LizzieD: 2012*2 (Even a Long February is Short)

In February the camellias bloom and spring is sometimes in the air.

JANUARY

(* = review on main book page)

1. *The Invisible Ones - modern Gypsies in England - an O.K. missing-person mystery
2. Fall on Your Knees - relentless and disturbing - beautiful writing - Orange Long List, 1997
3. Sporting Chance - political shenanigans, albino cockroaches, a stroke, stupidity poison - What's not to love? (reread)
4. Molly Fox's Birthday - quiet, thoughtful, elegiac - June 21 in Dublin - Orange Short List - 2009
5. The Tiger's Wife - folklore and modern sensibility in post-war Yugoslavia - really O.K.
6. The Broom of the System - audio - hilarious, intelligent, wild! I love DFW!
7. The Splendor of Letters - books destroyed; books preserved - much to enjoy!
8. 1Q84 - a little detective/murder mystery; a little romance; a lot of weird = a lot of fun in too much book

FEBRUARY

1. Necessary as Blood - mystery series - satisfying continuing characters - pretty satisfying mystery
2. The Chanur Saga: The Pride of Chanur - reread - space opera with the cat-like hani and alien humans - FUN!
3. *Arcadia - very personal story of Bit Stone's life from birth to 50, shaped by the commune, Arcadia - true love for me
4. *Purgatory - magical realism -Argentina's Dirty War - a dark, intellectual wallop
5. Chanur's Venture - a little bridge of a novel with cliff-hanger ending - on to the next!
6. Barnaby Rudge - reread - the Gordon Riots of 1780 - Dickens!

New in February

1. Independent People - AMP
2. The Hero's Walk - PBS
3. Purgatory - ER ARC (November List) ✔
4. The Gone-Away World - AMP
5. Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore - PBS ✔
6. The Night Circus - PBS (YAY!) ✔
7. The Line - PBS
8. Unless - PBS
9. Gone to Earth - Nice Price Books, Durham
10. The Siege of Krishnapur - Nice Price Books, Durham (to replace a lost copy which I will now likely find)
11. The Savage Detectives - PBS
12. The Monsters of Templeton - PBS
13. Christmas Mourning - PBS ✔
14. We Need to Talk about Kevin - PBS ✔
15. Homestead - Jill and Orange January Thank you, Jill!!!
16. The Betrayal of Trust - PBS ✔

✔ = Read

Then I'll pop in and say hi!

Well, thank you kindly, ma'am. (How can it already be the 2nd?)
I haven't given any thought to a picture, poem, or other prettiness for the thread. If I don't do it now, I may never do it, but I've just been reading Lucy's thread about procrastinating, so I think I'm off to try something else. Oh my.

me too! HI, woops didnt finish the old one yet *off to do that now*

eta: wow, a lot of Murakami talk there on thread #1, Ive not read any of his novels, just one he wrote about him being a runner called What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Which perhaps not surprisingly had hardly talk about him as a writer :(

Peggy look forward to more great discussions on your shiny new thread..congrats!

Peggy: You had some good reads in January, and of course your wonderful Murakami discussion.

((Hugs)), Peggy, and a check in from me while I have a minute. . .

ftl thread flyby.

ftl for all your non-sf-ers is faster-than-light.

Hi Peggy. I'm impressed that you read 1Q84 plus 7 other books in January!

I love new thread greetings! Welcome, Megan, Paul, Beth, Stasia, Lucy, and Pat! You're mighty nice to come!
Pat, I was pleased with myself in January although you notice that one was audio and not one of them was Matterhorn. I still have it out and I hope to get to it this summer.
At this point I'm reading more Barnaby Rudge. Again, I am taken with the appalling Mr. Chester who is a precursor of Skimpole in Bleak House. As he encourages his upright son to ignore his pledge to marry the woman that he loves, he says, "In a religious point of view alone, how could you ever think of uniting yourself to a Catholic, unless she was amazingly rich?" (Oh the shadow of things to come!),,,,,,,,,,,

Happy new threading, Peggy! You are doing an impressive job with your Dickens' reads. I don't know Barnaby Rudge at all, but I definitely remember Skimpole!

PS Was trying to remember the name of another wicked character from Bleak House whom your quote re money reminded me of. I've got it, finally ... Smallweed! He is so brilliantly played in BBC's Bleak House. Doesn't he look just completely Dickens!

Phew, I'm now caught up with you Peggy. Who is that actor? The face looks so familiar but I can't place it..

The newer BBC Dickens shows are so excellent, but "Bleak House" was particularly so. Such great detail. My other favorite is the newer "Little Dorrit", which was gorgeous and wonderful.

>13 lit_chick:: love Smallweed!
>15 beserene:: I agree, the newer Bleak House and Little Dorrit dramatizations were both excellent.

Peggy, I'm just stopping by to thank you, once again, for introducing me to Dance to the Music of Time last year. I'm now reading the third movement and loving it just as much as the first two.

Peggy, your new thread is aptly named. Once again, I'm doomed to run out of month before I achieve my reading goals.

I love the picture of Smallwood...just as I loved Bleak House, both book and adaptation. The charming names of Lewis's characters in the Narnia series remind me of Dickens. In fact, Queen Prunaprismia in Prince Caspian was named for Mrs. General (in Little Dorritt) who was fond of saying "prunes and prisms"! I love book trivia!

Bleak House is probably my favourite Dickens. "Shake me up, Judy!"

Hi and welcome, Nancy, Leonie, Sarah, Laura, Donna, and Tui! I did see that adaptation of Bleak House, and I agree that that's a wonderfully nasty face. My imaginary Smallweed is even older and skinnier and more pinched and in need of shaking up! And Bleak House is my favorite. Just typing the title makes me want to reread it yet again. I haven't seen Little Dorrit yet, but I know I'll find it eventually.
Laura, you make me want to reread *Dance* immediately too. I did finally get the series on DVD, but I haven't watched them yet. That's another due for a reread, and I'm glad that the third movement is holding up for you.
No reading time at all today. Isn't that the way? I'm committed to way too many for this little month, and I can't get to any of them. I think I'm off to try more Palace Walk or maybe Arcadia. I haven't put in my *BR* time either. Oh dear.

Oh my Peggy, I've just been reading about Smallweed (and Judy) today. I'm just about half-way through Bleak House and absolutely loving it. So I guess I'll be looking for the movie next week. Thanks for your suggestion.

