Jean's Charles Dickens challenge 2014-2015 (and maybe a little further ...) Showing 901-950 of 1,089

[Bionic Jean]

Time and Change

Dombey and Son was being serialized between 1846-8, as noted before, during the development of the railway system. London buzzed with unceasing frentic activity. This was change on a scale hitherto never seen, involving demolition of whatever was there before. It was a hive of activity, and individuals in the population varied in their reactions towards it. There were those who were committed to the old traditional values, but also those who sought the excitement of the new industrial age, and the prosperity they thought it would bring. Many oscillated between the two attitudes.

I'm a quarter of the way through now, and this theme of development and change is looming large throughout the novel. We are constantly reminded of time itself as a concept. A watch comes into the narrative over and over again. It was the first thing Mr. Dombey used to offer his son as a toy. Florence, his daughter, was intimidated by her father, seeming to just see his persona reduced to his shining buttons and his watch. Right at the beginning of the novel we already had the motif as the mother died, and all we heard was the combined ticking of the doctor and Mr. Dombey's watches.

Paul is constantly aware of clocks - he feels they are looking at him and speaking to him. When he is sent to a new school, he seems to see his new world entirely through the oppressive feel of the clock in the room.

Whenever there is a new plot development, it seems to be heralded by a reference to a clock or watch. The way the novel is written is so powerful and subtle. Sounds and watches tick faster and faster - and then we find there is a death, or climax of some sort. There are several things which spring to mind, for which this could be a metaphor. Time passes - it is both finite and yet each moment within is transitory.

In the old order which Mr. Dombey represented at the beginning, everything was done with regimental regularity and in the proper fashion. Time was measured in intervals, as to what was appropriate at what time. Mrs. Dombey was not acting as a Dombey should act, for instance, to die when she did. She was told in no uncertain terms that she should have put in effort to rally, that it was her duty.

Dickens even makes an overt reference to time in the name he chose, "Dombey",

"A. D. stood for Dombei - and Son."

The second family we follow were introduced at a specific time,

"It was half-past five o'clock and an autumn afternoon when the reader and Solomon Gill become acquainted."

and Solmon Gills, the proprietor of a ship's chandler shop has,

"a tremendous chronometer in his fob."

His shop, "The wooden Midshipman" is a veritable treasure-trove of time and measurement. Chronometers, barometers, telescopes, compasses, sextants, quadrants - all these measure time, space, change and place. It's as if Solomon Gills' shop is a symbol of the entire Age. And ironically, every object of measurement, such as the barometer, is becoming neglected or even forgotten by the fast moving industrial age. Even the bells ringing time in a nearby church are almost drowned out by the noise of the busy streets.

These instruments which measured time were crucial and significant pieces, but they belong to a time which is past. The third family we are introduced to, on the other hand, are the Toodles, who represent the new Times. Mr. Toodles is a stoker on the railway - and steam power is the way of the future and the modern age. Solomon Gills is of the past. He even says that the world has become strange and unintelligible to him.

Dombey, as a man of the city, seems now to be caught in the middle.

[Bionic Jean]

I'm now at the end of chapter 16, and have found the recent chapters personally very difficult to read, starting with all the foreboding in chapter 14. It was very obvious that (view spoiler)[ the frail little Paul was sinking fast. (hide spoiler)] So I've had to nerve myself up a bit for this.

I always say I love Dickens because he makes you laugh and then he makes you cry. Yet until now that has been more of a feeling. Until now.

Reading chapter 14 the other day I found tears falling down my cheeks. It was just too close to home, the closeness between brother and sister. My own grief is ever-present in my mind. Yet we were reading about the decline of a young boy, not an adult, so perhaps it should not have seemed so personally significant. It did, however, and I had to brace myself for the next few chapters.

I'm not one who sobs at films and books - I just get a lump in my throat. What a master Dickens was, to move me so very much.

And the way he interweaves ridiculously comic episodes betwixt the tragic ones is simply superb :)

[Bionic Jean]

And again, there's a ludicrous picture to sustain the reader through an emotional scene where Florence (view spoiler)[tells Walter that since little Paul's last words were "Remember Walter". She says she will always now view him as her brother, and says goodbye to him as he is sent abroad for ever (hide spoiler)] - followed by Susan Nipper, having,

"bitten both her bonnet strings at once, and imparted a great deal of private emotion to the skylight ... now changed the subject by inquiring who took milk and who took sugar, and being enlightened on these points poured out the tea."

Oh I'm loving the toothy "big bad wolf" Mr. Carker. His teeth are mentioned no less than 69 times! LOL!

And all those precient waves. You feel that kind of unsteadiness, and have a sense of "waves" when you're seriously ill or delerious, but there's so much symbolism. With the ringing and the bells too ... tolling the death knell? ... simply superb writing :)

But the best character by far surely is Diogenes. I love that scruffy mutt - he seems to be Florence's only friend,

"Come, then, Di! Dear Di! Make friends with your new mistress. Let us love each other, Di!' said Florence, fondling his shaggy head. And Di, the rough and gruff, as if his hairy hide were pervious to the tear that dropped upon it, and his dog's heart melted as it fell, put his nose up to her face, and swore fidelity."

