Master Humphrey's Clock and Other Stories

G.K. Chesterton's review says it all about Master Humphrey's Clock: "As a triumph of Dickens, at least, it is not of great importance. But as a sample of Dickens it happens to be of quite remarkable importance. The very fact that it is somewhat more level and even monotonous than most of his creations makes us realise, as it were, against what level and monotony those creations commonly stand out."

Originally a regular magazine written entirely by Charles Dickens, Master Humphrey's Clock uses an elderly gentleman named Master Humphrey as a frame for a number of stories. It starts out in the style of 1,001 Nights with stories within stories, which works reasonably well. But as Dickens worked, one of this "stories" turned into the full length novel The Old Curiosity Shop and another into Barnaby Rudge. As a result, reading Master Humphrey today (which omits these two novels) becomes increasingly too much frame relative to the stories.

Master Humphrey's Clock is also the only Dickens work where characters reappear from other works -- specifically Pickwick and some of his friends. The reappearance is much flatter than the original and might explain why Dickens did not go the route of Balzac in populating his novels with overlapping characters and incidents. ( )

Dickens' least convincing long piece. It's a miscellany, loosely held together by two groups of friends who tell one another stories. The stories they tell are not particularly interesting. But it is Dickens, and he has not lost his ear for language or ability to create characters. ( )