All About Books discussion

How would this be

Describe a favourite character from a book and players guess who...

I initially thought of limiting to Dickens characters but this is probably really too unfair for readers in 2018,

However I will start with a favourite from the Dickens cannon.

This lady wears the same dress everyday since she was jilted at the altar many years ago. She plots revenge.

Miss Haversham!

A man remarries but his friends and family can’t forget his dead wife

Max De Winter

B the BookAddict wrote: "Max De Winter"

But now you have to describe a character B!

I'll start us off again.

An outwardly humble man who has a tendency to wring his hands.

Uriah Heep from David Copperfield

A one legged man who secures a job reading to an illiterate man who has unexpectedly inherited a fortune that includes a dust mound.

No takers?

Tweedledum wrote: "A one legged man who secures a job reading to an illiterate man who has unexpectedly inherited a fortune that includes a dust mound."

Oh dear... I recognize that as being from one of Dickens' books but I don't recall which one.

It’s Samuel Weg from Our Mutual Friend

I'm kicking this off again.

Dickens’s Reign of Terror in the form of a lady who knits a lot. A villain who pursues the deaths of innocent people in order to work through her own (justified) grief and rage.

Madame Defarge from A Tale of Two Cities

A sometime clerk who always believes that "something will turn up" to get him out of difficulties.

Mr Micawber

From David Copperfield

An eccentric but compassionate lady who hates people riding donkeys near her house.

David Copperfield's Aunt Betsy :)

A manipulative lawyer who represents a noblewoman in a long-standing Chancery court case.

Sounds like Bleak House

A homeless girl on the run with her grandfather who is an inveterate gambler-

Nell Trent from The Old Curiosity Shop

He is an Englishman travelling in Europe with his wife, daughter and the maid for his daughter. He is a retired banker. He and his family are held in quarantine at Marseilles, having travelled through an area with plague, though none are ill. He becomes friends with Arthur Clennam.

William Dorrit from Little Dorrit

A loyal and witty if unconventional valet who is firm in defense of his employer against unscrupulous lawyers and misguided widows, in love with Mary.

That should say “unscrupulous lawyers and misguided widows”

Leslie ... it’s Jarndyce I think

I was going for the valet- Sam Weller, who sticks by his employer, Mr. Pickwick, through thick and thin. But let’s try another one. I’m thinking of a young crippled boy with a sweet disposition, who is beloved by his family. His father works for a misanthropic miser who doesn’t believe in Christmas.

Ha! You should be drowning in replies!

….where are they all….
.?
It’s Tiny Tim from A Christmas Carol

How about this

A young girl who hates having auburn hair and tries to dye in black. Only to be mortified to find it has turned green instead and resorts to begging her guardian to giving her a severe hair cut.


Hint …. Not one of Dickens’ characters .

Anne of Green Gables. A favorite for sure.

How about this one—
A simple minded lad with a pet raven who gets enmeshed in the Gordon anti-Catholic riots of the 1780’s. Hint: His name is the title of his book.
Definitely a Dickens character.

Could this be Barnaby Rudge?

Yes, indeed- Barnaby Rudge which was very popular, but is not read as much as other Dickens now.

This robber, murderer, and kidnapper is shadowed by his dog, “bull’s eye.”

Bill Sykes in Oliver Twist

This horrible bully terrifies his wife so much she has a habit of throwing her apron over her head in the hope of becoming invisible.

Jerry Cruncher? Anyway the porter who also robbed graves for the bodies, from A Tale of Two Cities

Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me, but I seem to remember Jerry undergoing a bit of a transformation by the end of the book.

Yes I think so too Steve, though details about why are fuzzy. Thankfulness for getting out of France is my best guess...

Jerry cruncher doesn’t like his wife praying … but she doesn’t throw her apron over her head…

She and her husband care for a woman confined to a wheelchair.

I think it’s Affery Flintwitch in Little Dorrit. She and her husband take care of Arthur Clennam’s mother.

How about a pretty easy one:
Brilliant but aimless London lawyer who sacrifices himself by impersonating a prisoner in Paris and going to the guillotine in his place.

Sydney Carton of course! A Tale of Two Cities

Steve wrote: "I think it’s Affery Flintwitch in Little Dorrit. She and her husband take care of Arthur Clennam’s mother."

Yes it’s Affery. I’ve just finished reading it and found the sections about Mr Merdle surprisingly pertinent given the way so many believe anything their perceived business or political hero declares or fans declare.

Alannah wrote: "He is an Englishman travelling in Europe with his wife, daughter and the maid for his daughter. He is a retired banker. He and his family are held in quarantine at Marseilles, having travelled thro..."

This is Mr Meagles but it’s one of the opening scenes in Little Dorrit

This Dickens character is an architect and teacher of architecture who despite his constant exclamations of humility and other moral superiority abuses his clerk and apprentices while stealing their designs and taking credit from them.