Hi Peggy. I'm hoping to join you for the Rudge Trudge this month although I'm wondering if I'm overcommitted already (probably, yes). I've only read it once and I really don't remember much about it except where I read it (on holiday in Rome during my siestas) but I think I enjoyed it well enough last time.

And Bleak House love - happy sigh.

The camellias are beautiful.

Did I mention that Bleak House is my favorite Dickens? Oh ----- maybe I did. I'm thrilled that you're enjoying it, Bonnie. Heather, I need all the encouragement to trudge that I can get. It's only my second time through too, and well may be my last. I think possibly that Rome might have sweetened it for me too. Right now I have fallen in love with my ER ARC, Arcadia, but I'll put it down to turn a few more pages of *BR* to the left in my book.
I wish that particular camellia were mine, Ren. My second favorite is a pale, pale, palest pink, but this particular bush/tree has very deep rosy red blooms with only a very little white. Showy and gorgeous and our neighbor's! (In fact, the neighbor's house is for sale with a big yard full of camellias marching down to the river. The only problem is that to enjoy all this glory, one must live in my little town.) I think it's time I learned how to make a picture bigger. Off to try.

Hi Lizzie, I hope you love Independent People! It was a favorite read of mine several years ago.

Thanks, Anne. It's one of Lucy's favorite books, so I had to try it - or at least buy it at this point! Maybe this summer -----

Finally catching up on your old thread and new... I have read neither Faulkner nor Murakami yet, so cannot comment on any of that discussion. I do now have a copy of Norwegian Wood in my pile. Faulkner I had barely heard of before LT, I'm afraid!

Dickens I have heard of (!) , but have read very little overall, though have seen most adapted to film or TV (or musical) over the years. Bleak House was one of my set texts for English A Level, and at the time I had no particular strong feelings about it - but that over-analysed familiarity with the text from nearly 30 years ago certainly meant that when the recent BBC production was serialised, I came back to it with a strong sense of recognition and enjoyment. I'm just starting to read The Pickwick Papers since that's one of the few of Dickens' which I'm not familiar with in any form.

Genny, you're in for a treat. *Pickwick* is like nothing else in the language. In fact, it's for the language that I love Dickens so. Enjoy, but know that it's not typical.

I wouldn't call it a favourite --- it was mind-expanding and amazing -- one of those books that is sometimes a struggle to read because both the subject matter and writing aren't so easy -- but you can't let it go either. Okay I'm being picky, but I haven't even brushed my hair yet today because of the pupster (who is sacked right now, so I'm trying to catch up!)

David Copperfield is my favorite Dickens.

#27: like nothing else in the language...
*moving The Pickwick Papers up on my long Dickens tbr list*

>26 gennyt:. I have read neither Faulkner nor Murakami yet, so cannot comment on any of that discussion

I don't have the patience to carefully parse every comment--or even to glance carelessly--where is the discussion of Faulkner? A quick perusal didn't find it. Bleak House is also my favorite--by a lot.

>23 LizzieD:. Peggy--my fantasy is that my next-door neighbors will put their house on sale, I will buy it, knock down their house, and then I will have enough room for a big vegetable garden. A girl can dream--haha.

Becky, my fantasy is for you to knock down your next-door neighbors' house, grow a big vegetable garden, and have so much produce that you give the remnants to me! I don't garden well and I don't clean house well. I think I mentioned somewhere else that my daddy used to tell my mama every spring, "Don't plant a bit more than you and Peggy Ann can work." She always did. And Peggy Ann (sorry - that's me) always had to work it. The discussion of Faulkner, such as it was, is on the first thread. We were mainly saying what we read and hadn't read, what we read first, and what we had lined up.
Nathalie, *Pickwick* starts out being a simple romp, very picaresque, around England by the Pickwick Club, followers of Mr. P. About mid-way Dickens changed directions and put his hero in the dock for alienation of affection. It's still funny, but there's sudden depth there that you wouldn't have predicted. I'm sorry it's not a favorite of Lucy. I'm glad that David Copperfield is your favorite, Ren. That means that you really like Dickens and didn't only read him when you had to in school. At least, I think that's what it means.
No reading to speak of for me today. Another memorial service for a former student, this one 26 who overdosed. I'm completely wrung out. That's two smart, warm, beautiful, joyful young women dead way too early. I hug all of you close tonight. Take care of yourselves and your own.

Sorry to hear you've experienced another death of a former student. Awful for her family and for all of you who knew her.

Oh, Peggy, how devastating to bury another student from overdose. Thoughts, prayers, and hugs back to you.

Oh bless your heart. So sorry, Peggy.

How horrifying, Peggy. My thoughts are with you...

Dickens -- Bleak House is on my must-read list this year. I did read the first chapter (!) a while back and loved it. Very vivid writing. On the other hand, I was a victim of a so-so teacher in high school English who over-analyzed Great Expectations to the point that I wanted to scream.

Peggy, how terrible. My heart goes out to you, and to the families.

Adding my sympathies for the loss, Peggy. So incomprehensible.

#31 Not that it would help you with this reference, since it was in a different thread, but "Ctrl F" will give you a search box into which you can type a word you'd like to find on the current screen. So if the Faulkner discussion had been on this thread, you could have easily jumped to every mention of The Man by searching for his name in that manner.

Peggy, I'm so sorry to hear about the death of your former student. How heartbreaking.

Oh Peggy, what is happening with our young people. We have been going through the same thing here. My heart goes out to you.

{{{{hugs}}}} back at you, Peggy. There's been a lot of loss around LT lately, it seems--it's not been a good winter. May you find comfort in the small joys of life to balance your grief.

Friends are blessings. Thank you, Genny, Becky, Nancy, Suzanne, Laura, Linda, Pat, Bonnie, and Roni. I'm not great friends with either mother - in fact, I didn't even recognize the mother's name of my second girl. My head was hearing a different last name, and I realized that it was my Catherine only when I read the obituary. Anyway, I know that they have good, strong support groups. They're going to need them. (And I may have been unclear. The first young woman was run over by a teen-age girl being taught to drive by her slightly older teen-age boyfriend. What a thing for those two to live with for the rest of their lives! Anyway, no drugs involved there, just loss.)
O.K. It's Charles Dickens's 200th Birthday!!!!
HERE is a wonderful piece that I heard on NPR this morning - they're supposed to have the audio up after 9:00 this morning. Anyway, this is Claire Tomalin and Jennifer Eagan on CD.

