Hello tina dear !!
As I promised I had a look at my Dickens books again and it’s quite impossible to pick one out as the best…. So, I decided to say what I really love about Dickens’ stories in general.
There is his satirical, ironic, witty, sharp and sometimes venomous sense of humour in his presentation of characters. He knows how to expose meanness, cruelty, hypocrisy and selfishness in people by showing their behaviour and analysing their true motives and thoughts behind their actions and language. Take “Mr Bumble” in “Oliver Twist” as an example. Then he created characters with a good heart, respect, generosity and kindness in their personality but whose behaviour and way of talking makes them funny, droll and eccentric. I’m thinking of thunderous “Lawrence Boythorn” in “Bleak House” in this context.
I love the variety and wealth of issues he presents in his novels in a sincerely committed way. He is highly concerned about all the social and human problems of Victorian London / England: poverty, misery, injustice, loneliness, sickness, emotional and physical suffering, isolation, tragic death, the effects of severe social rules, standards and expectations (especially on women and children), the cruelty and indifference of town / government authorities, the dominance of economic profit in contrast to the value of a human life etc. I learned more about Victorian England from Dickens’ novels than from sophisticated history books.
I have stopped counting the times where I was deeply touched by the feelings and thoughts of characters and there were moments when I had tears in my eyes…. I felt in a very motherly way for Oliver Twist who in spite of the misery, violence and savageness he experiences from the day he is born, he develops into a gentle, tender, deeply honest and caring human being. In complete contrast to that, the emotional trauma and injury of the ego that “Miss Havisham” experiences in her youth in “Great Expectations” makes her condemn herself to eternal bitterness, seclusion, search for a means of revenge and emotional death. Then again Dickens created a cold, hard, merciless character like “Scrooge” in “A Christmas Carol” who killed all humanity in his heart himself a long time ago and who after being taught a good lesson he rediscovers the values and significance of humanity inside of him.
Dickens applies a rather precise language in all his characterizations and descriptions of places, landscapes and atmospheres. He is absolutely clear, straightforward and through this reading his stories is an enjoyable pleasure. You get drawn into the plots and once you start reading it’s hard to stop. He’s definitely not interested in intellectual, abstract philosophising (like George Eliot tends to do…) but he comes straight to the point of the matter and manages to make his reader see the world he creates with his eyes.
So much about Dickens….
Do you or does anybody here at this forum like crime novels? I’m a huge fan of that stuff !!! I especially love Agatha Christie (Vive Hercule Poirot !!!!), Minette Walters (“The Ice-House”, “The Sculptress”) and the protagonist “Inspector Thomas Lynley”… Danya would be smashing in this role

….) in Elizabeth George’s novels.
I AM ROMANTIC YOU KNOW, READY TO MAKE ANY KIND OF FOOLISHNESS FOR LOVE. (DANYA)
A WOMAN KNOWS THE FACE OF THE MAN SHE LOVES AS A SAILOR KNOWS THE OPEN SEA (HONORE DE BALZAC)
THE ARTIST VOCATION IS TO SEND LIGHT INTO THE HUMAN HEART (GEORGE SAND)