"Diogenes already loved her for her own, and didn't care how much he showed it. So he made himself vastly ridiculous by performing a variety of uncouth bounces in the ante-chamber, and concluded, when poor Florence was at last asleep, and dreaming of the rosy children opposite, by scratching open her bedroom door: rolling up his bed into a pillow: lying down on the boards, at the full length of his tether, with his head towards her: and looking lazily at her, upside down, out of the tops of his eyes, until from winking and winking he fell asleep himself, and dreamed, with gruff barks, of his enemy."

What a hero! What a star :)

Up to the start of chapter 20.

[Leslie]

I loved Diogenes too! Poor Florence deserved some love and attention...

[John]

Me too. I just had to read the advent of Diogenes to my wife when I first read it. But there are so many memorable characters already, aren't there. Brilliant.

Jean, I have just been re-acquainting myself with this. By flicking through each chapter but also reading Wikipedia on it.

Interesting quotes in there from George Gissing's 1925 book, The Immortal Dickens, about the feeling that the death of the young Paul is like the end of a book and that Dickens himself felt the effort needed in transferring the interest to Florence.

It'll be interesting to hear what you think about this. Gissing's conclusion on the second 'half' is given too, with which I humbly agree.

[Bionic Jean]

Judging by this letter he wrote at the time, he certainly was drained by writing it! (Transcription below):






At the Parisian Phenomenon (Rue de Courcelles)
Thursday Night, Seventh January
1847

My Dear Sheridan. I am heartily sorry for the occasion of your postponement, though glad of the postponement itself. I am slaughtering a young and innocent victim--and it takes a deal of time.

So much, indeed, that I must postpone now, until a week or more is past, and No. 5 is on its way to the shores of Albion--if you ever heard of that uncommon locality. Meantime Charley considers us (I see it plainly) a pair of humbugs, and broods darkly over his wrongs.

I think of demanding my passport, in consequence of the immense extent to which the French nation makes a water-closet of my wall. If the British Lion were bred for THIS he had better have been born a jackall or hyaena, and then he might at least have got an honest livelihood out of it.

Ever yours,

Charles Dickens

Charles Sheridan, Esquire

[Bionic Jean]

Someone reminded me of that letter in my other personal Dickens thread (in my other group, which you're also in, John, but perhaps you don't catch those posts.)

OK I'll have a look at Wiki when I've finished the book, since you think that particular entry is good. Thanks :) Or you could always give me the gist of it here, perhaps at the appropriate point, since you concur.

I seem to remember you didn't care for this novel though - or am I mistaken?

[LauraT]

One of my favourite Dickens!

[John]

Jean, fascinating. I wonder what a graphologist would make of Dickens' multiple underlinings of his signature.

I'll talk about Wikipedia at the end.

No, I gave D&S 5 stars. I just thought it lacked the coherence that Dickens' planning promised. But still full of themes and characters to cherish. What about Mrs MacStinger!

I left the Pickpick Club (?) a week ago. Fed up with the grumpy man overpowering banter. But I don't think I knew you had a thread there. I'll rejoin and investigate.

[John]

Jean, is your thread Books About Dickens? Pickwick Club, not Pickpick!

[Bionic Jean]

Nono John - although you're right, I started that one and a couple of other threads in that group. Kim (the other mod) joined "Reading For Pleasure" a couple of days ago and the comment I referred to is there, where I have my main challenge - in "Personal Book Challenges" here. I now copy it (broadly - with a few tweaks) here a couple of days later, to perhaps have a different discussion :)

Sorry you got fed up with the "grumpy man" banter though in the "Pickwick Club". It's just witticisms I think and has only once got serious as far as I remember. The mod who has disappeared into acadaemia often lapsed into Dickensian-style phraseology, and that made me smile, but others might find it irritating I suppose.

They do have some excellent thrashing out of details. Being a "one-author" group they are able to devote an entire thread to just discussing a couple of chapters - but I'm not following the current Bleak House read.

Also I had filled Tristram in about the author we spoke of recently. We discussed various options; he did have his post deleted, and you may notice that nobody is commenting on his subsequent one.

I find the group very friendly and well managed. But then I do understand that sometimes others' sense of humour, especially when it isn't your own, can become very tiresome!

[Bionic Jean]

Yes, I always think how incredibly self-centred all those underlinings are! Didn't Elizabeth I sign rather like that?

Perhaps he would really have preferred just to sign "Chas" ;)

[John]

Jean - I understand it now!

Re the Pickwick Club. Rejoined, and will look at the more detailed threads. Thank you.

Yes, have noticed the stuff re the author.

Perhaps Dickens thought he was Elizabeth I, and filled reams with her signature, which gave him an idea for a character .....

[Bionic Jean]

Witches and Crones:

Well I don't know if this is a true and acknowledged theme of this novel, but it's certainly a running motif! I've become aware of how many old crones there are, having just read a fantastic description of a third hag in chapter 27.

1. The kidnapper and thief, Good Mrs. Brown

First we had Good Mrs. Brown, who of course was exactly the opposite. (Dickens never missed an opportunity for irony or sarcasm). That entire episode seemed to be like a fairytale or myth, with Good Mrs. Brown as a hideous and powerful witch. Poor Florence, the Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood character, is wandering alone in the streets when she is led off into a dirty hovel where there is a heap of bones and a heap of rags. Forence is terrified as Good Mrs Brown threatens to kill her, makes her take off her clothes and put on some rags, and even toys with the idea of cutting off Florence's hair.