Peggy, stressful time seeing young lives of such potential spent and wasted prematurely. Keep your chin up dear!

Made a list of all the Dickens' last year in my order of preference which I wont recreate here if only because I would have them rearranged and demonstrate just how inconstant I am! A Tale of Two Cities is probably my favourite.

>38 laytonwoman3rd:. Thanks Linda--hugely helpful.

>43 PaulCranswick:. Tale of Two Cities is my #2. Love it!

I've read probably.... um..... five Dicken's novels but I suspect that I haven't yet read my favorite, so I have to wait!

Hi, Paul (with thanks), Becky, and Lucy.
I hadn't thought of putting my Dickens in order of preference. Today that would be this list of the novels!
Top Rank: Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend, The Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield
Middle Rank: Dombey and Son, Little Dorrit, Great Expectations, Martin Chuzzlewit, Tale of Two Cities, The Old Curiosity Shop, Nicholas Nickleby, Hard Times (Most of the movement comes in this group.)
Bottom Rank: Mystery of Edwin Drood, Oliver Twist, Barnaby Rudge

The death of young people no matter what the cause is a tragedy and a terrible burden for the family and friends to bear. I'm so sorry for your recent losses, Peggy.

Happy Birthday to Chuck! I may start over in Our Mutual Friend later today as a Dickens tribute. I'm glad this one made your top tier. I'm determined to stick with it this time.

Hi Peggy, sad to read of more loss in your life. Loving the Dickens talk as am now officially in the club with my enjoyment of Great Expectations. Oliver Twist was my first (and there was a time that I thought LAST) try of Dickens a lot of years ago, glad to see it was in the bottom rank for you as it was sure in mine!

Hi Peggy. So sorry to hear of the death of another of your students. No wonder you feel wrung out...

Donna, I hope you're swept up in *BH* this time. I could be happy reading it all the time, I think.
Thank you, Megan and Heather. Ms. SotR is co-president of our Dickens Disciples, I've just decided, and we're happy to have Megan as the newest announced member.
I have some business to attend to, but then I'm going to do the Rudge Trudge for my Dickens remembrance of the day.

Thanks for your list ranking the Dickens, books Peggy. I'll definitely file that away for future interest. I will finish up Bleak House tonight and oh my, what a ride it's been. I'm hoping to get in a few more of his this year and the Tomalin bio. (Thanks for that link too.)

I'm thrilled, Bonnie! And of course, other people will have drastically different lists although I think that Bleak House is near the top of all true Dickens Disciples' lists.

Just catching up here - too many threads to keep track of, of course - and so sorry to hear about your students. What a hole young people leave in the world!

I've caught Dickens fever. Thanks, Peggy! As we speak, I am downloading Our Mutual Friend for consumption via iPod : ).

Hello to Judy and Nancy. I'll tell you, Judy, the world is a darker place without these two young women - so much love and talent and good will gone. I'm sorry for us.
Yay, Nancy! Dickens Fever!!! Long may it rage!!!!

NECESSARY AS BLOOD by Deborah Crombie
I sneaked this one in because I won the latest of the series from the January ER list. Crombie is a Texan who writes about London as inhabited by Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid, two police inspectors. I don't really know how convincing the background is to an Englishman, but it's fine for me. I love the continuing characters, and their charms continued to hold me in this outing. I did feel that the villain was introduced a little clumsily, so I figured out who done it before I figured out why. Otherwise, I spent a pleasant three days reading this, and I'll jump right on my ARC when it comes.
(This is definitely a series that should be read in order. The first couple of books are a little better than average, but then Crombie hits her stride. I find her characters more realistic than Elizabeth George's and the crimes themselves a little less gruesome.)

Another series I have not heard of... How does a Texan come to be writing about London, I wonder?

I'm very sorry to hear about the loss of those two young women. A colleague of mine lost his daughter in a road accident last year and the loss is written on his face every time you see him.

I was interested in your thoughts on Deborah Crombie. I have the first two in that series to read and needed a nudge to get me started.

Dear Peggy, how well I remember the shock waves followed by deep sorrow when we lost one of ours at the university, whether through intent or accident. I feel for what you are going through right now.

Pickwick Papers was one of my mother's favourites--she actually read it out loud to me as a tot. I didn't know much of what was going on but like you, I loved the language. Yes, I did have odd bedtime reading: Archie and Mehitabel, for crying out loud!

I love your ordering of Dickens that way....hmmm, let's see...of the ones I've read,
Top Level: Bleak House, A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, Pickwick Papers
Middle Level: David Copperfield, Great Expectations, The Old Curiosity Shop
Lowest Level: Little Dorrit, Mystery of Edwin Drood

Great Expectations has to be my favorite among Dickens' works, simply because it's the one I read aloud with my daughter years ago. Poor Joe.

Peggy, thanks for the Dickens list. It made me realize how many of his books I haven't read. But I've always loved David Copperfield. Uriah Heep is a villain I love to hate.
I envy you winning the Crombie ARC. That series is one of my favorites. I agree they should be read in order so you can see the relationship develop between the two main characters. I'll have to keep my eye out for the latest.

Hi, Genny. I just looked at a brief bio of Deborah Crombie. Her first husband was Scottish, and they lived first in Edinburgh and then in Chester. I guess that makes her entitled to set her series in London. ? Jan, I'm glad to see another Crombie fan. I was looking at reviews of this one yesterday, and somebody said that the continuing characters make a high-class soap opera. Maybe so, but it's one I very much enjoy. Dee, since you have them, read your couple when you need something light. As I say, the first few aren't stellar, but she is a fast learner. Thank you and Tui for your sympathy.
Tui, Linda, and Jan, I feel secure among Dickens lovers. My grandmother read him, but not to me - more's the pity. I was in my late 20's before it occurred to me that she was a smart woman and might actually know good writing when she saw it. She did! I think that people who don't make it beyond A Tale of Two Cities or A Christmas Carol or Oliver Twist or even David Copperfield and Great Expectations don't really know what they're missing. And that's my 'umble opinion.

Thanks for looking up details of Crombie - I guess that explains her using a UK setting (I can't imagine that most writers would choose to create a whole series set in a part of the world where they do not live and have never lived), and I suppose Chester at least - though not Edinburgh - has rather more limited scope as a centre for crime and crime solving.

I finished the first big chapter of The Pickwick Papers - the one with the ball, the borrowed coat and the duel. Great fun so far!

