read all the novels of charles dickens

not giving up
but i have other priorities now 3 years ago

plan to read approx 10 chapters of pickwick a week

worked out a sched for writing my presentation also

now merely must do 4 years ago

i’ve already read several of d’s novels. to add a positive note to the proceedings, i’ll note them here.

here’s all wot novels ‘e wrote in da order ‘e wrote ‘em:
*Pickwick Papers
*Oliver Twist
*Nicholas Nickleby
*The Old Curiosity Shop
*Barnaby Rudge
*Martin Chuzzlewit
*Dombey and Son
*David Copperfield
*Bleak House
*Hard Times
*Little Dorrit
*A Tale of Two Cities
*Great Expectations
*Our Mutual Friend
*The Mystery of Edwin Drood

for sure i’ve read oliver twist, david copperfield, bleak house, hard times, great expectation, our mutual friend, and edwin drood.

i think i must have read tale of two cities although i can’t remember anything about it

nicholas nickleby i’ve read parts of, maybe sizable parts, but i’m not sure if i’ve actually read it all or not.

similarly, i may or may not have read all of old curiousity shop, and little dorrit, but i’ve read parts of them

i’ve read the riot scene in barnaby rudge.

martin chuzzlewit and dombey and son i’ve merely peeked at.

and pickwick, as we know, i’ve begun and begun but never finished.

that’s the lot, i think. 4 years ago

i want to make a schedule for this, because i really really really want to be done in july. it’ll be like making a syllabus for myself. 4 years ago

i’ve started so many times

now i have a deadline,

so i think i’ll skip the beginning and dive in later and see how that works 4 years ago

by the way, i’m really enjoying twist. it’s wonderfully dark and even mean. mean like the description of magistrate fang, who’s face he could sue for libel, were it not that he really did drink too much.

here’s a guess: that meanness turns into unimpeded anger in the later novels… that there’s a kind of see-saw effect of mean and angry rather than them going together 6 years ago

only took five weeks

i’d prefer a different edition, though. like an oxford. this is some odd old hardcover of questionable textual accuracy 6 years ago

it was not to begin with Combray, the first volume of remembrance, but to start with the more linearly-plotted volume two, swann’s way.

i think i’ll have to adopt a similar strategy with dickens. i can never get through the amusing but episodic pickwick, and once again i’ve stalled out after a few chapters.

what’s next? oliver twist? i’ll circle back to pickwick once i’ve developed some momentum.

my, reading is complicated! 6 years ago

got a nice penguin for cheap and have started reading

nice and easy… enjoying the comedy… though a tiny bit mean and slapstick, almost

much fatter than i was expecting… it’s a 800-pager at least 6 years ago

went to start pickwick and found i don’t own one!

can’t get to local used bookstore until tuesday (it’s sunday)

begin with a few short stories? i have some of those 6 years ago