Tag Archives: charles dickens

Book Log – The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

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The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens writes very well.

Well… duh.

But, no, really… I know I have rolled my eyes at classic authors because there is this thing that says classic novels are books we should like if we are smart or educated or whatever. And people even buy nice, leather-bound editions of “classic” books to put on their shelves because they look nice. And they do.

But the fact of the matter is he just writes good books. You don’t have to dive into symbolism or theme to really “get” them. Dickens just writes enjoyable stories with amusing characters.

It’s satirical, and probably more than I know because I don’t have insight into the sort of things of Dickens’ era that he might be satirizing. But there was some heavy-handed commentary at times. At one point, for no narrative/character reason I could see, Nicholas lays into a guy who adapts novels to the stage. He lambasts him for leeching off of author’s works, even before they’re finished. Obviously, Dickens had a bone to pick.

Nicholas contains many plot and character elements you see in his other works. For example, Nicholas’ chief antagonist might as well be Ebenezer Scrooge, but nastier and without salvation.

Nicholas was Dickens’ third novel (right after Twist, initially released, as all his novels were, as a serial in a magazine). It came five years before A Christmas Carol, and 11 years before Copperfield.

I mention the serialization because my favorite modern (also English) author is attempting something of the sort in this new age of web media. Neal Stephenson, along with a bunch of cohorts, are publishing a weekly web serial called The Mongoliad. It’s a noble effort, with lots of multimedia to make it more than just a serialized story. The only problem is that, so far, I don’t like it very much. I’m having trouble getting through the first chapter. Also, it’s complicated to transfer to my Kindle.

So. 150 years later, we’re still trying to reproduce that magic that Dickens had. Thankfully, I’ve still got 7 or 8 of his works to wander through before I need Stephenson to get his act together.

Book Log – David Copperfield

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David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

I’m disappointed.

Not in the book. The book was awesome. But I feel like I blew the experience.

I should have gotten a hardback. Probably an old one, with some wear on it. Something with a little character. I should have found a couple days over the holiday break to read it straight through, in front of a roaring fire. I started this one by downloading it from Gutenberg.com and reading it on my Palm. But pretty soon, I felt I needed to upgrade the experience and bought a paperback copy when we happened on a mall bookstore in New Jersey.

I thought Great Expectations was okay when I read it in high school. A Christmas Carol is a fine work. But David Copperfield is really good and, more importantly, very funny. It’s chock full of really enjoyable characters and elegant prose.

Nick Hornby repeatedly recommends Copperfield in his now-defunct Believer column, and I have to say he hasn’t steered me wrong yet. The man knows a good book when it bites him on the nose.

It’s a good way to kick off 2009… a story of perseverance through adversity.

There’s a nice pile of books waiting for me next.

My brother got me The Magicians and Mrs. Quent for Xmas, which appears to be a book in the vein of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I asked him what it was, and he said he got it off my Amazon Wish List, which was embarrassing. I’ve no idea what motivated me to add it (I really need to start leaving little memos in the blanks provided on those things), but the first couple of chapters seem promising.

Sarah Brown’s Cringe compilation is in my briefcase, courtesy of paperbackswap.com. If you haven’t heard about her Cringe Festivals, I invite you to check out her blog.

And, of course, the ever present Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. This book is entering its third year on my Currently Reading pile, sitting side-by-side with Dawkins’ The Ancestor’s Tale and Watson’s Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud. It’s a good book, but it is not light reading. I really want to knock this one out, because there are people waiting to discuss it with me, not to mention I’m interested in what it has to say.