Hi, Peggy. Loving the Dickens chat! My top Dickens as of this moment are Pickwick, Copperfield, Bleak House. Bottom Dickens would include Two Cities, which is to my mnd his least representative work, and Old Curiosity Shop. I've not read BR, and it's slowly but surely moving to the end of the Dickens To Read List, which includes biographies and other such whatnot.

I read and reread A Christmas Carol 4 out of every 5 years. I guess that would make it the "most" favorite.

I put it out every Christmas and read it too, bohemima. AND watch the Alistair Sims version!

I read at least one classic every month Peggy and for the time being that means Dickens. I finished Bleak House and 'not to put too fine a point on it' I'm in love;-)

I'm loving old and new Dickens readers!
Genny, I suspect that Crombie feels the romance of London a lot more than that of central Texas. Just guessing. I'm tickled that *Pickwick* is tickling you.
Gail, I can't really argue your placement of *2 Cities* in the bottom, but *Shop* was my first, and I have a great affection for it. Then I look at Tui's list and laugh. Notice the relative placement of *Dorrit* and *Oliver* in my list and hers. Our boy CD appeals to everybody in highly individual ways! Bonnie, welcome to the club!
I woke up this morning with an idea for the honoring of CD in his bicentennial year that should have occurred before. I'll include a daily quotation from whatever of my man I'm reading. Even in *Rudge* it will be easy to choose one a day!

DICKENS DAILY

"'There are strings,' said Mr. Tappertit, flourishing his bread and cheese knife in the air, 'in the human heart that had better not be wibrated.'"
~ Barnaby Rudge

Love that quote!. My strings are often "wibrated" when I don't want them to be.

Tui: Ditto on the movie.

Guess it's time for a run back through the Dickens sets...well, perhaps a leisurely walk. One idea that seemed good to me is to read them as they were printed: I mean, break them up into the sections as they first appeared in serial form. Most editions show where those breaks are...hmmm...

What great Dickens chat and I love your idea of a daily quote. (Here's mine from my current chapter of Bleak House: "Even Sir Leicester's gallantry has some trouble to keep pace with her. It would have more, but that his other faithful ally, for better and for worse--the gout--darts into the old oak bedchamber at Chesney Wold, and grips him by both legs."

Interesting to see the rankings of favorite CD novels. Although I haven't read nearly enough Dickens, I hope to rectify that this year. Of the five books I've read, I'd put Bleak House at the top and Oliver Twist at the bottom, with A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and Hard Times somewhere in the middle. Oh, and I'd put A Christmas Carol at the top, and The Chimes at the very bottom.

I'm hoping to get to both David Copperfield and Our Mutual Friend in this anniversary year. I always feel as if I'd read The Pickwick Papers because I spent so much time with the March girls as a child and they seemed to read Pickwick constantly.

Hi Peggy,
I love the idea of a quote a day. And that one from BR is a fine start to the tradition!

Reading the Claire Tomalin book has made me anxious to get back to the Man Himself. She's also given me some insights about the books I've always found most problematic. The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge and Martin Chuzzlewit, which all come from the same period (1841-1844), a span of years which, to be fair, also included the writing of A Christmas Carol. The Dickens Tomalin describes in those years seems restless, discontent and unfocused, trying out new friends, new hobbies, new work and even new countries. He has already been annointed a Great Man but he's still perpetually short of cash and now having to compete with his own success. Pickwick, the Sketches, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby are all behind him. As Tomalin describes the life, I find myself wondering how he was able to write anything at all during this period. Happily, he gets some of his power back with Dombey and Son (1848) and then, it seems to me really hits his stride with David Copperfield (1849-50) and most everything that follows that - Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend is, if not always great, certainly very, very good.

Peggy: My condolences. I know what it's like to lose students.

I love the Dickens discussion. My favorite is Bleak House. I plan to read Our Mutual Friend because so many people choose it as among the best Dickens and I know nothing about it. I don't know when I'll get to it, but I hope sometime this year.

I love that quote!

Me too!

#66 Peggy, I really like your idea of including a Dickens quotation and I love the quote.

Gail, that's quite an idea to read as the Victorians read. I don't think I could discipline myself to do it that way although many days I read much less than a "piece' (that is what he called them, isn't it? I have tired brain.)
Anne, that's a great quote too. Honestly, almost every other sentence is quotable. I was underlining great lines on my Kindle this afternoon and had to stop because there were so many - and this in a book that I thought was less well-written. I haven't read "The Chimes" yet or any of the other Christmas stories except *C Carol*. I keep thinking that I will and then I never do. I hope that you and Beth will get to Our Mutual Friend this year. I love it. Henry James hated it, but I can't remember why right now. I'll try to do a little research to see what I can discover. It's a whopper; maybe his hand got tired.
Thank you for condolences, Beth. I don't have children, so I can't imagine what it would be like to lose a child, but losing a student is bad - even though I hadn't seen either of those young women in a couple of years.
Stephen, I don't think that poor CD had it much better for most of his life. He was always up against money problems and parasitic relatives and time crunches. I'm hoping to get a copy of the Tomalin soon even though I think I ought to read the Forster bio which I do own. Girl in a Blue Dress is a fictionalization of Catherine Dickens's life in his last years that added a new dimension to my understanding of the man. It's imaginative and stirred up my thinking about Venerables a bit. Oh well. Whatever the book, even *BR*, there's always something to love and something to deplore.
Come back, Lucy, Ren, and Heather - I'm hoping to find something good to put up tomorrow.

Continuing to enjoy celebrating Dickens here, Peggy!

I see that you have The Hero's Walk on your list for February. I really enjoyed reading it in January. I hope that you do too. I'm very sorry to hear of the loss of two of your former students. Always so sad.

Ah, Deb. I simply acquired The Hero's Walk in February. When I will read it is another question, alas. I look forward to it. And thank you for your sympathy which really extends to their parents.
Nancy, I can't tell you how much fun it is to be able to celebrate Dickens in company!

DAILY DICKENS

"'Shakespeare was undoubtedly very fine in his way; Milton, good though prosy; Lord Bacon deep, and decidedly knowing; but the writer who should be his country's pride, is my Lord Chesterfield.'"

~ Barnaby Rudge (Mr. Chester on literature)

I just got A Christmas Carol cheap on book depository so will read that soon I hope. It seems to be one that people return to year after year which is a good sign.

>77 LizzieD:: It's passages like that which keep us reading Dickens all our lives...

