Reading 1001 discussion

Rating: 5 Stars
Read: June-September 2016

This took me a long time to read not because it was boring, but rather because it was so long and so complex. For me, Dickens never disappoints. This was certainly no exception. This was Dickens last complete novel and one of his darkest. Like most of his books, it is rich with symbolism, vivid imagery, and great plotting.

It is a story about money and its effect in people. It tells the story of John Harmon, a wealthy gentleman and son of a newly deceased miser, who fakes his death to discover the true intentions of his intended wife, Bella. His inheritance passes to Boffins, a working class man, whom the disguised Harmon goes to work for as a secretary. In this role, he becomes better acquainted with Bella's character. We see the effects of money on the various characters throughout the book.

This is a very complex book with a lot of characters. The characters, however, are well-developed and all have their role in the plot. One could argue that the Thames River was also a character in this book. I love how Dickens created some strong female characters during a time when most female characters were portrayed as weak.

Yes, there are a lot of Dickens on the list. Yes, he isn't for everyone. I do think this book (and all of the other list books of his I have read so far) belong on the list. This is certainly one of his best.

Read as 2020 Quarterly read (final quarter)

I’ve finally finished! As I mentioned in the quarterly read discussion thread, I was reading it in the ‘instalment plan’ to try to experience this book, even in a small way, as the original readers would have. It’s interesting to me that Dickens was able to put writing ‘x’ number of pages (for pay) to much, much better and more readable effect than others who were paid by the word (eg. Henry James).

My goodness, this book is good. It’s funny, sad, readable, makes a social and moral statement, has memorable characters, and just when you can’t imagine how it will all tie together – bam – Dickens makes you sit up in your chair! In fact, I thought I was reading one kind of story and then it ends up I was reading quite another (this is a good thing). Dickens describes the atmosphere(s) and settings so skillfully you feel like you are in the room with the characters or walking along the murky and dank streets.

I enjoyed this thoroughly, so much so that if my TBR list wasn’t so long I would consider reading again in my usual ‘one big gulp’ way. This was his last completed novel, and definitely deserving of ‘classic’ status. 5+*

finished Nov 29th.
Read as 2020 Quarterly read

A very long Dickens novel but good enough to be worth the time. There are villains and treachery, subterfuge, romance, heroism and a happy ending for most of the many characters.
The style is less traditional, and more free-wheeling than Dickens' earlier works. I liked it more than Oliver Twist and David Copperfield

Dickens last complete novel is a story that looks at social conditions through the story of Harmon who's wealth is a "dust". He dies and his son an heir dies on the way to claim his inheritance. Lacking an heir, the inheritance goes to his servants the Boffins. Harmon was to marry Bella. Bella is a widow before she marries but she is taken in by the Boffins and is living off the inheritance that she would have had as the wife. The story looks at what money does to human nature. There are a plethora of bad guys, a plethora of characters. Bella insists she is going to marry for money therefore she is not a good person. She describes herself thus but when push comes to shove and she observes changes in Mr Boffin, she packs up and leaves. The secretary leaves when he is fired by Boffin. He marries Bella, proving her assessment of herself is not the fact. Lots of plot twists in this story. As with Dickens, so many stories are brought to conclusion and the ending is a satisfying ending. Dredgers are people who search for drown bodies to recovery their valuables. Dustman, a person who looks through people's garbage and repurposes things. And Mr Venus, the articulator of bones". There is the contrast of wealth and waste. There is also characters who are deformed, ill such as Silas Wegg and his wooden leg, the dying toddler Johnny Harmon and the daughter of an alcoholic, the dolls' dressmaker Jenny Wren, with her bad back and legs. Dicken's does a wonderful job with the character of Jenny as the daughter of an alcoholic, she becomes the parent of her drunkard father. A great story. Rated 4.4

*** 1/2

Sure, this was Dickens' longest novel. Sure, it was complex with a greater cast of characters and a serious attempt at highlighting some of the social realities of the 1860s, in particular the obsession with money and several bad traits from the higher classes. Sure, it was full of the usual Dickensian wit and of funny moments. Yet, I can't claim that it thrilled me as much as some of his other novels (my preference here would lean more towards Hard Times and A Tale of Two Cities; I haven't read Oliver Twist and David Copperfield yet). Despite a relatively unforeseen twist, the rest of the ending was fairly predictable, with good outcomes for the better and reformed characters and deserved troubles for the shadier ones. Even though it seems that Dickens managed to hold the story together with its myriad of characters and sprawling plots and subplots, I felt that this might have been thin in some parts. It's definitely of Dickens quality, but not of the best cloth.

4 Stars

December is the perfect time to dive into Dickens and this story did not disappoint.

Dicken’s provides the reader with his usual social commentary tied up in a murder mystery which highlights the evil of money and what lengths unscrupulous people will go to for the sake of money.

The beauty of this book is in the reading and the slow unveiling of the various plotlines. For that reason I will say no more.

This took me as long to read as it would have taken the Victorians reading by instalments. I started in November 2020 and finished at the end of 2021. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy the complicated plot, the large number of characters, the way Dickens let the reader know things that the characters didn't, and a wonderful twist to the tale. Dickens's characters were his usual menagerie of unforgettable individuals. Dickens had a gift for writing dialogue as it would have been spoken according to the character's place in society. This was brilliantly rendered by Myal Syal who was able to differentiate each character quite vividly. I had one serious qualm: both Jenny Wren and Bella Wilfur had a very strange way of dealing with their fathers. Jenny's father was an incorrigible alcholic, with whom she dealt by treating him as a disobedient child. She dominated him when he slunk home in a drunken state and referred to him as her "bad child" which may have been intended to be amusing, but just seemed creepy to me. Bella had a loving relationship with her "Pa" but she also treated him like a child and invariably ran her fingers through his hair. Athough their relationship was loving and close it also seemed to me rather odd. Overall, though, I was most impressed with Dickens' social commentary. He was able to satirise the snobbish as well as the opportunist criminal. His was a brilliant description of human vanities and frailities. the reader is left well satisfied with a deft conclusion. Five stars.

Pip wrote: "This took me as long to read as it would have taken the Victorians reading by instalments. I started in November 2020 and finished at the end of 2021. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy the complicat..."

Congratulations on completing your reading Pip.
I've read a number of Dickens' works- would like to read The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby next, which is only about 840 pgs! (It was in the first Boxall list edition only)

This was my last Dickens novel for the Boxall list. I thought it was interesting seeing how Dickens recycles his favorite characters and situations. If you only want to read one Dickens novel and want to get a good cross section of characters and scenes, this book would be a good option. It has orphans, crooks, lawyers, helpless young women who come into fortunes or are struggling to survive, young men who rely heavily on the women in their lives, and a Scooby Doo ending that provides an entertaining twist.
While I did not really like Bella, I could certainly relate to her desperate wish to not be poor. I also liked that while she hated being poor, she was not thrilled about being married to someone just to escape being poor. However much she annoyed me, I couls respect her for this aspect of her character at least. I could also sympathize with her predicament once she left her toxic family, since she was not really securely set up anywhere else, and her family seemed to get more toxic towards her once she moved out, so she could not easily or happily return home if things did not work out.

This was not my favorite Dickens novel, but it was easy enough to follow despite the length, and seemed more cohesive than some of his earlier longer novels. I'd give this novel 4.5 stars.