Hi Mendalla:

Like you, I am not a Dickens fan, but I have downloaded some of his novels that are, as you said, freely available on the internet. But I haven't dared to read any of them yet.

Well, some people like Dickens and Atwood, others do not. I do, of course, have nothing against Margaret Atwood. I admire her personally; I'm just not a fan of her writings. Same with Dickens.

He was a marvellous, witty humanist who set up mindsets for the plodding, reluctantly undertaken reforms that saved kids from mines and sweatshops, health care and women's suffrage and social security. He pulled off a values shift in age age of brutal unconcern… one towards which our present government seems to gently drifting.

He's a long read in this age of ephemeralism but, I'd suggest, an important one.

Teaching high school English required getting students to struggle through such Dickens novels as "Great Expectations", "A Tale of Two Cities", "David Copperfield", and "Oliver Twist".

I personally didn't mind any of these and am glad for the experience of Dickens.  Not sure my students would agree though. 

I preferred Thomas Hardy novels.

As for Margaret Atwood, I went through a phase where I read everything she wrote, including her poetry.

If you are contemplating which Dickens to start with, Arminius, expect you would enjoy "Great Expectations".  It has an interesting story line, compelling characters and lots of plot twists and turns.

* double post deleted *

Atwood is another one that I got turned off of in high school. Her treatise on Canlit, Survival, rather ticked me off (although it did introduce me to Cohen's Beautiful Losers, so not all bad). I've had good intentions about giving her another whirl, though.

Mendalla

Part of the problem in my case was a bad teacher who then took off for part of the year ("nervous breakdown" is what we heard, which was usually code for stress-related health issues in those days) leaving us with a string of subs and replacements. So, it was poorly and inconsistently taught. One of the reasons I do want to try Dickens again is because I suspect that it was as much the teaching as the book itself (Great Expectations, by the way) that put me off.

The next year, when we studied MacBeth and 1984, we had a teacher who did a bang-up job, even though English wasn't even his first language (he was German and also taught German to the senior grades). Those remain two of my favorites to this day.

Mendalla

I am reading Dickens as we speak.  I read all the novels from the Kobo. (Oliver Twist was good but depressing).  I bought a used copy of David Copperfield which I am working my way through and enjoying immensely.

How relevant is Dickens today, I wonder? I mean, he casts a lot of light on his times, but to what degree is he relevant otherwise? What is that people see in him today?

His novels continue to enjoy success through stage and screen adaptations even if fewer people are actually reading them so someone must be interested in what he has to say.

I know from the s-f/fantasy side of the coin that he's a big influence on so-called "steampunk" literature (s-f/fantasy set in alternative Georgian through Victorian England).

Not having read him or seen more than a handful of adaptations, I don't really have any thoughts on this question.

Mendalla

We had a complete set of Dicken's works in the house when I was growing up.  I read many of them before I was fourteen.  I'm sure I didn't 'get' all of the available value from them though.   As an adult I reread quite a few.

His works introduced me to a far wider vocabulary then normally used in my everyday life and for that I'm grateful. 

I read Great Expectations in grade 8. I found it a boring read. Too much description for too little action.

I do appreicate OLIVER! the musical and all versions of the Christmas Carol I have seen.

I think he just needed a good editor!

I like the movies. I've never read one of his books. Wonderful fanciful and rediculous characters. Love the Doctor Who Dickens'y episodes.

haha darn right! One of those stories that are actually somewhat improved by movie adaptation and some paring down.

Yes, he was all of that, no doubt. A social critic, as any good novelist should be.

Are there no Moravians on the moon? Has no missonary yet visited this poor pagan planet of ours to civilize civilization and Christianize Christendom?

-Herman Melville

Hi gecko: Thanks for the tip.

I too like Thomas Hardy novels, and I have read them all. They, like the Dickens novels, have expired copyrights and are now available for free on the internet. I already downloaded my favourites.

Actually, I have read some of Atwood's poetry, and liked it. I just have a dislike for her novels, without being able to say why. Maybe I should give her a second chance. After all, she's a Canadian icon.

I like Dickens but as the article states it is a read that requires a slow approach.

in our days of Sesame Street and Harry Potter readers look for a fast, easier read.

i think the way of teaching books that i went through in high school destroyed many good books for students.  Over the past 2 decades or so I made a big effort to reread all those books and other classics that i never read.  Shakespear as well.

All of them are much more enjoyable than i ever thought. 

Arminius - I haven't explored the possibilities with my Kobo as yet, but knowing that some Thomas Hardy may be available is a great motivator.  It would be a treat to read them again, although I have several in hard cover.

My favourite Hardy novels are "Return of the Native" and "Far From the Madding Crowd".

Some of Dicken's statements certainly have a relevance for today.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all doing direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
-Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

I like some of Dickens stories - A Christmas Carol is a favourite, but on TV.  Oliver Twist is a heartbreaker.  His social conscious, leading to some reforms in the treatment of the poor - particularly poor children, is admirable.

But, I get turned off the man because he was vocal in denying the evidence that Rae and others presented that Sir John Franklin most likely was reduced to cannibalism on his overland journey in the Canadian north, and (after his death) the last survivors of his great expedition in search of the NorthWest Passage did as well.  Dickens was certain that no English gentleman would be so deprave, and if it happened it was the half-breds or natives that did it. 

that turns me off Dickens - although he was a man of his time.

Some Dickens trivia.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, rebuilt after the fire of 1666, is an old public house on Fleet Street, London, and was frequented by Dickens and other notables.