Megan, it's a very good sign!
Amen, Gail, amen.
I'm off to bed after a long day in which I got my mama home from the extended care facility she's been in since mid-November. She is very steady on her feet and continuing to improve her left hand daily following a fall that broke pelvis and elbow. She's been a champ, and we are two happy women tonight!

"Milton, good, though prosy.". LOL. Amen.

Peggy: Good news about your mom.

Yay for you and your mum!

Wonderful news, Peggy! Is your mother living with you now? Perhaps she did before, and I just didn't know that. Anyway, I'm glad she has recovered so well.

That's great news about your Mom, Peggy!

Great news about your Mum Peggy and what a wonderful start to the weekend....seems we get so used to supporting each other through the stresses and strains of life and it is great that for once in a while we are also able to simply say YAY!

I'm so glad for you and your mom and wish you both an excellent weekend.

Oh thank you for your good wishes and joy, Beth, Dee, Laura, Pat, Paul, and Anne! Mama has lived across the street from us (43 steps from my back door to her front door) for 30 years. What a lifesaver, literally, that closeness has been! She is relishing her chair, her bed, her first cup of good coffee, etc., and I'm ecstatic that she's doing so well. Every day is such a gift that I thank God.
O.K., Nancy, and other Dickens Disciples, here's the quote for the day. I had to go back for it since I'm in a non-quote-worthy section right now. At some point I know I'll throw in a few to show why some folks disparage my guy. Anyway, this is Miss Miggs speaking to Mrs. Varden.....

DAILY DICKENS

"I hope I know my own unworthiness, and that I hate and despise myself and all my fellow creatures as every practicable Christian should."

Peggy - great news about your Mum - I hope things go well with her recovery. I'm enjoying the Dickens quotes - I'm sitting watching the BBC Bleak House, which I treated myself to for Xmas. Bleak House is my favourite Dickens and I particularly like this dramatisation.

Good news about Mom, indeed, Peggy. I know two intrepid women in their 80's who are just now getting back to their own homes after months of recovery from serious fractures...I think it's so marvelous that rehab can work so well for them and help them maintain their independence. I remember when a broken bone at that age spelled doom or at least invalid status.

So glad to hear your mom is home and doing so well, Peggy!

Thank you Athabasca, Linda, and Roni for your good wishes for my ma. I wish you could all know what a lovely, valiant person she is! She is doing miraculously well after working like a champ. (She fell on her 90th birthday. I'm more grateful than I can say that she continues to be herself.)
A., we are in complete agreement about Bleak House and that BBC adaptation with Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock. I also loved Charles Dance and Pauline Collins when they were young, and loved them again with a little age on them - a lot like me.

Oh Peggy that's such good news about your Mom. I'm so happy for you both. Really enjoying your Dickens quotes.

What good news about your Mom, Peggy. Her own chair in her own place must seem like a slice of heaven to her - not to mention the coffee!

Peggy
Amen to good news about your mother!

Hugs to you!

Thank you, Bonnie, Tui, and Linda. The past 2½ months are beginning to feel like a very bad dream. This present reality is heaven!

THE PRIDE OF CHANUR by C.J. Cherryh
This was a reread for me; alas not a quick one, but I'm ready for the next. An alien and desperate human escapes from his kif captors at a space station called "Meetpoint" and tries to stow away on a hani ship because he sees a couple of the crew laughing while they work. Inter-galactic shenanigans ensue. Cherryh's talent is for creating convincing aliens. Making the human the alien is a satisfying twist. An additional interest is hani social structure in which the males stay home and tend the estate because of their volatile natures while the steadier, more rational women head out into space to trade and support their clans.

Perfect review of Chanur! The laughing detail is so key!

Great to hear that your mum is home at last, Peggy!

Thank you, Lucy. And thank you, Genny.

DAILY DICKENS
"The old-fashioned furniture of the chamber, which was a kind of hospital for all the invalided movables in the house, grew indistinct and shadowy in its many shapes; chairs and tables, which by day were as honest cripples as need be, assumed a doubtful and mysterious character; and one old leprous screen of faded India leather and gold binding, which had kept out many a cold breath of air in days of yore and shut in many a jolly face, frowned on him with a spectral aspect, and stood at full height in its allotted corner, like some gaunt ghost who waited to be questioned."

I thought it was time for some description that I know some folks dislike. On the other hand, I much prefer it to the lists of articles that pass for description in some contemporary, honored writers. And anyway, I love the "hospital for invalided movables."

It sounds like my Nana's attic.

Am loving the "Daily Dickens"!!!

he really does have a knack for the quirky turn of phrase! I vividly remember Mr. Micawber's comments on wealth and happiness...

Glad your mamma is home again; I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned being thankful she is still herself. I think the saddest situations of all are those elderly -- and there are a lot of them -- who simply lose touch with reality due to some kind of dementia. It's heartbreaking and a trial for family, and in contrast to at least some of the physical travails of aging, there is so little that can be done.

Chiming in to say I'm also loving your Daily Dickens, Peggy!

Oh that is a fine passage. Love the screen.

Welcome, Tui, Suzanne, Nancy, and Lucy. I hope that you'll continue to enjoy your daily dose of Dickens, which is probably what I should be calling it.

ARCADIA by Lauren Groff
I really, really enjoyed this little book, both for the sweetness of the main character and for the lovely, understated writing. You know how I love the flashy word play of a Rushdie or a DFW. This is the complete opposite, but so appropriate for the story that she tells. I wrote a review on the book page since it is an ER ARC, but I know I didn't give myself time to digest and reflect. Sorry. I did what I had time for.
I hope some of the rest of you will find time for the book and come back to chat.

Peggy since the tributes are pouring in, I'll add my own - well done with the Daily Dickens....like a turn of phrase myself even though mostly clumsily so. Dickens was a master and eminently quotable and you are doing great at doing so.

Thank you, Paul! Here's today's - a description of Mr. Chester.

DAILY DICKENS

"A man so gentlemanly should have been--but Fortune is capricious--born a Duke: just as some dukes should have been born labourers. He caught the fancy of the king, knelt down a grub, and rose a butterfly. John Chester, Esquire, was knighted and became Sir John."

So glad to hear the good news about your mum Peggy :-)

#88 I feel very much like I'm following in your footsteps with Barnaby Rudge - I noticed that line in particular when I was reading over the weekend and I almost posted it on my thread but now I'm glad I didn't!

