The Old Curiosity Club discussion
The Lazy Tour of Two Idle ...
>
Reading Schedule, and Preliminary Remarks
date
newest »
newest »
Mod
This is one of those times when GR could use some emoticons. In their stead, I will just say, "Sounds great! Looking forward to it!"
Mod
I must say, I did not know Dickens had collaborated with Collins. This sounds fun.
Mod
Tristram wrote: "John, I think that apart from LTTIA there are some other works where Dickens and Collins collaborated. If the group like LTTIA, we might throw in another collaboration between the major novels from..."Thanks Tristram. I'm pleased to note that the Kindle version is for $0.00 and the Nook version is for $1.99.
I'm paying the $1.99 for the Nook version from Barnes & Noble because I think Amazon is too big for its britches and I dislike stoking its riches.
I rather think Mr. Dickens would side with my decision.
Mod
I bought the Delphi edition of the complete works of Dickens for my Kindle. It was actually the very first title I bought for my Kindle back then. Together with the complete Trollope, the complete Conrad and the complete Bulwer-Lytton.
I usually prefer reading real books but it was for those hardly-available titles that I bought the Delphi editions. And for reading at night.
John wrote: "Tristram wrote: "John, I think that apart from LTTIA there are some other works where Dickens and Collins collaborated. If the group like LTTIA, we might throw in another collaboration between the ..."I bought it on the Kindle for $0.99. I don't why it wasn't free for me. :)
Bobbie wrote: "John wrote: "Tristram wrote: "John, I think that apart from LTTIA there are some other works where Dickens and Collins collaborated. If the group like LTTIA, we might throw in another collaboration..."Hmmm. Odd. Could have sworn I saw it listed for $0.00
While I'm on this e book thing, I must post a brief rant. One of the great novels of the past 50 years -- Gabriel Garcia-Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude -- is not in any e book format.
Here we have a Nobel Prize winning author of one of the great novels ever -- an author who considered Dickens his literary mentor -- and you can't get the novel in e book format in English.
Darn shame, though I have no idea who to complain to. I also find it odd, given most of his other works are in e book format.
Mod
Maybe it has something to do with copyright issues? I can't imagine it is due to a lack of interest.
Tristram, it is very odd. The e book can be purchased in Spanish, but the standard English translation by Gregory Rabassa is unavailable. Of the major novels of the last century, it is the only one I know of to be unavailable in Kindle or Nook in English. I wish I knew why.
Mod
I don't think I've read this one either :)
Mod
It is quite a fun read, Jean, I can promise you this :-)
Oh good - it sounds exactly what I need :)
Speaking of Dickens with his friend Collins, the novelist Dan Simmons wrote an interesting horror/mystery novel that has Collins as the narrator of a story involving Dickens.It is called Drood. I actually have the book and started it and found it pretty good, but it is very lengthy and I decided to put it aside for a bit. Sometimes these lengthy books, I can't start them unless I know I'm good to the end. When I get there with this one, I look forward to it because it did have a great opening chapter -- mysterious, foreboding, with Collins doing the talking.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
It is free here (UK) too, and the formatting is fine (I've read the first chapter). That's often what puts me off taking up the free kindle public domain books.
Something I came across while looking at the background on Wilkie Collins at Britannica:Under Dickens’ influence, Collins developed a talent for characterization, humour, and popular success, while the older writer’s debt to Collins is evident in the more skillful and suspenseful plot structures of such novels as A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and Great Expectations (1860–61)
Mod
Under Dickens’ influence, Collins developed a talent for characterization, humour, and popular success, whi..."
John
Thanks for this information. It makes our coming reading of The Lazy Tour” much more intriguing.
Mod
That is a very interesting point. Should the more careful structure, the wider plot arches of Dickens‘s later novels be a result of the author‘s friendship with Wilkie Collins? I have often heard that Collins‘s novels declined in quality when he grew older (because he wanted to be an author with a message and therefore became too didactic). I have not read a lot of Collins novels and those few older ones I read I rather liked, and so I don‘t know whether this statement is true or not, but I know, for sure, that Dickens‘s older novels, let‘s say from Dombey or David on, are much richer and compelling than his earlier novels.
Yes, I too found myself thinking that I hadn't considered Wilkie Collins's influence on Charles Dickens, but only the other way round! I'd thought that the laudenum (Collins had to take for his gout) and failing eyesight might have been contributory factors to the decline in his writing.The piece we are reading now, The Lazy Tour Of Two Idle Apprentices is very marked as to which parts are written by which author - it's fascinating to think of their conversations.
I plan on starting the first chapter this weekend and hope to complete it and perhaps the second chapter, too. I look forward to comparing their writing styles, along with whatever comes of may on their travels. For those interested in the travelogue type books, one laced with droll wit and humor in the best Dickensian sense, try Bill Bryson's A Walk in The Woods. Wonderful book.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...
I know it is very early to even be thinking of this but I am wondering what we will be reading next. I know that the next novel is Martin Chuzzlewit (very long) but I am wondering if we will read something else in between? Thanks.
Mod
We are working on a reading schedule right now. Our problem was to square the reading of Martin Chuzzlewit with a Christmas read in December. We did not want the interruption for MC to be too long, and it seems we have come up with a solution. But I still need a couple of days to post it in its final version.
As to your other question of whether we'll read something in between: This time we decided that we won't but there will be a week dedicated to discussing the novel as a whole. In other words, MC will not begin next week but the week after that.
Thanks again. Gee, What time is it in Germany?
It is 9:05 PM right now, so about 8:10 PM when Tristram posted. *Is from the same time zone* Not that late.
You know I always enjoy the interim reads :) But I'm just one among many, and have confidence that we will all have one for Christmas ... well, hopefully!Thanks Bobbie, for raising the subject :)
I assume Chuzzlewit was serialized. Begs a question for me: was there any novel he wrote that was not serialized?
Mod
Yes. All the major novels were serialized in either a weekly or monthly format.
How Dickens kept up the momentum and pressure of such a publication schedule along with everything else he was doing remains a mystery to me.
The Old Curiosity Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The Lazy Tour Of Two Idle Apprentices (other topics)Authors mentioned in this topic
Wilkie Collins (other topics)Charles Dickens (other topics)
After we have read TOCS and recovered from the various emotions this work has evoked in our generous breasts, it may be time again to take a look at one of the shorter works by the Inimitable.
This time we have picked The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices, which is one of the collaborative works by Dickens and his friend Wilkie Collins. It was published in Dickens's Household Words in October 1857 (in several parts) and it is based on a tour through Cumberland the two writers did earlier on in the same year. It was first published as a book in 1890.
Since the travelogue is a bit longer than a usual short story, we will divide it into two weeks, and this is going to be our reading schedule:
09/05/19 - 15/05/19: Chp. 01-03
16/05/19 - 22/05/19: Chp. 04-05
I think that reading The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices (LTTIA) will be a new experience for most of us since it is not generally a work that one picks for reading. I, at least, have never read it before.
We will start our Barnaby Rudge adventure immediately after LTTIA, and a reading schedule will appear in due course.
I hope the lazy tour will not be too lazy!