The Big News!

The big news of the weekend is that I finally finished Bleak House. I turned off the DVD player and made a reading commitment and plunged in to the end. I can read pretty quickly if I get focused.

I think what was kind of hard for me in reading the book was it went on and on and new characters were constantly introduced, the writing style changed from first to third person and it was kind of like a Desperate Housewives style of story line with comedy, drama and mystery change ups. (More proof to me that Charles Dickens would have been writing for TV or films had he been a live today!) I wondered while I read it what it would have been like reading it as a newspaper serial which was how it was originally published. I think Charles Dickens could have easily gone on for another 3,000 pages and probably not taken a breath or let up in any way. Reading it in book form made it a bit tedious although the story kept me going to the end.

I didn't like this book as much as Great Expectations, But I am glad I read it as my goal is to eventually have read all of his books.

Bleak House Update

As I noted in an earlier post, I am currently reading Bleak House by Charles Dickens and am almost 60% through it.

I am enjoying it as I do like Dickens very much, but it is very long and sometimes I find myself pushing my way through a bit.

If the truth be told, I never read a Dickens book until a few years ago. I started with Oliver Twist
and it was so amazing that I quickly moved onto Great Expectations: and then read A Christmas Carol. My goal is to eventually read all his books, so when The Guardian's Reading group announced this month that Bleak House was their book of choice, I decided to join them.

The reason I never read a Dickens book was quite frankly, I used to have very base tastes in books, (ie, mostly romance, chick lit. Not that there's anything wrong with romance and chick lit. I occasionally dip my toes back in those waters, but what can I say? I was young. I can't base a whole life of reading on them.) The other reason I was hesitant to read Dickens was that they were old and the subjects did not seem interesting to me, and to be honest there had been so many movies, cartoons, musicals made about various books that I already knew the plot lines.

When I finally picked up Oliver Twist and started to read it, I was totally sucked in and I realized WHY there were still movies and all kinds of media projects being made on Charles Dicken's stories. They feature characterization, dialogue and story lines about human nature that are still relevant today. I simply could not believe how amazing his writing is and could not believe I had deprived myself of this author for most of my life. Anyone studying scriptwriting or dialogue should read all his books. Period.

So, I am enjoying Bleak House and I am quite curious as to what will happen to Esther and Ada. I am still reeling with the cast of characters and scope of the story. My favorite part so far was Caddy's relationship with her Africa consumed mother. Having experience working with NGO's today, I nearly cried with laughter over some of the points Dickens makes. Some people are still consumed with causes to the point of ignoring everything around them today!

Yes, Dickens makes many subtle and not so subtle points about the human character. It is totally amazing and a tribute to his genius how they are still able to move us so many years later. He was simply brilliant!

Happy 200th birthday Charles!