#96 Well, even after more than 2 years in this group I still haven't read anything by Cherryh but Pride of Chanur has just gone on the wishlist with the other recommendations.

#106 I am really enjoying heartily disliking Mr Chester - isn't he wonderful?

Heather, I can't read that without a wry grin. If it were not for Mr. Chester, I'm not sure that I could continue to read *BR*. We do love to hate him! And thanks for joining in the rejoicing for my ma!

knelt down a grub, and rose a butterfly LOL, that tickled me! "Gotta" love Dickens!

You are indeed two lucky women to have each other. All the best to you and your mom. I'm enjoying your Daily Dickens!

Hi, Nancy and Becky. Becky, you may be sure I know just how lucky we are.
Here's the Valentine's Day quotation that I have been saving....

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

DAILY DICKENS

"---and Mr Edward Chester was descried through the glass door, standing among the rusty locks and keys, like love among the roses--for which apt comparison the historian may by no means take any credit to himself, the same being the invention, in a sentimental mood, of the chaste and modest Miggs, who, beholding him from the doorsteps she was then cleaning, did, in her maiden meditation, give utterance to the simile."

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Love it!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so enjoying the Daily Dickens, Peggy, and it is inspiring me to pay much more careful attention to the language in Bleak House than I otherwise might. And one a day would not come close to exhausting the sentences that catch my fancy.

I'm another one who looks forward to the daily Dickens quote. Please keep them coming, Peggy.

Extra hugs for your mother today. So glad for both of you that she's back home!

How wonderful that your mother can live independently in her own house, yet have someone to watch over her!

Loving the Dickens quotes--there are so many gems in his works. Did you know that he created something like 13,000 characters over the course of his working life? This, and lots of other interesting information on Dickens, was included in Nick Hornby's essay on Dickens in one of his "books about books"--can't remember which one.

Peggy, somehow I fell far, far behind on your thread. I am so sorry to hear about your former students. What heartbreak for everyone. So glad to hear that your mother is well enough to return home! That is good news indeed.

I'm also enjoying your daily Dickens -- thanks for sharing those. Hope you're having a good day.

Making the rounds of threads I've fallen woefully behind on. The more substantive, the worse it is... I'll lurk, think this deserves a response, and next thing I know there are a dozen more posts to read...

32: Another memorial service for a former student, this one 26 who overdosed.
Oh, I'm sorry. So painful for family and friends. Been there.

80: I'm off to bed after a long day in which I got my mama home from the extended care facility she's been in since mid-November.
And a good events too, to balance the bad.

96: THE PRIDE OF CHANUR by C.J. Cherryh
I've seen this on several threads now... Maybe a sign to pay attention...

#115: I have this book in German, the translated title would be "My life as a Reader", but amazon found me the English title (LT didn't), it is The Polysyllabic Spree. It's a collection of essays published in "The Believer". I'm going to re-read that essay tonight.

Peggy, I am sorry I haven't posted for a while. I am so glad your mother is back home and doing well!

I am also happily following your Daily Dickens and actually read the first pages of The Pickwick Papers. I only read A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations in the original, the others were German translations. I love his stories, but somehow his English has always caused me more problems than that of other classic authors like Austen or Eliot (today's quote is a good example).

Nathalie, it's always good to see you here. I am awfully behind of threads, having less time to spend here because of my mother's needing more attention. I'm more grateful to have her home than I can say! Today we went to the fitness center and she worked out in the pool for a bit. Actually, the dressing and undressing are harder for her than the aqua-aerobics.
I can totally see why you'd find Dickens dense and hard to follow. Everything parses, but today's quote with its asides and interruptions is bound to be difficult. On the other hand, if you read him, you find those sentences that make you gasp for their beauty or laugh out loud for their humor. I love him. I hope you enjoy *Pickwick*!
qebo, thank you for your sympathy and joy. If you like science fiction, you should definitely get to Cherryh eventually. *Chanur* is a good place to start.
Anne, Deborah, and Donna, I'm glad that you're checking in for the daily dose. This exercise in choosing a post is good for me. I'm not sure that I would persevere with the Rudge Trudge had I not committed myself to finding something worthy of repeating every day. I don't think that historical fiction was my man Charlie's strong point. Donna and Nathalie, thanks for identifying another source for reading about my guy. I don't guess I'll do it anytime soon, but it's nice to know that the book exists. My same thanks for your sharing my joys and sadness.
Hi, Lucy!
I haven't read much today, but I do have tomorrow's DD lined up!

All this Valentines talk- that was so yesterday (for us lucky New Zealanders who get to each day first!).
Great Dickens quote.

Hi, Megan. I'll try to be up to the minute. Meanwhile, here's what I dislike most in Dickens, and I'm giving only a very mild example in order not to completely unwoman (or unman) novice disciples....

DAILY DICKENS

"When and where was there ever such a pump, roguish, comely, bright-eyed, enticing, bewitching, captivating, maddening little puss in all this world, as Dolly!"
and
"And yet here was this same Dolly Varden, so whimsical and hard to please that she was Dolly Varden still, all smiles and dimples and pleasant looks, and caring no more for the fifty or sixty young fellows who at that very moment were breaking their hearts to marry her, than if so many oysters had been crossed in love and opened afterwards."

Smiling and dimpling here.

Here, too : ).

You are both too cunning to be true! (Little pusses!)

Peggy, I think of you when I see Latin and/or Rome-related things. Did you hear about the snow damaging the Colosseum?

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/15/world/europe/italy-snow-damage-colosseum-monuments...

Well, I was truly behind this thread, and so much to talk about!

First, so glad your mother is getting back in shape. As the daughter of a mother who is fading away with dementia, I consider you very lucky to still enjoy your mother's company and intelligence. And of course, she is lucky to have you.

Second, your Dickens discussion prompts me to mention that I have an entire bound set of Dickens, courtesy of a cousin of my mother's who didn't know he was Mom's most hated author and gave her the set on the occasion of her engagement, in 1943 or so. Mom couldn't just give them away, and years later I asked for them when they moved. I do like reading Dickens, but I've only read a few: Nickolas Nickleby, Great Expectations, David Copperfield (I think), Bleak House, A Christmas Carol. I started the Pickwick Papers but must have been in the wrong mood - it seemed trivial and I put it down again.

