The Old Curiosity Club discussion
General Discussion
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Please Introduce Yourself
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You forgot The Old Curiosity Shop."
I see you're playing the Grinch.
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You forgot The Old Curiosity Shop."
It's not easy to forget The Old Curiosity Shop because it was a traumatic experience.
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Followed link from the Dickens Group to this one. I was introduced to Dickens and Great Expectations as a freshman in high school by the Franciscan nuns. I just finished the The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy in a book club. One comment there was Tolstoy (an admirer of Dickens) wrote a realistic tale of mortality unlike Dickens' romantic view of Scrooge's death in A Christmas Carol. I wondered what Dickens' afacionadoes thought of this comparison.
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As to the comparison between A Christmas Carol and The Death of Ivan Ilytsch, I must say that I haven't read the latter, leaning more towards Dostoyevsky than Tolstoy, but even when I just look at the Carol, I would say that it is a Christmas book and as such probably not concerned with the grim realities of life as it is but more with its romantic or escapist mirror-image. We discussed the book years ago, and we did come to the conclusion, however, that it is deeper than it might appear at first sight. Unless I am mistaken, there is some chance of us re-reading it next year.
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Jerry-Book wrote: "Followed link from the Dickens Group to this one. I was introduced to Dickens and Great Expectations as a freshman in high school by the Franciscan nuns. I just finished the [book:The D..."Welcome to all the new members! Ivan Ilytsch is on my always-growing to-read list. When I finally get to it, I'll look for those comparisons.
Hello! I live in Canberra Australia and have been avid reader all my life. I love history as well as having an eclectic taste for fiction, you name it I read it! Mr Dickens has been largely neglected by me except for the usual school texts which largely killed my interest in him way back then. But having said that, A Tale of Two Cities is one of my favourite books and I love A Christmas Carol. Also appreciate his wonderful characters. Enjoy the filmed versions of his stories immensely. I would like to embark on a Dickens Readathon to gain a better understanding of this wonderful writer.
Nina wrote: "Hello!."Glad to have you with us, Nina! Perfect timing, as we'll be embarking on Our Mutual Friend on June 1st. Looking forward to having you along for the ride!
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Welcome Nina.
If you want to read Dickens you are among mutual friends.
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Welcome, Nina. Lifetime avid reader makes you normal here, probably one of the few places you can feel normal about that!
Australia, eh? Do you have trouble reading upside down? [g]
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Thanks to everyone for their notes of welcome. I am looking forward to the group!
Greetings to all. And thank you to Jean for recommending this discussion group to me. My first introduction to Dickens was, like many, with A Christmas Carol, but my first enchantment with Dickens was reading Great Expectations in high school. Taught ably and well by a wonderful teacher I had.
I look forward to participating. I have to purchase for my Nook e-reader Our Mutual Friend. I have not yet looked, but was wondering if there is a particular edition anyone could recommend to me for purchase? Thanks. John.
John wrote: "Greetings to all. And thank you to Jean for recommending this discussion group to me. My first introduction to Dickens was, like many, with A Christmas Carol, but my first enchantment with Dicken..."
Glad to have you with us, John. How lucky you were to have a good English teacher who knew how to get his students excited about literature!
I download all of my Dickens and other classic literature from gutenberg.org. It's free, and you can choose to include illustrations or not, as you wish. A wonderful resource.
Thank you very much.I love gutenberg. org, but have not downloaded from them in quite some time. I will take a look. I generally like critical editions of works such as Norton (my usual favorite) where I can take a look at essays on the book.
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Welcome to the Curiosity Club! I hope you'll have a good time joining our discussions on OMF and other books! - I've got a kindle and downloaded the Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens. It has all Dickens's novels, short stories, sketches, lots of his letters and also some books on Dickens. The novels are also illustrated. In Germany, I paid 3,09 Euro, which is roughly the same (a bit less, I think, in dollars). All in all, I'm very happy with it.