The way Dickens tells it, from Florence's point of view, makes it reminicent of something out of the The Brothers Grimm - Hansel and Gretel perhaps, the idea of cooking children in ovens, or the story of Baba Yaga riding in a mortar and pestle to grind bones.

Then Florence is given a task - just like in the fairy stories - to wait at a certain place until 3am. Of course Florence is convinced that Good Mrs. Brown is watching her all the time.

And in case we've missed all the fairytale allusions, Dickens spells it out for us as her rescuer,

"Walter picked up the shoe and put it on the little foot as the Prince in the story might have fitted Cinderella's slipper on."

Walter remains enchanted by his little princess, who was about 6 or 7 years old when he came to her rescue and helped her home, excitedly telling his uncle how he was on an "adventure". Florence clearly views him as her hero.

Incidentally, we are getting more and more of the "Big Bad Wolf" Mr Carker too. His teeth deserve a book all to themselves!

2. The fortune-teller

The second witch is a tramp, "a withered and very ugly old woman" who offered to tell a young widow, Edith's fortune,

"munching with her jaws, as if the Death's Head beneath her yellow skin were impatient to get out".

Scowling, screaming, wrathful, and

"going backwards like a crab, or like a heap of crabs: for her alternately expanding and contracting hands might have represented two of that species, and her creeping face some half-a-dozen more: crouched on the veinous root of an old tree, pulled out a short black pipe from within the crown of her bonnet, lighted it with a match, and smoked in silence, looking fixedly at her questioner."

We'll probably never meet this one again either, despite the powerful image, and the fact that her prophecy was spot-on. (view spoiler)[It's clear by now that Edith is a puppet, and destined to become the second Mrs. Dombey (hide spoiler)].

3. The mother, Mrs. Skewton

Mrs. Skewton is the the third one. We met her with her daughter Edith, a couple of chapters ago. She puts me in mind of the grotesque Miss Havisham in Great Expectations - and of course her daughter Edith matches Estelle. Dickens facetiously refers to her throughout as "Cleopatra" because of her artificiality. This description is of her as her maid attends to Mrs. Skewton's dress as she retires at night,

"... her touch was as the touch of Death. The painted object shrivelled underneath her hand; the form collapsed, the hair dropped off, the arched dark eyebrows changed to scanty tufts of grey; the pale lips shrunk, the skin became cadaverous and loose, an old, worn yellow, nodding woman, with red eyes, alone remained in Cleopatra's place, huddled up, like a slovenly bundle, in a greasy flannel gown."

What an eye!

I'm even noticing how much like Satis House the Dombey home is,

"Keys rusted in the locks of doors. Damp started on the walls, and as the stains came out, the pictures seemed to go in and secrete themselves. Mildew and mould began to lurk in closets. Fungus trees grew in corners of the cellars. Dust accumulated, nobody knew whence nor how; spiders, moths, and grubs were heard of every day. An exploratory blackbeetle now and then was found immovable upon the stairs, or in an upper room, as wondering how he got there. Rats began to squeak and scuffle in the night time, through dark galleries they mined behind the panelling".

I think this is probably partly a metaphor for Dombey and his crumbling world. Symbolic rather than literal, as he's only been away for a few months.

I do love the way Dickens invests all his decrepit old building with such character though - they are almost characters in themselves. There is some masterly writing in this novel :)

[Bionic Jean]

I love these descriptions of Carker, Dombey's manager , from chapter 26.

As Mr Dombey dropped his eyes, and adjusted his neckcloth again, the smiling face of Mr Carker the Manager became in a moment, and without any stage of transition, transformed into a most intent and frowning face, scanning his closely, and with an ugly sneer. As Mr Dombey raised his eyes, it changed back, no less quickly, to its old expression, and showed him every gum of which it stood possessed ....

'I took the liberty of waiting on her,' said Carker, 'to inquire if she could charge me with any little commission. I am not so fortunate as to be the bearer of any but her—but her dear love.'
Wolf's face that it was then, with even the hot tongue revealing itself through the stretched mouth, as the eyes encountered Mr Dombey's! ...

'By Gad, Sir!' said the Major, staring, 'you are a contrast to Dombey, who plays nothing.'
'Oh! He!' returned the Manager. 'He has never had occasion to acquire such little arts. To men like me, they are sometimes useful. As at present, Major Bagstock, when they enable me to take a hand with you.'

It might be only the false mouth, so smooth and wide; and yet there seemed to lurk beneath the humility and subserviency of this short speech, a something like a snarl; and, for a moment, one might have thought that the white teeth were prone to bite the hand they fawned upon. But the Major thought nothing about it; and Mr Dombey lay meditating with his eyes half shut, during the whole of the play, which lasted until bed-time."

He's beginning to remind me of one of those smiling villains in silent films!

The writing in this novel is superb, and the characters as well-drawn and quirky as in any other. But the plot itself has failed to grab me as much yet, at halfway through.

