The only way to tell it’s finally December here is by looking at the calendar. The weather doesn’t help. It rained today and the air is humid and a little cooler than usual, which means we’re still in the 30 degrees Celsius range. But no matter if you’re at home, sitting comfortably in your favorite reading spot with a blanket to keep you warm, or just taking advantage of the cool air of the evening after a hot day, it’s time for Dickens!
Like I said in my introductory post, I will start with three short stories which I found in the book I’m currently reading, The Wordsworth Book of Horror Stories (and what amazing stories, I’m so glad it’s such a big book!).
Caroline ((beautyisasleepingcat.com) and I are co-hosting this event, so don’t hesitate to visit and leave comments that include the link to your Dickens-related review so we can add you to the list. Thanks to everyone who decided to join us, I’m looking forward to reading your reviews!
December is the month when I have to read all the books I purchased in the first eleven months of the year that I haven’t gotten to yet. I have eight of them remaining. Because of this, I won’t be reading any Dickens anytime soon…despite the fact that your project sounds fun and I’ve been meaning to reread Great Expectations.
Have fun!
Ok, it looks like you’re going to be very busy so no problem. But if you manage to watch any Dickens related movies (this event is not just about books), your thoughts are welcome anytime during this month.
Enjoy your books!
Would love to join in Delia but I have been pretty unreliable this year due to work schedule. Lets see if I can squeeze in Great Expectations in December. 🙂
p/s: I have made 4 false starts in Great Expectations, wish me luck!
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. 🙂 In the meantime, how about some short stories? You can find them free on http://www.gutenberg.org. I hope you can join us.
It is wonderful that ‘Dickens in December’ has started 🙂 Thanks for hosting! I am planning to read ‘Hard Times’ which you had recommended. I am also planning to re-read ‘A Christmas Carol’. A few days back I browsed through my bookshelf and took out ‘Bleak House’. I loved the description on the back cover that it probably had the first English fictional detective in Detective Inspector Bucket. I am extremely tempted to read it, but it is more than 900 pages and so I don’t know whether I can. I am planning to do a test run for a couple of days soon and see how I progress. If I am happy with the way things go I might give ‘Bleak House’ a serious try. I also discovered that I have the movie version of ‘David Copperfield’. I am hoping to watch that too. I am also thinking of re-watching ‘Hereafter’ in which the main character played by Matt Damon loves reading Dickens and reads deeply resonating passages from Dickens at important points in the story. Can’t wait to get started 🙂
Hi Vishy,
So glad to have you along for this event! I know what you mean about Bleak House, I am facing the same dilemma with “Little Dorrit”, which also has about 50 pages of notes at the back of the book! Maybe we should make a plan and decide on a certain number of pages to read every day. It might take the whole month but, oh well…
I haven’t heard of Hereafter, thanks for mentioning it, I should look for this movie.
I think I’m going to re-watch A Christmas Carol (the one with Jim Carrey as Scrooge). It was a lot of fun the first time I watched it.
That 50-page note section in ‘Little Dorrit’ is quite interesting 🙂 Hope you are liking the book. Will look forward to hearing your thoughts on it. I like your suggestion of reading 50 pages a day. In case my test run doesn’t work out, I will try that with ‘Bleak House’. Hope you get to watch ‘Hereafter’. It is a partly about the tsunami and partly about Dickens. If you do get to watch it I would love to hear your thoughts on it. Happy ‘Dickens in December’ 🙂
Dear Delia,
I have kicked off my “Dickens in December” by putting up a post in my blog on what is perhaps my favourite Dickens novel – “Bleak House”. Please feel free to delete this comment if it isn’t appropriate here!
Cheers, Himadri
Oops! – I forgot to add the link:
http://argumentativeoldgit.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/bleak-house-by-charles-dickens/
That’s great, Himadri, I’ll check it out. This is the perfect place for your link so no need to erase anything. Thanks for the link, I see it’s quite a lengthy review!
My review for Bleak House – Charles Dickens
This is only the second Dickens novel I’ve ever read and it was probably not the best novel to read around Christmas time. The story is bleak and gloomy. It’s set in foggy, dirty Victorian London, there is a lot of mention of dirt, squalor, disease, death and poverty. Some parts were really quite depressing and upsetting.
The story is narrated in part by the orphaned Esther, who I had a lot of trouble warming up to in the story. I’m used to stronger female narrators but she was too modest, probably the Victorian female ideal, but it didn’t win me over. I also got frustrated with her trying to be a mother to everyone and not thinking about her own happiness.
The story revolves around the Jarndyce vs Jarndyce court case, a long-running litigation case.The case had lots of satire surrounding it and I definitely see it as an attack on the British legal system at the time.
The characters Dickens came up with in this novel are quite hilarious. My favourites were Mrs Jellyby, who is obsessed with Africa, Old Mr Turveydrop, who can’t stop thinking about “deportment,” and Skimpole, who is basically a leacher. They are really ridiculous but at least their presence brightened up gloomy London.
A great word I learned from this book, which I think I will adopt, is the word “growlery” which is defined as a place where one goes in order to get over a bad mood!
This seems to be a mixed bag – a bleak story but with interesting characters, and their names are quite funny.
“Growlery”, now that reminds me of a word from A Christmas Carol, “humbug”, which I find really funny.
Thanks for the review, Rowena, and happy holidays!
That’s the perfect way to put it, Delia! I haven’t read much Dickens (I plan to) but so far it seems as though his subject matter is usually quite dark with a bit of humour injected into it. Makes it a lot easier to take.
You’re welcome:) Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
If you’d like to read more Dickens, here’s another blog who’s hosting a similar event in February: http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2012/11/celebrating-dickens-february-2013-sign.html
I already joined, maybe you’d like to as well.
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