Thank you very much.I looked in my Archived Books section on B&N, and lo and behold, I have a Complete Works of Dickens in there. I will unarchive it and take a look at it. I think I purchased it a few years ago for $1 or $2.
Sometimes I find the "Complete Works" to take up a lot of space (I have complete works for Austen and Hardy). I'm going to see how things compare. A quick look at some purchasing options for OMF shows free and also 99 cents, so all good on that front.
I found a nice edition of OMF by Halycon Classics. Available for download at B&N for $1, so I decided to go with that.Thus reading starts.
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The complete works of Hardy can also be found on my e-device, and it's in a way through Everyman, if I remember correctly, that I discovered this brilliant author. It's one of the charms of e-readers that you can carry Complete Works around with you - amongst those I have got are those of Dickens, Conrad, Melville, Twain, M.E. Braddon and Trollope - and they all fit into my coat pocket :-)
Tristram, fully agree on the complete works aspect. Some wonderful options for low cost purchases and reading. I really only read these days on my Nook, can adjust font, brightness, size, etc., wonderful for my older eyes.The only thing I miss is marking up a page with my notes and underlining and observations. I enjoy taking a pen out on some of my old trade paperbacks, especially when it comes to poetry, and marking lines I really like. I miss that with e readers, though I suppose someone more technologically savvy than I am would say they are ways to "mark up" on e readers.
Welcome John! This is a really great group so I'm glad you found us! I'm actually in a caravan in Thomas Hardy country at the moment, so starting Our Mutual Friend a little late, until I can get my final thoughts together about Great Expectations, but should be with you all by the end of the month :)
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In fact there are, and it's really pretty easy once you get used to it. Find a ten year old and ask them -- they'll be glad to teach you.
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My kindle reader offers the choice to highlight passages and even to make notes. But making notes on a kindle is a drudge, and so is finding them later on. I therefore often have an old-fashioned notebook ready in which I jot down any thought that might occur to me.
I have some young friends who can probably show me how to do it with regard to marking up with my e-reader.Although it is tough to teach an old dog like myself new tricks, I would like to give it a try on my Nook.
I must admit though, with regard to the Nook Tablet, I probably know only about 10 percent of its total capability. I power it up and read and don't have the patience -- perhaps -- of actually learning it properly.
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I know how you feel about just using 10% of your gadget's range of capacities. When we bought a new TV set, I just wanted to use it to watch TV and movies from DVD or BR, but then my father arrived and said that it would be a shame not to have Internet on the TV and he set it all up, but I have never ever used it up to now.
Want to respond, but think I'll move this conversation down to the local. Meet you there. :-)
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Although it is tough to teach an old dog like myself new tricks, I would like to give it..."
Our library holds "Tech Tuesday" ever, surprise, Tuesday, when volunteers who are technologically savvy come in to help people who aren't become more so. Questions that have come in have been at times very basic, including "how do I turn my tablet off?"
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Hello, my name is Jane. I work as a humanities lecturer for lifelong learning organisations in New Mexico (US), and am fairly new to Goodreads. I love Charles Dickens and Victorian literature in general, as well as neo-Victorian tales. I'm not sure what else to say. Thank you for letting me join this group.
Jane wrote: "Hello, my name is Jane. I work as a humanities lecturer for lifelong learning organisations in New Mexico (US), and am fairly new to Goodreads. I love Charles Dickens and Victorian literature in ge..."Welcome Jane. I loved Albuquerque on my one visit to New Mexico.
Thank you, John. The high desert here in Albuquerque doesn't speak to me, but the alpine scenery in northern NM is a wonder to behold.Thank you again for the warm welcome!
Welcome, Jane! We're just starting the discussion of chapters 11-13 of Our Mutual Friend. Have you read it? I hope you'll be able to catch up and join in. The chapter discussions are always available, though, if you want to read at your own pace. My best childhood friend is now a HS teacher in Albuquerque. I visited her there once, many years ago. Quite a different landscape and climate than in Maryland, where I live. I envy your comparative lack of humidity!