[Bionic Jean]

Mothers and daughters

Or sometimes, surrogate mothers and daughters. This also seems to be a running theme. So we have the relationship between Edith and the abominable Mrs. Skewton, where each remind me of their counterpart in Great Expectations ie Estelle and Miss Havisham.

Now Edith herself and Florence are beginning to remind me of (and I'm putting this bit under a spoiler tag, because it really will be if you haven't read it!) (view spoiler)[ Esther and Lady Dedlock (hide spoiler)] in Bleak House. They've only just "found" each other so far.

Dombey (view spoiler)[marrying the chattel Edith, his trophy wife (hide spoiler)] - no surprise there. But I didn't expect (view spoiler)[ the haughtly Edith to show such feeling towards Florence - or Florence to instantly appeal to Edith as a substitute mother either. When Florence went to Edith and hugged her - and then Edith showed such feeling and compassion in return it was such a surprise. (hide spoiler)] I suppose it further reinforces how Dombey alienates everyone, so they are left clinging to each other.

[Bionic Jean]

Here's a whimsical letter written by Dickens just after he'd written the part about the upcoming marriage of (view spoiler)[ Edith and Dombey (hide spoiler)]:





Translation:

From my cell.
Monday Morning
Twenty First June 1847.
My Dear Sir
I am taming a spider or two in my solitude, and weaving a small web of my own—with a very long beard, and talons in place of nails—and shaking my grizzled locks refuse to be comforted or to come out. This very day, the world and I become again acquainted, on a special occasion; and for that very reason, I must go back to my spiders, inexorably, tomorrow morning.
I should have been truly glad to have accepted your invitation—to descend to common life—but I am bidden tomorrow to the marriage of a friend of mine—one Dombey—and I am afraid if I stayed, the Ceremony would scarcely come off; so much importance is attached to my presence. In fact, I give away the bride.
Yours gloomily
Charles Dickens

Recipient:
Kay-Shuttleworth, James, Sir, 1804-1877

[Bionic Jean]

Well how very odd. I've now reached chapter 34, which is entitled "Another mother and daughter". So I wasn't very far off the mark ;)

[Bionic Jean]

And yes, we have met another mother and daughter duo. Who would have imagined the reappearance of (view spoiler)[Good Mrs. Brown and that we are introduced to a new character in her long-lost daughter Alice Marwood (hide spoiler)]. This has led my brain to go on overdrive to solve the mystery. There's also one of Dickens's favourites: a character he refuses to name, who intrigues us as to his identity - it's sure to be someone crucial to the plot!

Things have definitely improved in the interest stakes :)

It's things like this sense of mystery, and hiding of identity, which make me want to say to people "Read the text!" Yes, dramatisation are all very well, but they can never bring this off. Neither do they include the twin delights of his sarcasm and hyperbole :)

Dickens even makes it absolutely clear that this mother/daughter theme is deliberate, and crossing all classes of folk,

"Allowing for great difference of stuff and texture, was the pattern of this woof repeated among gentle blood at all? Say, Edith Dombey! And Cleopatra, best of mothers, let us have your testimony!"

[Leslie]

As much as I enjoy some of the film adaptations, I wholeheartedly agree with you that "Yes, dramatisation are all very well, but they can never bring this off. Neither do they include the twin delights of his sarcasm and hyperbole"!

Sounds like you are enjoying Dombey and Son, maybe more than you had anticipated?

[Bionic Jean]

In what sense Leslie? You quote something about dramatisations at the beginning, but I can't link this to what you actually asked me, and the sarcasm and hyperbole are just part of his style and present in all his works, not just this one.

There are quite a few posts here about the novel. I think I've talked about the descriptive writing which in my view is improving all the time with each novel. The plot with this one is slow, and even at 60% I cannot quite see how it is going to get where it is going overall. But the multi-layering is magnificent - and we now have an element of mystery which was lacking before. The characterisation is, as always, superb. I've mentioned that a lot, plus the themes I can easily identify. But then I always enjoy reading Dickens, even when I can find faults (perhaps such as the plot in this one although I can't judge that properly until the end).

I'd be interested to hear your views. I think all I know is that you love Diogenes. And Laura said it was one of her favourites but hasn't said why.

[Leslie]

Jean wrote: "In what sense Leslie? You quote something about dramatisations at the beginning, but I can't link this to what you actually asked me, and the sarcasm and hyperbole are just part of his style and p..."

Ah, sorry. The two comments weren't linked. My first comment was just my agreeing with what you had said in post 922 about the dramatizations.

My second was based on the fact that when you were just starting this reread you had mentioned that it hadn't previously appealed to you very much. And then later you said something like 'while enjoying the writing, the plot wasn't very interesting'. So your post 922 made it sound as if you might have changed your mind, or at least considering doing so...

I very much enjoyed reading Dombey and Son when I listened to it in 2012, but I'm a bit embarrassed to say only the main plot remains in my mind now. I always enjoy his sarcastic humor and eccentric characters. I do remember thinking regards mothers & daughters (post 919) that (view spoiler)[Edith's feeling for Florence was her one redeeming quality. (hide spoiler)]

[Bionic Jean]

Thanks for explaining Leslie. Yes, we were just discussing elsewhere that one of the benefits in the sheer number and complexity of characters is that you can come to the novel almost fresh, time and time again :)

I do think that this particular plot has been a slow-burner, but the other aspects of the book more than make up for it, for me anyway. That's why it's so great to reread them in order, so I'm not tempted to pick up what I might have thought were my favourites!