Third, I was finally going through some family slides this evening, deciding which to get scanned an which to toss. One set chronicled my parents' trip to Rome in 1968. Among Dad's own slides, he had put a dozen purchased slides of the famous sights, including the Colleseum. The Ektachrome he took himself more than 40 years ago has stood the test of time, but the store-bought pictures are completely faded and rust-colored and I tossed them.

The set also included pictures from a trip they took to London the same year, which is astonishing, as my mother was never happy to travel. In 1968 she was quite beautiful. I'm going to stop laughing when people say we look alike!

Oh dear, after catching up on this thread, I have such an urge to read Dickens! I've watched more of the film adaptations than I have actually read of the books -- I feel quite ashamed of myself amongst all you CD folks. Now, where to start...

PS: Love the DD quotes. :)

Linda, thank you! I am so out of things that I would have missed that completely. I will also not get on a hobby horse about extreme weather. I think it's scarey that her in my usually moderate climate, we have had exactly two days of winter when the morning temps were below freezing. I shudder to contemplate the summer.
Judy, glad to see you. I'm sorry that your mother is fading. I watched my aunt slip away - she maintained her personality, but her contact with reality grew weaker and weaker. It's a sad thing to watch. I hope your mom is at least in a mostly happy place. I know how blessed I am to have my mother who is still herself. I am growing increasingly annoyed with health care professionals who look at her age and talk to me without giving Mama an opportunity to establish herself as a competent person. She absolutely is.
I wish that you may give *Pickwick* another try sometime. His contract was for a series of sporting pieces which should have been completely trivial. Dickens soon began to explore other possibilities, but you have to read a bit before you get into them.
How wonderful to have your parents' pictures of Europe! Enjoy your likeness to your mother back when. Alas, there are fewer and fewer people who realize how much I look like my father.
Sarah, I'm glad to see you again! You should definitely yield to the urge to read Dickens!!! The films don't begin to do justice to his writing! Start anywhere. Start with the best - Bleak House!
As for me, no real reading again today --- a few pages through the Rudge Trudge and a little of my November ARC that just arrived last week, Purgatory by Tomás Eloy Martínez. I'd love to know what a Spanish speaker thinks of this translation. Occasionally it reads almost like the translation of something 19th century .......
"'I thought the bit about the spirit of the nation was nice.'
'Nice? Don't talk such drivel. These are grave, important matters. The spirit of the nation is at stake and it can only be saved by force of arms.'
After pages of this, crudities are particularly jarring.
Then, rarely, there is some lovely writing, but I'm not finding a sample right this minute. Anyway, I'm still getting background. The woman's husband died 30 years before the action begins. When she sees him in a restaurant, he hasn't aged a year, but she is 60-something. I'm intrigued at least.

Hi Peggy, loving your Dickens quotes.

Just stopping by to say hello, Peggy! I am having a hard time keeping up with threads. Very sorry about the deaths of your former students. I'm glad that your mother is home and doing well!

Peggy, they were just saying here that this is the warmest winter here in Chicago in the past 18 years. Only 15 inches of snow so far and we've had 40 days since December 1st at 40 degrees or higher.

In contrast, last year, by this point, we had 54 inches of snow and 5 days at or above 40 degrees.

Hi, Bonnie, Terri, and Linda. The weather! If the news were not bad enough, I have read the first two of Kim Stanley Robinson's environmental trilogy (Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, and Sixty Days and Counting). Interesting characters with several interesting story lines and a lot of weather info. I shudder.
Terri, I am having more and more trouble keeping up with threads. Whereas I used to be able to read 4 or 5 a day, now I can get to 2. Part of it is less time to spend here, and the other part is that the 2 I read may have 50+ comments to catch up on. When I read that many, I have to say something whether I have anything to say or not, which makes just one more something for everybody else to read. Lurking isn't much of an option in that case.
Bonnie, you read the cream, but isn't it amazing how even in a pretty bad book, Dickens remains quotable?

DAILY DICKENS
"'Oh mim! oh sir. Raly it's give me such a turn,' cried this susceptible damsel, pressing her hand upon her side to quell the palpitation of her heart, 'that you might knock me down with a feather!'
The locksmith, after glancing at Miss Miggs as if he could have wished to have a feather brought straightway, looked on with a broad stare while Dolly hurried away,..."
"'I am not much of a dab at my exercise,' he said under his breath, 'but I shall get into fewer scrapes at that work than at this. Every man came into the world for something; my department seems to be to make every woman cry without meaning it. It's rather hard!'"

Wonderful choice again!

>132 LizzieD: what you say about keeping up with the threads is so true. Its hard to have the time to be a dedicated follower of many now days:)

That's why when I do my catch-up, I start from the fewest additions and work my way up. Of course, the ones at the top get very long - I just breezed through 140 posts on Donnna828's thread, feeling quite guilty for ignoring her for so long.

Hi Lucy, Megan, and Judy. Guilt, good grief! I feel it, but feel more regret for what I'm missing. We do the best we can.

DAILY DICKENS

"" I have the softest heart in the world, but I can't live upon it. Many a gentleman lives well upon a soft head, who would find a heart of the same quality a very great drawback.'"

DAILY DICKENS
(Description of a country squire)
"He was in the commission of the peace, and could write his name almost legibly; but his greatest qualifications were, that he was more severe with poachers, was a better shot, a harder rider, had better horses, kept better dogs, could eat more solid food, drink more strong wine, go to bed every night more drunk and get up every morning more sober, than any man in the county. --- He was warmly attached to church and state, and never appointed to the living in his gift any but a three-bottle man and a first-rate hunter."

Oh I do like the one at 136. Re weather: we have had almost no snow here this winter and it has been hovering around 1-3C much of the time, which is very mild for us. Today it's snowing to beat the band but I know it won't last. I love our deep, white snows and have missed it this winter. I fear these are the days to come.

I like both of those quotes!

Hi, Tui and Lucy. Our man CD is just plain quotable. I guess I should do more of the ones that drive folks crazy; they're hard to find.

#121 "here's what I dislike most in Dickens" - ugh, yes.

(I can't post serious Dickens without including examples of his sure-fire, make-Lizzie-laugh-out-loud!)

DAILY DICKENS

"'Oh, mim,' said Miggs, 'don't relude to that. I had no intentions, mim, that nobody should know. Such sacrifices as I can make, are quite a widder's mite. It's all I have,' cried Miggs ---"
and
"--- and the dinner being now cold and nobody's appetite very much improved by what had passed, they went on with it, as Mrs. Varden said, 'like Christians.'"