Mary Lou wrote: "Welcome, Jane! We're just starting the discussion of chapters 11-13 of Our Mutual Friend. Have you read it? I hope you'll be able to catch up and join in. The chapter discussions are always availab..."Hello, Mary Lou, thank you! It's been many years since I read Our Mutual Friend but I can catch up quickly!
The lack of humidity doesn't agree with me at all, and the mile-high altitude is a problem. I hope to move back to the east coast in a few years. I would happily send you some of our dry weather!
Thank you again for the warm welcome!
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Welcome Jane. Please join in on our conversations.
Heat or no heat, humidity or no humidity, there is always lots of Dickens to discuss here.
I live in Victoria, British Columbia where we are having our version of a heat wave now.
Peter wrote: "Jane wrote: "Hello, my name is Jane. I work as a humanities lecturer for lifelong learning organisations in New Mexico (US), and am fairly new to Goodreads. I love Charles Dickens and Victorian lit..."Thank you so much, Peter. I look forward to finding a pleasant refuge here, with excellent literature and new friends. Best of luck surviving your heat wave!
The discussions of weather, particularly the various heatwaves, are interesting because here in New Jersey the weather has been very moderate. Today was high of 80 with light winds.I probably just jinxed myself, but it has been decent to date.
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You call that moderate. To us, that's a heat wave. Average high temperature for this date is 67 where I live.
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I'm late to the welcome party, but I hope not unwelcome for that. We read these books very slowly (breaking them into the same chapter sets that Dickens published them in), so you have plenty of time to catch up with the Our Mutual Friend discussion. I hope you join in.
Everyman wrote: "Jane wrote: "Hello, my name is Jane. I work as a humanities lecturer for lifelong learning organisations in New Mexico (US), and am fairly new to Goodreads. I love Charles Dickens and Victorian lit..."Thank you, Everyman! Reading slowly works well for me, because I'll be able to manage the chapters (as well as savour them).
Thank you for the warm welcome to your group.
Welcome Jane! This is the perfect place to be if you love Dickens :) I'm in a minority here, and actually live in Dickens's own country (England) so problems with humidity are rare for us! Dickens's wonderful descriptions of storms and rain however seem all too familiar ... Having said that we have just had a heatwave with temperatures up to 34 degrees.
Hello, Jean, and thank you for the warm welcome! I have many friends your side of the pond, but have never managed to live in England, so I envy you. :) I cannot, however, imagine 34; when I lived it France it once got up to 30 and that was unbelievably hot for the Loire Valley. Sadly, we hit 40 in the American desert last week; it sounds like a good time for me to be travelling elsewhere. I'm so very happy to have found this perfect place, and thanks again for your warm welcome.
Jane wrote: "Thank you, John. The high desert here in Albuquerque doesn't speak to me, but the alpine scenery in northern NM is a wonder to behold.Thank you again for the warm welcome!"
I wish I had gotten to see more when I was there. I was playing in a golf tournament over four days, so was quite busy for the week I was there. I was able to play the University of New Mexico's home course, which was very nice, as was the Sandia Casino golf course.
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Hello Jane, and welcome to our group! I'm sorry to say the talk about Albuquerque and the weather had me wanting to go north, I don't know why but I always picture New Mexico one way, hot. When you come to know me you will find that I do not like heat, hot, warm or anything close to it. I was intrigued by your alpine scenery comment though. And again, welcome to the group.
The Old Curiosity Club
Books mentioned in this topic
A Christmas Carol (other topics)A Christmas Carol (other topics)
The Pickwick Papers (other topics)
The Pickwick Papers (other topics)
Bleak House (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Charles Dickens (other topics)Bryan Kozlowski (other topics)
Thomas Hardy (other topics)
Thomas Hardy (other topics)
You forgot The Old Curiosity Shop.