I'm enjoying seeing the development of both characters - Edith and Florence - and how their interaction influences it. I am looking forward to seeing how circumstances perhaps alter Lucretia Tox too, now she has been (view spoiler)[ spurned by her friend Lousa Chick, who had hitherto been pushing her towards matrimony with her brother, Dombey (hide spoiler)]. I think I really like the Dickens' characters who develop through the novel - although I do love his baddies, and they stay pretty much the same except for a vague feeling of regret sometimes at the end ...

[Benjamin]

I have finished A Tale of Two Cities. It was so deeply moving that one could say I'm in a stage of recovery. Dickens' beautiful language and most poignant character, Sydney Carton, have left me in that profound state of reflection that only follows truly great books.

I would love to read Dombey and Son with you Jean, but I'm in one of those rare moods in which I have no desire to read. (I suppose it's a fear of my next read being so overshadowed by the last that I fail to enjoy it as I ought.)

[Leslie]

Benjamin wrote: "I have finished A Tale of Two Cities. It was so deeply moving that one could say I'm in a stage of recovery. Dickens' beautiful language and most poignant character, Sydney Carton, have..."

That novel is one of my all-time favorites!

[Bionic Jean]

Benjamin - I completely understand your mood, and think you might have corectly put your finger on the reason. Dickens's spell is profound indeed. Good to see you here too :)

[Bionic Jean]

What a powerful description in chapter 34! And I had thought chapter 33 was a bit ... meh. We got to know Carker's house, but the dialogue was a bit trite. The trouble is I've got used to his minor characters being entertaining!

Mr. Dickens, you set such a high standard for yourself, sometimes it's a hard act to follow ;)

Here's The Rejected Alms


And here's another of my favourites,

The eyes of Mrs Chick are opened to Lucretia Tox


I absolutely loved that episode - up to then I'd just thought of Lucretia Tox as a vaguely (view spoiler)[ambitious sneaky woman, only after Mr Dombey's fortune and status in a pathetically halfhearted sort of way, (hide spoiler)] but I hadn't anticipated Louisa Chick's (view spoiler)[dissembling and doing such a complete turanaround as to accuse her friend of having designs - when it was her encouragement all the time. What a traitor! (hide spoiler)]

[Bionic Jean]

Reaching the end of chapter 36 feels as if it may be a sort of tipping point for Dombey. Time will tell.

I like how this part about Dombey is layered - its not just about him becoming more (view spoiler)[ sensitive to the fact that he has a daughter, but it also looks as if Edith may get the better of him - which was unexpected if it is so. (hide spoiler)]

She does so remind me of Estelle! In fact I can see the germ of various Great Expectations and Bleak House characters in this book. It's so great to be reading them in order :)

[Bionic Jean]

I think I really like the Dickens' characters who develop through the novel - although I do love his baddies, and they stay pretty much the same except for a vague feeling of regret sometimes at the end ...

Looking forward to seeing how circumstances perhaps alter Lucretia Tox. At the moment she could happily disappear from the pages and the story would not be any the less for it - she's not a loose end in any structural sense.

I think Major Bagstock is just there for humour and bombast. I don't get much sense of him as a real character - he's just a foil for the others, and it's useful to have him as a spy for us too ;)

[Bionic Jean]

Yay for Susan Nipper! After her colourful diatribe at Dombey, she has shot to the top of my mental list of favourite characters in this book! Some highlights?

"I may not be Meethoosalem, but I am not a child in arms"

"I may not be an Indian widow Sir and I am not and I would not so become but if I once made up my mind to burn myself alive I'd do it! And I've made my mind up to go on."

"... but ordering herself lowly and reverently towards one's betters, is not to be a worshipper of graven images, and I will and must speak!"

"I may not be a Peacock; but I have my eyes"

"I have told a piece of truth this day which ought to have been told long before and can't be told too often or too plain and that no amount of Pipchinses - I hope the number of 'em mayn't be great ... can unsay what I have said ..."

And Dombey's reaction made me laugh out loud,

"Mr Dombey in a paroxysm of rage, made another grasp of the bell-rope that was not there, and, in its absence, pulled his hair rather than nothing."

[Bionic Jean]

Somehow I feel the title must be facetious as relations between the two are going from bad to worse. Something has to give, surely, and not just through Susan Nipper.

I did find the death of (view spoiler)[ Mrs Skewton - plus all the build-up where she has a stroke - (hide spoiler)] very affecting. What a sad waste of a life. I'm sure with this that he was in practise for Miss Havisham!

The female characters seem much more fully developed in Dombey and Son than in earlier novels. There seem to be more of them too, unless that's an illusion. It would be interesting to know how much space is devoted to the female characters, as it seems to me that Dickens has changed his focus a bit with this one.

Also the writing seems better, as I think I've said before, and although we have plenty of comic episodes the overall tone seems more sombre to me.