Charles Dickens had been known to use the establishment frequently, and due to the pub's gloomy charm it is easy to imagine that Dickens modelled some of his darker characters there. The Cheshire Cheese Pub is famously alluded to in Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities: following Charles Darnay’s acquittal on charges of high treason, Sydney Carton invites him to dine, "drawing his arm through his own" Sydney leads him to Fleet Street "up a covered way, into a tavern … where Charles Darnay was soon recruiting his strength with a good plain dinner and good wine".

Source: Wikipedia

Hi gecko:

Yes, the opening paragraph from A Tale of Two Cities certainly is profound and  universally relevant. I saw it quoted before, even here on the cafe.

I have the blio eReader program on my laptop, and have downloaded, among others, the two Hardy novels you mentioned. They too are among my favourites.

My special liking for the Hardy novels is rooted in the fact that the rural hillcountry of central Bavaria was still rather backward in my growing-up years, in the late forties and early fifties. Thus, I can relate to the rural settings, culture and attitudes in the Hardy novels from my own experience.

I really enjoyed some of the Thomas Hardy novels too. Jude the Obscure was a downer  though. David Austen, the English rose breeder seems to like Hardy as a few of his roses are named after Hardy's works. 'Jude the Obscure' is a stunning rose that I MUST own one day. You really must see these beauties.

http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/Showrose.asp?Showr=3346

http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/showrose.asp?showr=3486

http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/showrose.asp?showr=3370

I have read all three of the above listed novels plus "Far From the Madding Crowd".

James Mitchner"s Jamaica describes Dickens as a racist who defended slavery in the West Indies.

Beautiful roses, triscuit.   I don't have a "rose thumb" but do like roses.  Have a wild rose bush in my garden and love the fragrance.

How could I forget "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" - another favourite.  "Tess" was one of the books on my OAC English course of study.  Students were OK with it.  The movie adaptation was pretty good, truer to the book than some.  

Also liked "Mayor of Casterbridge".

I would think that his attitude towards the Inuit also shows racism.   A man ahead of his time as far as social reform in England perhaps, but his concern for the poor and disadvantaged did not reach to those of other races in other parts of the world.

I think it's been some time since kids were actually taught how to read well — the reader brings as much to the text as the writer — and "me"-ism works strenuously against curiosity.

"Boring" has become the worst possible allegation you can hurl at anything. My mother (a teacher) taught me that boredom was the enerring sign of a "slovenly mind": an ill-formed, lazy and determinedly ignorant — the leading cause of prejudioce, stupidity and cruelty in the world. I used the word twice in her presence and immediately found myself (both times) cleaning our bathroom, floor to ceiling, with a toothbrush and cup of water.

It's strange, but I have actually extinguished boredom from my emotional econsystem… I now find pretty much anything capable of holding my interest and my life is always full — I'm very grateful to my mother for it.

And Dickens was sheer exoticism to me at the start… I loved the descriptions and wanted to walk in those worlds, and the emotional drama is all at once comic, tragic, shocking and "true". That's great writing. (I'm reading Doctrow at the moment. I've long admired his breathtaking fluency but the ideas in his recent short story collection are crap, the emotional drama is contrived and trivial by comparison.)

As for racism, I have a book called The Hand of God in History by Hollis Read (published in 1860). He's described as "late missionary of the American Board). In it, using the full weight of Biblical literalism and fundamentalism, his displays attitudes towards "othefr" races that would have made Hitler tremble. It didn't stop at the victims of colialism, but extended to rants about Napoleon as  a "Heaven-sent scourge on the Papal nations". I picked it up in a junk shop years ago as a "curiosity" but I've found it an illuminating insight into the insane weirdness of some then-respected streams of 19th century protestant theology. Dickens was a wonderfully open soul by comparison and all writers write out of the context of their time and place. They have to, to communicate anything. Besides, I think we've come up with our own fresh sorts of lethal bigotry, in forms such as Islamophobia and homophobia, and policies "towards" Aboriginals and First Nations people, just for example, where, with the true spirit of justice suppressed by emotional attachments to racism, policies are are set up as the sources and remedes of "difficulties"… as the overt playground of discourse.  

On December 17th, 1843, I would argue that one of the most important literary works was published by Chapman & Hall.  The literary masterpiece shares the story of a crabby and most sour human being, Ebineezer Scrooge.  As we learn more about Ebineezer's life and times, we follow a stroy of redemption, courage, grief, and ultimate resolution with himself, and his space in the world....Ebineezer comes to understand that he is compelled to do good works....to reach out and be a better human being.

Without the incredible story, A Christmas Carol, i wonder where we would be today....Perhaps there would be another story to inspire us through the generations... to be better people...to include people who we do not know in our good works....

But i suspect it would pale in comparison to....Charles Dickens's , A Christmas Carol. This literary work was  really an indictment of nineteenth century industrial capitalism, and the layers of greed that would ultimately find young children working in horrible places....uner terrible conditions...for long hours...with little , and sometimes no pay.

Charles Dickens was a champion for his generation.  As a Christian, i look to this story every Christmas, and really all year, to remind me that we are all called at various times in our lives to be a Champion...to reach out and touch someone...

Charles Dickens continues to be a champion year after year....I wonder if Christmas Cheer...Toys for Tots...and a multitude of other initiatives would have the history that they do, had it not been for the Literary Masterpiece....A Christmas Carol

Mr. Dickens....you rock!

I read "A Christmas Carol" for the first time on the eReader.   It was an amazing story. I loved it.