I am thoroughly enjoying this novel. The characters are outrageously finely wrought. The charm of young Florence, and the intricacies of little Paul are melting my heart. Quite delicious and satisfying. And it reminds me of just how 'simple' are so many modern narratives, so minimal and so brief! Modern novels are more like long short stories whereas, ahh the delight of Dickens is that it's a ' novels novel', a really hearty course on human eccentricity, a feast of complexity, and not one insecure attempt or desperate pandering to dumb down so that many people can access it. I wonder as the English language audience, a global audience has grown and stretched to include many second language readers and speakers, if we've don't just default to simplest essence of the language now more often than not. It's a shame. Because with Dickens one gets to ride a formidable delightful mount and race along with English like it's a fantastic lecture of a story that you don't want to miss a beat of important information. Love.