I have read a lot of Dickens' works over the years, I am not sure at this point what I have left to read. I do have some of his books, some are fairly lengthy and other just short stories.
As someone mentioned if you have a kindle or e-reader his works are free on Amazon.
I have yet to watch Ralph, but will check that link now-thanks!

Pat

I found this article from Time magazine about books that are similar to Dickens... (You know, if you're read all the Dickens stuff..)

:-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Top 10 Non-Dickens Books for Dickens Fans

My favorite Dickens novel is David Copperfield. I was down with bad back trouble one year and it gave me many hours of much-needed escape. I also really liked Tale of Two Cities, and even these many years later can vividly remember certain scenes from that book.

Thanks for the links, Vee and lemon head.

And if you go to the Google search page today, you will see that they are commemorating Dickens.

This is going to be a Dickens-reading year for me one way or another. Yes, the girls are mostly sweet and silly. Well, not Estelle in Great Expectations. She was a strong woman.

Rosefolly

I checked out the Non-Dickens list & I have read 6 of them-my favorites of those listed - Vanity Fair & The Forsyte Saga-love them both & the adapations to film-but not the American Vanity Fair version.
After watching the Forsyte Saga on Masterpiece I had to read the book & sequel and thoroughly enjoyed the program and the original English version of Vanity Fair.
In my opinion both are right up there with Austin's Pride & Prejudice with fascinating characters and plot!

Pat

That reading makes chills run up my spine! And I must say, HRH knows how to dress - I don't think I have ever seen him without perfectly shot cuffs.

Yes, we must read and discuss Dickens here.

My favorite was Great Expectations read all the way back in middle school. I've always meant to reread it but haven't gotten around to it. (hint, hint for the Dickens book discussion thread.)

Good topic, Veer. So far, I've read several of his novels. Finished "Bleak House" a couple months ago. Didn't expect to like it much ... but actually enjoyed (maybe "enjoy" is the wrong word here) it quite a lot. As far as having so many characters crammed into one book, it makes it more "populated" -- more real to me. ... Gives it so much Energy!

BTW: I saw Simon Callow's performance as Dickens on Broadway -- his one-man show. He was amazing.

The great disparity (in his works) between the "haves" and "have-nots" is so true to the times we are living in now, aren't they? Does mankind ever learn.

I'm a huge Dickens fan. Thanks for that site, Vee. The reading is just great.

So many articles in the papers/TV about CD. The one below is by a vicar of several of the City (of London) Churches, many of which CD would have been familiar with. This chap has a dim view of Dickens as a novelist.
He does have a point. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Preposterous Melodramas?

While I haven't progressed far enough in his biography to have a good idea of this, my immediate thoughts are that Dickens' love of theater led to his over-the-top writing style.

I am a Great Expectations fan. I plan to read The Tale of Two Cities. I've read some of his short stories.

I was discussing Dickens with a friend this evening (briefly -- we had a lot of news to exchange). He mentioned that Bleak House was his favorite, and that he also loved Little Dorrit. I respect this taste in books, and put both on my list to read, especially since he also likes Great Expectations. That novel is a favorite of both my husband and me.

Rosefolly

Anyone interested in reading a fictional biography about Dickens might enjoy Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold. It is 'fictional' because Arnold didn't want to get into all the complications of writing biography/upsetting the hundreds of CD's descendants etc. She calls her writer Alfred Gibson and his wife Dorothea and the story opens immediately after the funeral of AG/CD to which his wife has been refused admission. Most of the book looks back on the couple's life together, the birth of their ten children (plus two miscarriages) and his sudden rejection of her. She had become fat and was losing her looks. Her worst humiliation/sadness was the refusal of her husband to let her ever see her children.
I greatly enjoyed this book and it kept my attention to the end.

Another book is Dickens' Women by Miriam Margolyes a most accomplished character actor who has performed 'world-wide' in a show of the same name. She has strong feelings about CD's treatment of women, both as characters and in 'real life'.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dickens' Women

I certainly would not have wanted to be married to such a man. But I am going to enjoy reading his books. It is not unusual for a gifted writer to be flawed, sometimes seriously. The Brontes were odd folk. Emily Dickinson was regarded as strange. Who even knows what Shakespeare was like?

Rosefolly

I have enjoyed the Dickens novels I have managed to finish, but confess that there are as many which I have abandoned in boredom and frustration. I suppose his die-hard fans enjoy his overstuffed prose and the seemingly endless succession of eccentric characters who populate his fiction.

Of the CD books I did manage to read, my favorites are probably Oliver Twist and The Old Curiosity Shop.

Since it is his bicentennial, I may try another Dickens novel. I make no promises, however, of actually finishing it!

Darn, I took out from the library what I thought was a recorded book of Little Dorrit. It turns out to be a dramatization. Back it goes, and I'll try again.

Rosefolly

I had hoped to start on Great Expectations, but I cannot find my copy and the County library system seems to have about one copy in a distant branch.
Instead have made a start on David Copperfield a book I have heard and watched as a drama on TV but never read. My copy has the wonderful illustrations by 'Phiz'. It will take me ages to get through. ;-)

I have never got round to Dickens. Partly because my father recommended them - and I thought, at a young age, that he recommended only the most boring of books; and partly because when I went to Grammar School, aged eleven, we spent a whole year reading 'Christmas Carol' and learning huge chunks of it by rote! And so, as the years have rolled by, I have found myself pushing Dickens further and further away from me.....

Dido

Ah, the memories. I was the Ghost of Christmas Past in the 7th grade (age 12 I think) and adored everything about it - funny I never really wanted to be an actor, because I loved being in that play. But I haven't read much of Dickens, and I'm not sure why. I have no memory of reading Great Expectations although I know that I did. I can throw around Dickens quotes with the best of them. (That marks you as an in-tull-eck-shu-all here in the northern climes. I'm pretty good with Shakespeare and the King James Bible, which puts me over the top.) I think it is time to put my money where my mouth is -

We never studied Dickens at school so I was spared long passages to learn, deep meanings to hunt for, characters to contrast etc. all the quickest way to put a child off reading the classics for enjoyment . . . and the main reason I cannot re-read Jane Austen.
Am ploughing through David Copperfield in short bursts and enjoying it more than I expected.

Siobham, did your costume consist of a white sheet?

I'm not a Dickens fan, but one of my favorite quotes is, I think, from "A Tale of Two Cities":

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."

Vee, Peggoty is my hero. When I read David Copperfield, she makes me wonder why simple goodness, unfailing love, and loyalty are so rare.

I have tried, unsuccessfully, to re-visit "A Tale of Two Cities." I read 100 pages and then lost interest in the characters and complicated plot. I am afraid I am admitting to giving up on reading Dickens. The one work of his I could get through was "A Christmas Carol." Life seems so short, when there are so many books and so little time....