Charles Dickens : A Reading Cult
Dickens has long been considered one of England's greatest novelists, and it is easy to see why. Writing in the nineteenth century, he is a mirror to Victorian society with all its shortcomings, social problems and shocking inequalities. When we look at society today are we not facing much of the same? People on benefits maligned and abused, whilst rich city bankers cream off all the profits of this class-ridden and vitiated society. They can live like kings, not so the poor of the country. Poverty and riches is a fascinating dynamic for Dickens. We see characters go side by side, the rich mingling with the poor, and isn't there always somewhere a fortune just waiting to be claimed by this very same poor? "Great Expectations" is an obvious vehicle for the scrutinising of wills, the introduction of lawyers and the endowment of riches. In "Little Dorrit" Mr. Dorrit is suddenly released from the Marshalsea prison, a rich man because of a will bequeathing him a fortune. In "Our Mutual Friend" John Harmon inherits his father's dust contractor fortune or does he? After various subterfugal plot twists, Bella Wilfer must be proven worthy of him, and the amiable and good-hearted Boffins assist in the playing out of the plot. Wherever there is greed and double-dealing in Dickens there is also good nature and warm-heartedness. It is not all bleak. The books are books of contrast and complement. Dickens preoccupation with money and the good that money can do is a major theme running through nearly all his books. Money is a transformational tool and changes lives in an instant. It is this magical quality that money possesses that Dickens is very aware of. Certainly the readers of the time would be spellbound by the power of money and what it could buy. Maybe it is very much the same today. With the arrival of the National Lottery one's life can be transformed by balls, lucky numbers, that if they come up, change an ordinary person's life instantaneously. We may well talk of the magic of the Lottery, because for a lot of people today it is a measure of hope; of getting out of the rat race and out of poverty once and for all. With super jackpots of fifteen, twenty, maybe even fifty million pounds the man next door can become super rich. Dickens was fascinated by money because of its ability to change things, and surely if he was writing today he would be using the Lottery as one way of acquiring wealth quite plausibly. Dickens was often living in a fairytale world in his books. Winners of today's Lottery have this same fairytale. In Dickens's time fortunes were made in business and trade with the snowballing of the industrialization of Britain. Today an easy win on the Lottery saves a poor family from despair. Barbara Taylor Bradford in her novels and especially in "A Woman of Substance" trades in on the vicissitudes of life where her talented heroine becomes super rich and lives the high life through her own efforts. If a Lottery win does lack magic maybe it is because it is effortless, but money is money and lives are still transformed, even if gambling is a little soulless. Money and chance are uneasy bedfellows, but often it is these two things that go hand in hand. In "A Tale of Two Cities", Lucy Manette falls in love with Charles Darnay and vice versa, surely a matter of chance rather than preplanning. Charles Darnay of course comes from the wealthy Evremonde family and it is ironic his family has imprisoned Lucy's father in the Bastille for twenty years, but now the families unite by means of marriage. Changes in fortune are shibboleths for Dickens, and who embodies this more than Oliver Twist? Oliver is an orphan from the Mudfog workhouse. He is finally united with the Brownlows and becomes heir to a fortune, striking out the evil Monks. This is all after mixing with thieves and vagabonds and of course the evil jew, Fagan.
Wills, lawyers, great fortunes and also banks going bust are entrenched in the Dickens canon. "Bleak House" is of course about a will, the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce. It is ironic that at the end of the book however, there is no money left when the case is finally settled. In "Martin Chuzzlewit", Montague Tigue's phoney insurance company goes bust as it must, as does Merdle's bank in "Little Dorrit", bringing on the death of Mr. Dorrit after a brief period of affluence, and flirting dalliance with Mrs. General. Money is won and lost, much as it may be today in an uncertain world where people are told only a certain amount of money can be guaranteed if their bank were to go under. As Dickens comes to the end of his life and writing career, the focus shifts. We are in a drug-fuelled world of opium dens and hallucinogenic dreams in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood". This is a darker novel in many ways than some of the previous ones but he does not fail in his love of nomenclature. Miss Twinkleton, the reverend Crisparkle and Durdles and Rosa Bud are all names to conjure with. In the rest of the novels we have been treated to a cornucopeia of great names: who can forget Mr. Bumble, Sarah Gamp, Noah Claypole, Mr. Sowerberry, Martin Chuzzlewit, Barnaby Rudge, Lady Dedlock, Smallweed, Tulkinghorn, Pecksniff, Bella Wilfer, Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, Rogue Riderhood,, Betty Higden, Barkis, Peggotty, Mr. Murdstone, and so the list goes on? If we read Dickens today we enter another world and yet so much still resonates today. For Dickens, society was a prison, hence he uses the prison as a symbol for feeling imprisoned by Victorian society. So many dreaded being sent to the workhouse. There was a feeling of lack of freedom and a foreboding sense of oppression of the poor by the rich. And now we have marvellous productions of most of the Dickens novels by the BBC where the books really come alive. Tom Wilkinson is fabulous as Pecksniff and Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock is memorable. And who can forget Smallweed's 'shake me up, Judy'? One must read Dickens but to see the books enacted out is a marvellous insight and the BBC do them full justice. Dickens is a cult undeniably, as much today as in Victorian times. The books' magic never wanes, neither does the hold a master writer has over his readers.
Wills, lawyers, great fortunes and also banks going bust are entrenched in the Dickens canon. "Bleak House" is of course about a will, the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce. It is ironic that at the end of the book however, there is no money left when the case is finally settled. In "Martin Chuzzlewit", Montague Tigue's phoney insurance company goes bust as it must, as does Merdle's bank in "Little Dorrit", bringing on the death of Mr. Dorrit after a brief period of affluence, and flirting dalliance with Mrs. General. Money is won and lost, much as it may be today in an uncertain world where people are told only a certain amount of money can be guaranteed if their bank were to go under. As Dickens comes to the end of his life and writing career, the focus shifts. We are in a drug-fuelled world of opium dens and hallucinogenic dreams in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood". This is a darker novel in many ways than some of the previous ones but he does not fail in his love of nomenclature. Miss Twinkleton, the reverend Crisparkle and Durdles and Rosa Bud are all names to conjure with. In the rest of the novels we have been treated to a cornucopeia of great names: who can forget Mr. Bumble, Sarah Gamp, Noah Claypole, Mr. Sowerberry, Martin Chuzzlewit, Barnaby Rudge, Lady Dedlock, Smallweed, Tulkinghorn, Pecksniff, Bella Wilfer, Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, Rogue Riderhood,, Betty Higden, Barkis, Peggotty, Mr. Murdstone, and so the list goes on? If we read Dickens today we enter another world and yet so much still resonates today. For Dickens, society was a prison, hence he uses the prison as a symbol for feeling imprisoned by Victorian society. So many dreaded being sent to the workhouse. There was a feeling of lack of freedom and a foreboding sense of oppression of the poor by the rich. And now we have marvellous productions of most of the Dickens novels by the BBC where the books really come alive. Tom Wilkinson is fabulous as Pecksniff and Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock is memorable. And who can forget Smallweed's 'shake me up, Judy'? One must read Dickens but to see the books enacted out is a marvellous insight and the BBC do them full justice. Dickens is a cult undeniably, as much today as in Victorian times. The books' magic never wanes, neither does the hold a master writer has over his readers.
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