The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

The Shop clearly didn’t have the impact on me that Copperfield did, or even Nickleby. Perhaps that’s why I waited 3 or 4 weeks to record it here.

I hate to write “Welp, this was another fine novel by Dickens. Uuuuyup.” But that’s what I’m going to do. I enjoyed the read, but it didn’t resonate like other of his works. The heroine Young Nell is a virtuous and noble character, but in the end, sort of un-interesting. Everyone was just too immediately taken with her, and I didn’t really get why. I guess she was just that cute.

Also, I was a bit uncomfortable with just how detestable the dwarf character was. I couldn’t fathom how such an absolutely un=likable, intolerable character could attain the level of power he had. It was just… too much.