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Apr 2020
5:03pm, 27 Apr 2020
19,668 posts
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Columba
Walking 10 miles each day - that also appears quite commonly in Dickens. And "going for a walk" seems to have been a usual form of self-entertainment among the leisured classes.
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Apr 2020
11:46pm, 27 Apr 2020
572 posts
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Peregrinator
Thanks for the reviews to date. McG and LN: sorry no sale. I hate books where the author can't sustain their initial creativity through to the end. They get themselves into these messes, don't expect sympathy from me. Owlie: Probably something I would read, but I have decided the next Japanese book I read should be something nominated by a friend who translates from Japanese into English. Dipps: Yes, but with some doubts. Columba: Yes, accept it will be about some poor soul pushed miserably about by fate. Diogenes: No - already objected to books with lots of characters, it confuses me. Identification by numbers would be even worse.
Collins had Jewish friends - his executor was Jewish. Columba, I'm sure your right it came from a literary mould, the description was done so casually and differently from other characters in the story. It still seems odd that he didn't realise the effect the description would give.
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Apr 2020
8:39am, 28 Apr 2020
573 posts
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Peregrinator
Bazoaxe: sorry, missed yours in the great Virgin Media internet crash of April 2020. Hmmm, intriguing, the right numbers of characters, and "a cracker"you say. Ok yes. Although this isn't helping my TBR list and I anticipate there are some more coming down.
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May 2020
7:00pm, 31 May 2020
37,326 posts
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LindsD
I have finished Great Expectations. I guess it must have taken me two months, but I did have two breaks to read other books.
I really, really struggled with this up until book three, then I slid quickly, effortlessly and happily through to the end. My BiL says 'Dickens could have done with a good editor' and I agree. I know he was paid by the word and it's a serialisation etc. but that doesn't help me much. So many words. So much obfuscation and unnecessary obliqueness. I didn't like any of the characters or even find them particularly well-drawn. I couldn't engage with the plot because of all the WORDS. I found the overwhelming atmosphere of impending doom really difficult to live with. I never like books/films where you know something awful is going to happen and it's just a case of when. And then when everything started to resolve itself it was all just so stupidly neat. Don't get me wrong, I like a neat ending and I like things to be resolved, but it just all seemed so unbelievable. And don't get me started on Miss Havisham.
I did enjoy reading the last third, and could actually be bothered to find out what happened and had some feelings for the characters instead of finding them annoying or unbelievable. It was a lot of effort to get that far, though. That said, it's the first Dickens I've read apart from A Christmas Carol and I do feel a certain sense of achievement. I might try another one in a while. My sister, who did English, says they are all long and they all lose their way in the middle. Maybe I'll go for Austen instead. Thank you, Bint. I probably would have given up on this if it hadn't been your choice for me. Did you know that? I had already given up on it once before.
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May 2020
7:12pm, 31 May 2020
10,604 posts
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Little Nemo
Well done! I think I enjoyed it more than you but I still haven't got round to reading another Dickens yet 
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May 2020
8:44pm, 31 May 2020
9,426 posts
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PaulaMc
We did GE for O level Eng Lit 😬
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May 2020
8:49pm, 31 May 2020
17,892 posts
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Serendippily
We read David Copperfield for O’level. It was ok it’s just everything is always laid on with a trowel
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May 2020
8:51pm, 31 May 2020
23,180 posts
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Lizzie W
Popping in to say I put 2 Elizabeth von Arnim on Linds' tbr, I think Austen likers might enjoy too.
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May 2020
9:11pm, 31 May 2020
37,329 posts
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LindsD
Oh yes, had forgotten because of GE. Thank you again.
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Jun 2020
10:15pm, 1 Jun 2020
19,820 posts
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Columba
I suppose, if an author is writing a book which is being serialised, it will be quite easy for him (her) to lose his/her way in the middle.
I read GE at an early age, in fact it may have been the first Dickens I read, maybe about 11-ish. I loved it, though I'm sure I didn't follow the plot properly. I found it very atmospheric. He does sense-of-menace so well. And some of the minor characters, like Mr. Jaggers, and Wemmick, though exaggerated, seemed totally believable, at least to me, then.
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