Well *A Christmas Carol* is a classic and quite short. Maybe start there?
lady-earendil on
They’re long books, but I really enjoyed Great Expectations and David Copperfield because the characters are interesting and often really funny, the prose is surprisingly readable for being as old as it is, and the stories are interesting. They were the kind of books that I read and went “okay, I see why this is considered a classic”
Texan-Trucker on
Maybe try “Oliver Twist” but for me, such works are easier to consume as audiobooks. Jonathan Pryce is a great reader of Dickens works.
I can’t say exactly what makes him a great author but I do think he was writing on a level that was very engaging for readers of the time and perhaps even ahead of its time
Bulawayoland on
I wouldn’t say Dickens was great. My advice, to get started on Dickens, is watch the movie Oliver! from 1968, with Ron Moody and Oliver Reed. Some of the music is just unforgettably lovely. And it tells the story that Dickens first wrote in his book Oliver Twist.
If you like the movie, you might want to read the book and see if you think it’s better or not. I personally don’t think it is, but it’s been so long since I read it that I may be hallucinating. But it’s true that I have never been motivated to read a Dickens book a second time, and (on consideration right now) am still not moved to do so. There is no Dickens book that I think “gosh, I’ve got to revisit that!” No.
I mean, he’s not bad… but everyone has moved on, and some authors kind of fall to the wayside, and I think that’s what happened to Dickens. Just by comparison, I never pass up a chance to reread Pride and Prejudice, or Sense and Sensibility, or (my fave) Mansfield Park. Austen endures.
4 Comments
Well *A Christmas Carol* is a classic and quite short. Maybe start there?
They’re long books, but I really enjoyed Great Expectations and David Copperfield because the characters are interesting and often really funny, the prose is surprisingly readable for being as old as it is, and the stories are interesting. They were the kind of books that I read and went “okay, I see why this is considered a classic”
Maybe try “Oliver Twist” but for me, such works are easier to consume as audiobooks. Jonathan Pryce is a great reader of Dickens works.
I can’t say exactly what makes him a great author but I do think he was writing on a level that was very engaging for readers of the time and perhaps even ahead of its time
I wouldn’t say Dickens was great. My advice, to get started on Dickens, is watch the movie Oliver! from 1968, with Ron Moody and Oliver Reed. Some of the music is just unforgettably lovely. And it tells the story that Dickens first wrote in his book Oliver Twist.
If you like the movie, you might want to read the book and see if you think it’s better or not. I personally don’t think it is, but it’s been so long since I read it that I may be hallucinating. But it’s true that I have never been motivated to read a Dickens book a second time, and (on consideration right now) am still not moved to do so. There is no Dickens book that I think “gosh, I’ve got to revisit that!” No.
I mean, he’s not bad… but everyone has moved on, and some authors kind of fall to the wayside, and I think that’s what happened to Dickens. Just by comparison, I never pass up a chance to reread Pride and Prejudice, or Sense and Sensibility, or (my fave) Mansfield Park. Austen endures.