman and from that we follow Pip's successes and failures in life dealing with those riches and how he got them. And finally we see him ending with the only thing he could not capture, that has lost its beauty when Pip first saw him/her/it (keeping it a secret, you gotta read to find out) during his childhood. Telling anymore would ruin the purpouse and joy of reading this book. Simply put, Dickens adds the sense of adventure and humor to his book and twist and turns that keep it always suspensful and parts in every stage of Pip's life we could all relate to. And with those characteristics marvelously arranged this a very enjoyable tale to read from beginning to end. The only problem I have with it is that the literature here is sometiems a bit hard to understand since after all this was written over 100 years ago.

Can someone be pure of heart, or are we all products of our environment and upbringing? Dickens explores this premise in his novel 'Oliver Twist' quite effectively, while creating some of the most memorable characters ever written. (The Artful Dodger, Fagin, Charlie Bates, etc..) At the same time he also captures the essence of Victorian England perfectly. (At times while reading I even felt that I was there with them, wondering around in the dark of some of these houses waiting for a candle to be drawn to show me the way.) Oliver is an orphan just trying to stay alive in an unsympathetic world. He falls into the company of pickpockets and thieves, and battles to maintain his moral character. He catches some breaks, but seems to always be plagued with the worst luck. (You find out later that not all of it is coincidence, as forces are deliberately working against him.) Most of the so called bad guys are not all bad, and not everybody with the proper upbringing is good. You feel a sense of sympathy for the people living under these conditions and at times can't blame them for what they have become. Even Fagin you find yourself rooting for at times, even though he's the one ruining so many young lives by corrupting them into his own way of life. Even if corrupted though, this book still shows a few people willing to change their ways, either for good or bad. You are not caste into one mold. My only critique of Dickens and this novel is that it was originally written for a magazine in which Dickens was paid by the word. At times it is very obvious he has drawn out a description or a point beyond what was necessary.

Bought this to help my teenage son who is studying the text at school. He found it very good and it certainly did its job of getting him through the text and of conveying the meaning, which can sometimes be a bit obscure to the modern kid.