[Bionic Jean]

Female characters:

First six books - 85/280. 30%
Dombeys to Dorrit - 99/214. 45%
Last four books - 46/127. 35%

[Bionic Jean]

I'd been mulling over for a while who exactly the Chicken was. I wondered if he was a simple soul who attached himself to the kindly Toots, or whether they had partnered themselves up as both being a little ... different, and both finding it difficult to cope with normal society.

Then I read this passage from chapter 44. Toots is (view spoiler)[taking Susan Nipper back to his house for dinner, after she has been dismissed from Dombey's service (hide spoiler)],

"... the Chicken who at first supposed, on seeing a lady in the vehicle, that Mr Dombey had been doubled up, ably to his old recommendation, and Miss Dombey abducted. This gentleman awakened in Miss Nipper some considerable astonishment; for, having been defeated by the Larkey Boy, his visage was in a state of such great dilapidation, as to be hardly presentable in society with comfort to the beholders. The Chicken himself attributed this punishment to his having had the misfortune to get into Chancery early in the proceedings, when he was severely fibbed by the Larkey one, and heavily grassed. But it appeared from the published records of that great contest that the Larkey Boy had had it all his own way from the beginning, and that the Chicken had been tapped, and bunged, and had received pepper, and had been made groggy, and had come up piping, and had endured a complication of similar strange inconveniences, until he had been gone into and finished."

Baffled. Totally. Especially by all all the colourful language of the second half. I did some digging and found this,

"Dickens enjoyed the language of boxing as much as he did boxers, and nowhere more than in Dombey and Son (1846-8); indeed he stole the name (but little else) of a real prize-fighter, ‘The Game Chicken’ (Henry - ‘Hen’ - Pearce) for one of its characters. After coming into his inheritance, Mr Toots, a Corinathian past his sell-by-date, devotes himself to learning ‘those gentle arts which refine and humanise existence, his chief instructor in which was an interesting character called the Game Chicken, who was always heard of at the bar of the Black Badger, wore a shaggy great-coat in the warmest weather, and knocked Mr. Toots about the head three times a week, for the small consideration of ten and six per visit.’ We learn about the Game Chickens’s past exploits, his glory against the Nobby Shropshire One, and his defeat (‘he was severely fibbed . . . heavily grassed’) by the Larkey Boy. When Mr Toots despairs of winning the love of Florence Dombey against the wishes of her father, the Chicken reassures him that ‘it is within the resources of Science to double him up, with one blow in the waistcoat.’"

[Bionic Jean]

I also started to wonder about the word "larkey boy" as I thought I'd heard something similar in slang nowadays. Then I found this gem of an entry in the urban dictionary, always my first port of call for street language,

LARKEY

"A Person or persons who scav off of the state and think that their only real success in life is by multiplying, thus producing lots of little larkeys.

The lesser spotted or true larkey is one that will only appear when their giro comes through the door and are only seen going down to the nearest corner shop, or Offy, and buying copious amounts of chips and burgers to feed them and their ill-mannered fledgling.

Sometimes seen with their distant cousin the Chav they often refer to themselves as a right geezer or try to and mostly fail to use proper East End slang to cover for some inferiority complex.

Namely a lack of education.

To find a Larkey you should listen out for their infamous call to their young, normally involving words no longer than 2 to 3 syllables the young’s name and an explosive of expletives.

A Larkey will always look up to a Chav and think that they will one-day reach that high accolade.
An example of finding out a Larkey can be done by following this simple test:

Their dog passes wind and they claim it,
their wedding, which is a rare event and if anyone has footage please send it in, was held in a delivery room,
their bathroom deodoriser is a box of matches and they think Paprika is a third world country."

It's not exactly Dickens, but tears of laughter were rolling down my cheeks by the end of this! :D

[Bionic Jean]

Here's an extra portrait of Mrs Skewton, from a series of separately published etchings by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz") in 1848. I'm not sure why it wasn't used - I think it's very evocative!

[Bionic Jean]

So at three quarters the way through we have some high drama, as the domestic tension has been slowly ratcheted up notch by notch, until something had to break. All carefully watched and partly choreographed by Carker, of course.

And now that it looks as if part of the action will take place outside the home, it has struck me that this is the first novel by Dickens to have such a solidly domestic setting. All the main characters move within their confines, but the major ones are interacting within one grand house owned by Dombey. It's very claustrophobic in a way.

Chapter 47 was a complete surprise to me. I did not see that (view spoiler)[Carker might help Edith to escape (hide spoiler)], nor anticipate that Dombey would actually be so base, impassioned and uninhibited as to (view spoiler)[strike his own daughter in the face. (hide spoiler)]

I do love the way Dickens uses Diogenes to break the almost unbearable tension in this book :)

[Bionic Jean]

At the moment we haven't heard of Edith for a couple of chapters (view spoiler)[since she disappeared with Carker, and although we have been told via Rob the Grinder that they go to Dijon, I haven't a clue how this will turn out. When she first ran away, I thought of it as less an escape than an act of wilful self-destruction, rather like Lady Dedlock in the later Bleak House (hide spoiler)].

I've read Dombey and Son before - and also seen and heard dramatisations, but can't remember any of the current events! And I find that I've mixed up Dombey with Ralph Nickleby, so am not even sure of his demise - or if he has one! Though it would be very unlike Dickens to not provide us with a happy ending - or justice of sorts, wouldn't it?

