No Thoroughfare (hosted by Lee)

[Lori]

What a fabulous image, Jean! They almost sound like toddlers learning to share nicely! 😝 But I do think these are two remarkable writers and it has been fun reading their collaborations and trying to spot who wrote what!
Thanks for sharing this with us!!

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

It literally popped through my letter-box today! 😊

[Sara]

I do absolutely love that image, Jean. I think it is a testament to their respect for one another that they could do this, because it would generally be too much ego in the room to allow for two such talented men to truly collaborate. It always sounds to me like they had fun working together and I'm sure Collins knew that he owed a great deal to the mentoring he received from Dickens.

I did laugh at the side note regarding Scott.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Yes, I agree, Sara; it shows the mutual trust involved too. And since there had been a gap in their collaborations, it's good to know they could come back together, and enjoy working on this towards the end of Charles Dickens's life.

[Katy]

Bionic Jean wrote: "Peacejanz wrote: "this is just an awful way to decide who gets help ..."

Well it is, of course, but I actually think their motives were good. There had been a strict selection procedure before, to..."

This is in reply to Jean's last comment in message 44. This is so true. Dickens, as you say, protrays social ills in a way that makes you really feel for the victims. I just finished Barnaby Rudge, which has some pretty horrific scenes from the London anti-Catholic riots of the 1700s. Yet there is also so much goodness and humour portrayed in his books that I am left feeling good about life and people in general.

Incidentally, I am just now reading No Thoroughfare and following along with everyone's comments. I enjoyed the discussion about the name of the book, which I had not thought of before.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Ah, the black ball selection for the Foundling Hospital, yes.

Katy, you have hit the nail on the head for all his writing I think, when you say "Yet there is also so much goodness and humour portrayed in his books that I am left feeling good about life and people in general."

I'm so glad you are enjoying this one, which is largely so undervalued. We were lucky to have Lee leading it so well for us.

Thank you for commenting. Do feel free to add more if you like 😊

[Katy]

I finished the book yesterday. I have really enjoyed this read, though at one point it seemed that the "good guys" were dying off. I was so glad when Vendale made a comeback.

I think the authors wanted us to believe that Obenreizer was the original Walter Wilding, but I was sincerely hoping he was not.

Thanks Jean, for providing us with the alternate endings. I think I like the one in the book best, but that may be because I read it first. The fourth one works for me also. I would definitely not like the one where Obenreizer curses Vendale and Marguerite before he dies.

I want to thank everyone who commented, especially Lee and Jean for the summaries and so much background information. It really added to my appreciation of the book.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

I'm so glad you enjoyed this one Katy, and thank you for commenting. 😊I do know what you mean, especially about your preferred ending.

[Lee]

It is good to know your interest in this novel. Reading this book helped me appreciate Dickens’s sincere love of the Alps and Switzerland. You can feel his love in some of the descriptive narrative passages in the novel. Today people travel to the same spots where he once climbed by foot or used donkeys, but we know the snow is not as ample or fierce as it was in his day, 175 years ago.

For Dickens, he saw the Alps as they were meant to be seen, wild and glorious and primitive, with scarcely any tourists and the vistas unmarked with evidence of encroaching towns or modern hotels. And he brought his own chalet back to England where he had it re-built— so enchanting!

I’m so glad you enjoyed your reading!