post-Copperfield rec

[dichroic]

If there’s anyone reading this who knows their Dickens very well, I need a recommendation: if I loved David Copperfield what other Dickens should I read? The only other thing of his that I’ve read through is A Christmas Carol. (I did start Great Expectations a few years ago but somehow didn’t get too far – should I go back to it?)

What I liked about David Copperfield was the balance: there are very sad bits (not always the ones intended; Martha’s story was far more heartbreaking to me than Little Em’ly’s) but you’re never in the sad bits for too long before there’s a funny bit. Also, Betsy Trotwood is one of my most favorite characters ever. (In fact, it’s quite a feminist book overall.)

What I *don’t* want is one of the tearjerkers like The Old Curiosity Shop. If it helps any, since finishing David Copperfield, I’ve been listening to Cranford while erging. Like Copperfield, it is a terrible workout book – too little action, and also too funny in spots – but also like Copperfield I like it enough not to mind much.

Mirrored from Dichroic Reflections.

Comments

[bronze_ribbons]

I'm no Dickens maven, but I'm fondest of Nicholas Nickleby.

[antisoppist]

The only Dickens I have read is bits of Oliver Twist when I was Second Workhouse Boy, Crowd and Milkmaid (despite not being a soprano even when I was 14) in the school production of the musical. My mother told me not to read Great Expectations because the start would give me nightmares and I somehow got through an English education without encountering him but I am now determined to read Bleak House because I saw half of the BBC dramatisation and need to know what happened next.