(view spoiler)[So that would fit in with my assumption that the passages where Edith seem scared of Carker are more that Dickens is using Edith to show just how threatening and manipulative Carker is. It's with her that Carker is at his most oily and two-faced, I think. He gets across the message that he is all-powerful, that he is appearing to be "Dombey's man" through and through, he actually is there if she ever needs assistance. But Carker also conveys subtly that this could change at a moment's notice. He's completely duplicitous, and this unnerves her. He's much more clever and cunning than Dombey and we get the feeling that he knows exactly how much of a front Edith's haughty behaviour is, whereas Dombey hasn't a clue, and just sees it as what he would expect from his wife - except towards himself, towards whom he insists on respect and total obedience.

Carker is a puppet-master - or thinks he is, although with appearance in chapter 53 of another character, I'm not so sure. (hide spoiler)] And I think I'll need to see Edith's bearing in the last few chapters to see how inwardly strong she is after all - or even if she survives.

[Bionic Jean]

From chapter 55 - What an enthralling, powerful piece of writing - so symbolic - and just the perfect (view spoiler)[demise of Carker, the most devious and manipulative character I think I've yet come across in Dickens,

"Death was on him. He was marked off—the living world, and going down into his grave.

He paid the money for his journey to the country-place he had thought of; and was walking to and fro, alone, looking along the lines of iron, across the valley in one direction, and towards a dark bridge near at hand in the other; when, turning in his walk, where it was bounded by one end of the wooden stage on which he paced up and down, he saw the man from whom he had fled, emerging from the door by which he himself had entered. And their eyes met.

In the quick unsteadiness of the surprise, he staggered, and slipped on to the road below him. But recovering his feet immediately, he stepped back a pace or two upon that road, to interpose some wider space between them, and looked at his pursuer, breathing short and quick.

He heard a shout — another — saw the face change from its vindictive passion to a faint sickness and terror — felt the earth tremble — knew in a moment that the rush was come — uttered a shriek — looked round — saw the red eyes, bleared and dim, in the daylight, close upon him — was beaten down, caught up, and whirled away upon a jagged mill, that spun him round and round, and struck him limb from limb, and licked his stream of life up with its fiery heat, and cast his mutilated fragments in the air." (hide spoiler)]

Wow! It's so visual. I am posting it here so I don't lose it.

[Bionic Jean]

I do love the illustrations by "Phiz" better than any later ones. Amazing detail, character and atmosphere, such as in this one approaching the end of the book, showing Dombey musing,

[Bionic Jean]

Finished my review of Dombey and Son at last! Here it is

[Bionic Jean]

On to David Copperfield

The full title is "The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account)"

We now know it as Charles Dickens's 8th novel, but like all the others, it was published in monthly installments. Here's the original schedule:

I – May 1849 (chapters 1–3)
II – June 1849 (chapters 4–6)
III – July 1849 (chapters 7–9)
IV – August 1849 (chapters 10–12)
V – September 1849 (chapters 13–15)
VI – October 1849 (chapters 16–18)
VII – November 1849 (chapters 19–21)
VIII – December 1849 (chapters 22–24)
IX – January 1850 (chapters 25–27)
X – February 1850 (chapters 28–31)
XI – March 1850 (chapters 32–34)
XII – April 1850 (chapters 35–37)
XIII – May 1850 (chapters 38–40)
XIV – June 1850 (chapters 41–43)
XV – July 1850 (chapters 44–46)
XVI – August 1850 (chapters 47–50)
XVII – September 1850 (chapters 51–53)
XVIII – October 1850 (chapters 54–57)
XIX-XX – November 1850 (chapters 58–64)

It was Dickens's own favourite, perhaps because it is semi-autobiographical . So how much, and why did he write it?

Well around the end of 1847, Charles Dickens had started to write a cathartic autobiography, to try to rid himself of some of his unhappy childhood memories - those he was too ashamed to mention in public. But when he reached the point of his unhappy love affair with the banker's daughter Maria Beadnell (immortalised later in Little Dorrit as Flora Finching), he didn't feel able to continue them. His wife also pointed out that publishing it would be very unkind to Dickens's mother (immortalised earlier in Nicholas Nickleby as Mrs Micawber - and several other characters!) So he put it on the back burner.

The previous novel, Dombey and Son, had incorporated some of his early memoirs. The possibilities stirred his imagination. When he was staying in Brighton in February 1849, and started to write David Copperfield, the idea took hold of him again. He wrote to his friend and mentor John Forster,

"I really think I have done it ingeniously and with a very complicated interweaving of truth and fiction."

For many years, David Copperfield was the one book by Charles Dickens which the critics all agreed was a great novel. During the early part of the 20th century Angus Wilson reports that it was considered a "classical" novel, enjoying the same sort of status as War and Peace. Told in the first person, it is an internal or psychological novel. Nowadays though, others of Dickens's novels are sometimes awarded greater literary status.

