Book #10

[smilevampy]

 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

It took me most of February to finish this book. It's never taken me so long to read 442 pages. Rather embarassing, really...

I love the movies based on this book. Love 'em to death.
The book? Not so much.

The "omniescent" narrative in Oliver Twist feels, well, pandering and kind of patronizing. It got rather

Comments

I agree

[rlanshire]

I like Dickens' novels, but I agree that he's too long-winded. An English History professor once told me that the writers in Dickens' time were paid by the word. If he's right, then that might explain why Dickens just went on and on and on...

Although I like his books, he CAN get annoying. There are books out there that have been abridged--they get to the meat of the matter (without Dickens' digressions) in our modern English. Years ago, I had read A Tale of Two Cities that was written in this way (it was abridged by an English professor at a university), and it was excellent!

Re: I agree

[smilevampy]

Usually I don't like abridged novels... but that sounds interesting!

I'll have to check it out, thanks!

[dj_89]

although i wholeheartedly agree that the longwindedness of Dickens can get irritating, it is rather part of the fun of reading his works. he throws in so many sarcastic and witty comments in the middle of descriptions that most people skim over, so it is worth is to read it all. but i confess that i tend to read the overly long descriptions really quickly too.

[smilevampy]

Yeah, in my ranting and raving I totally forgot to mention how awesome Dickens's sarcasm is.

As a sarcastic person myself, I really appreciated some of the comments he made, especially conerning Mr. Bumble.
Loved the chapter titles especially.

[bradbrp]

Oliver Twist is comign up for me in my Audiobooks. Right now is David Copperfield ... at 35 hours of it. So far its enjoyable but feels stretched. (i'm at tape 4 of 27). I listened to Great Expectations (25 hrs) last year and loved every second, though.

[smilevampy]

I had a Great Illustrated Classics version of David Copperfield (with pictures on every other page) when I was 7 and it was my most favorite book for years. I got the real thing for my birthday this year. I'll get to it eventually.

I loved Great Expectations, too. Although I thought Pip was a bit of a weiner.

[mdyesowitch]

If you thought that was boring, you should try Trilby. Personally, my favorite Dickens is Bleak House although, again, pretty obvious who was getting paid by the word.