Reading 1001 discussion

This reads like a memoir of David’s life starting with his birth. His life as an orphan, mistreated by his stepfather and eventually running away to his aunt who had wished he were a girl, his marriage to his child bride and eventual success as an author gives this book has a blending of fairy tale with bildungroman. The story compares punitive father figure Mr. Murdstone with the eccentric fun of Mr Micawber. There is elements of problems that surround class and gender mostly in the tale of Emily and Steerforth and Agnes and Uriah. My conclusion is “all’s well that ends well”. This book is the most autobiographical of Dicken’s works. This book was written in the usual serial method but also encompasses some of the newer, psychological realism and social details of the changing novelistic style. Read 2011.

I know this one is considered a benchmark of classic literature, but I found it was a little bit underwhelming...granted I think I've read too much Dickens at this point that his style and tropes start to become a bit redundant (and this is the most Dickens of the Dickens books I suppose). I do love his focus on humanizing the downtrodden, but I feel like he did this more masterfully in Christmas Carol and Great Expectations, personally.

3 stars.

I read this book over many months rather than straight through and I always returned to it with a sense of relief. So much of Dickens can be long winded (which happens when you are being paid by the word or the page) and he so often gets carried away by a side story that isn't as strong as the main through line. However, perhaps because I read it over months, this book was just a completely marvelous example of the best of Dickens. The story is a fictional take on Dickens own life and it speaks to his usual themes of the despair brought on by poverty, homelessness, and the lack of justice in the practice of the law. It is also Dickens at his most sentimental with examples of both deep betrayals, undying loyalty, supportive families, and of course, true love. Perhaps because I was reading it in small doses I was able to swallow the parts of Dickens that are usually irksome. Dickens, himself, felt that this was his masterpiece, and although I have many more Dickens to read. So far, I would have to agree.