It is a fantastic story! But in addition to this ... well reading the novel itself will reveal that :)

[Bionic Jean]

After the first 3 chapters, I'm finding that this one is so much more lighthearted. I very much like the fact that he is narrating it. And the titles of the chapter are so very simple "I am born", "I observe", "I have a change" are the first 3 (in the first installment). Now all the earlier books had a couple of sentences for the chapter headings, and sometimes they acted as spoilers as they told what would happen in the following chapter. I think perhaps many Victorian novels did that. But this is so very streamlined - and I'm noticing that in the dialogue too.

And what a "tell" ... D.C. (David Copperfield) being C. D. (Charles Dickens) reversed.

The name of his home as well, "Blunderstone Rookery" is taken from a village Dickens had seen only a month previously, on a visit to Yarmouth and Lowestoft. And does the word "blunder" also perhaps indicate the way these two "babies" (as Betsey Trotwood termed them) approached the practicalities of life?

[Bionic Jean]

So far it has a sort of gleeful exuberance. Almost as if he knew it was going to be a personal favourite. Later he said to someone,

"I don't mind confiding to you, that I can never approach the book with perfect composure, it had such perfect possession of me when I wrote it."

I think you can sense a sort of excitement bubbling up in him - a lighter touch altogether - and more readability. There is a definite difference from his earlier ones. Yet we're very conscious of David's inner thoughts - and already he's impressed on us how powerful and sharp his memory is. I guess that's why Angus Wilson calls it,

"a Proustian novel of the shaping of life through the echoes and prophecies of memory".

I was startled to read today that David Copperfield was the first book which Fyodor Dostoevsky asked for, in hospital after his long imprisonment in Siberia - without books. And that it had a great influence on his work! I haven't read any but it seems ... unexpected somehow.

[Bionic Jean]

I particularly liked the descriptions of Peggotty's buttons flying off every time she became emotional! Perhaps it wasn't so unusual ... I remember my mother saying that when she was a child they had to cut off their buttons every time a garment was washed, and sew them back on again! Otherwise they'd get broken when they were put through the mangle (rollers to squeeze out the surplus water). Life certainly was hard work in those days. And what a great image :)

I liked this bit too, just a little cameo of a character who is destined never to appear again,

"it was, to the last, her proudest boast, that she never had been on the water in her life, except upon a bridge; and that over her tea (to which she was extremely partial) she, to the last, expressed her indignation at the impiety of mariners and others, who had the presumption to go 'meandering' about the world. It was in vain to represent to her that some conveniences, tea perhaps included, resulted from this objectionable practice. She always returned, with greater emphasis and with an instinctive knowledge of the strength of her objection, 'Let us have no meandering.'"

It was John Forster who suggested that Charles Dickens should write it in the first person. I think he was right - it's making an enormous difference! And I think that even with the latter part of the title "(Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account)" he's confusing or maybe subsuming himself with David.

[Bionic Jean]

The best TV dramatisation I know of David Copperfield is a mini-series from 1999.

Here are the main characters:

Clara Copperfield (David's mother) - Emilia Fox
Peggotty - Pauline Quirke
Dan Peggotty - Alun Armstrong
Betsey Trotwood - Maggie Smith
Murdstone - Trevor Eve
Barkis - Michael Elphick
Mrs. Gummidge - Patsy Byrne
Miss Murdstone - Zoë Wanamaker
Creakle - Ian McKellen
Micawber - Bob Hoskins
Mrs. Micawber - Imelda Staunton
Uriah Heep - Nicholas Lyndhurst
Mr. Spenlow - James Grout
Mrs. Crupp - Dawn French
Narrator - Tom Wilkinson
Milkman - Colin Farrell
Mrs. Steerforth - Cherie Lunghi
Rosa Dartle - Clare Holman

and the young David was played by a virtully unknown child actor called ... Daniel Radcliffe ;)

I've just put the actors I think are famous world-wide in the list. Quite a few of these also played very memorable roles in other dramatisations of Dickens's novels.

[Bionic Jean]

Oh this is priceless logic from a child's point of view,

"and I could not help wondering, if the world were really as round as my geography book said, how any part of it came to be so flat. But I reflected that Yarmouth might be situated at one of the poles; which would account for it"

In earlier notes, Dr. Chillip was called "Dr. Morgan", and was based on the Dickens' family doctor - Dr. Charles Morgan - when they lived at Devonshire Terrace. His readers always thought they recognised him from some-one-or-other they knew in Suffolk, but they hadn't! The public must by now have been getting wise to the idea of Charles Dickens basing his characters on real people though :D

[Leslie]

Jean wrote: "On to David Copperfield

The full title is "The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on..."

YAY!! One of my favorite Dickens! And I have an audiobook edition which I haven't listened to yet so maybe I will join you :)

[Bionic Jean]

Oh, please do Leslie! I found Dombey and Son astonishingly good, but hard to read in places because of my personal situation at the time. It is so very affecting.

But David Copperfield is so lighthearted at the start, isn't it? It's like a breath of fresh air. Reading them in order, the difference has been highlighted. And the bit of back story to it which I gave goes some way to explain it, I think. He must have been very optimistic at the thought of being about to exorcise some of his demons through writing.

[Benjamin]

I'm half-way through Hard Times, and, since it's so short, I might be able to join you in David Copperfield soon.

[Bionic Jean]

That would be lovely, Benjamin :)