"Even the Catholic gentry and tradesmen, of whom there were many resident in different parts of the City and its suburbs, had no fear for their lives or property, and but little indignation for the wrong they had already sustained in the plunder and destruction of their temples of worship. An honest confidence in the government under whose protection they had lived for many years, and a well-founded reliance on the good feeling and right thinking of the great mass of the community, with whom notwithstanding their religious differences, they were every day in habits of confidential, affectionate, and friendly intercourse, reassured them, even under the excesses that had been committed ; and convinced them that they who were Protestants in anything but the name, were no more to be considered as abettors of these disgraceful occurrences, than they themselves were chargeable with the uses of the block, the rack, the gibbet, and the stake in cruel Mary's reign."

Oh what fun!

A sad day, Peggy. Just saw the obit in the Chicago Tribune for my high school Latin teacher (I took Latin for 4 years), who was my favorite. She was 90 and had been a nun for 72 years.

Linda, I'm sorry. I devoutly hope that when I die, some of my former students will be sad too. I'm not sure that we make women like her anymore. Bless you for remembering her with love and respect!

A facebook friend who never had her but remembered that I spoke fondly of her mentioned it. Besides the four years in class, I remember travelling with her to the state Latin tournament, too. Did you have those?

I think I qualified for state but never got any awards at state. One of my classmates was always tops in state.

We were an all-girls Catholic school adjacent to an all-boys Catholic school (together we comprised one school, actually--it's hard to explain). We shared the gym, auditorium, library, and cafeteria. The only co-ed class was Latin which, needless to say, made it quite a popular class.

Thanks to your recommendation I am now in chapter 6 of The Pickwick Papers, so I think I am officially 'currently reading' it. So far I am enjoying it immensely. It has a hilarious description of 'how an Englishman should run after his hat in a dignified way'.

Linda, we did go to the state Latin convention although none of us trained for certamen. Those were its early days, so I'm not even sure that they had the competitions then except the chariot races. A couple of my friends went to the national convention and had a wonderful time - I don't think it did their Latin any good. "The only co-ed class was Latin..." Canny nuns and fathers!
Nathalie, I'm thrilled that you persevered and are now enjoying *PP*! It is so sunny and so funny that I may have to read it again sooner than planned. Then he shows his other side too....... I love that book!

DAILY DICKENS - will have to wait until I've read a little more

Jeez at my school the only coed class for the longest time was Physics. Most girls chose not to take it -- so it was pretty fabulous - 3 girls 20 boys. I would have taken it anyway, rilly rilly. Actually I was weirdly good at it..... however.... I was genuinely interested in how things work and that was a motivator.

Physics - *groan*. I took it, but I never got anything about it. I don't have an "interested in how things work" bone in my head, more's the pity. I went to the local high school but to a woman's college. I'm grateful for both. After all, at another school I would have missed Truman asking the geometry teacher, "Would your repeat that over again one more time about circumcised circles?" or Ben, deadpan, defining a cat (after the rest of the class had noted, 4 legs, whiskers, fur), "Goes 'meow. pffft." Ah memories!

DAILY DICKENS
"Mr. Dennis received this part of the scheme with a wry face, observing that as a general principle he objected to women altogether, as being unsafe and slippery persons on whom there was no calculating with any certainty, and who were never in the same mind for four-and-twenty hours at a stretch."

"I hate all that flowery description." Do you? Then don't read today's DD - not his best.

DAILY DICKENS
"...the rich light had faded, the sombre hues of night were falling fast upon the landscape, and a few bright stars were already twinkling overhead. The birds were all at roost, the daisies on the green had closed their fairy hoods, the honeysuckle twining round the porch exhaled its perfume in a twofold degree, as though it lost it coyness at that silent time and loved to shed its fragrance on the night; the ivy scarcely stirred its deep green leaves. How tranquil, and how beautiful it was!"

Nice contrast to the other people-centric quotes!

#148 I'm not sure that we ever went to a Latin convention. What we went to was the state Latin tournament, which was a competitive written test. My classmate was always tops in state. I would usually make the "Latin team" but wouldn't be honored at the state level. Once, maybe, I got an honorable mention.

What extraordinary sensory language in this Daily Dickens, Peggy! I can see the influence he was to have on Hardy some years later.

Linda, the written tests were incorporated in the Latin convention pretty early on. I thought it was the same in most states. Lots of fun! I htink it's great that you got an honorable mention!
Nancy, I'm glad you like it. I think he does a better job in other places, but that was the one I just read. I do think it's far superior to current writers who attempt to describe by listing. Am I the only one who goes a little nuts with that?

Hi Peggy! I'm terribly behind in all the threads, just popping in to say hello! :)

>155 LizzieD: Am I the only one who goes a little nuts with that?

No not the only one Peggy.

Always glad for a pop, Chelle! Bonnie, you reassure me that I'm not alone out here in caring about this stuff.....
And now --- gag me with whatever is handy, here's the DD. I just can't resist doing it although it isn't what I'd planned.

DAILY DICKENS
"Poor Dolly! Do what she would, she only looked the better for it, and tempted them the more. When her eyes flashed angrily, and her ripe lips slightly parted, to give her rapid breathing vent, who could resist it? when she wept and sobbed as though her heart would break, and bemoaned her miseries in the sweetest voice that ever fell upon a listener's ear, who could be insensible to the little winning pettishness which now and then displayed itself, even in the sincerity and earnestness of her grief? When, forgetful for a moment of herself, as she was now, she fell on her knees beside her friend, and bent over her, and laid her cheek to hers, and put her arms about her, what mortal eyes could have avoided wandering to the delicate bodice, the streaming hair, the neglected dress, the perfect abandonment and unconsciousness of the blooming little beauty? Who could look on and see her lavish caresses and endearments, and not desire to be in Emma Haredale's place; to be either her or Dolly; either the hugging or the hugged? Not Hugh. Not Dennis."

(Well, me --- I could.)

Me too!

Loving all this Dickens, although I started Oliver Twist last week and it seems to be consistently in the lowest ranked of Dickens books so far. Still, the sarcastic humor within has made me smile more than once and makes up for the slow going that I'm finding it. I have however recorded the Bleak House series that was on TV here recently and am very excited as this is apparently the Dickens I am meant to acquaint myself with!

Hi Peggy, I am slowly making my way through The Pickwick Papers, and I have two questions - maybe you know the answer.

1. Many of the servants confuse their 'w's and 'v's. I always thought that was a German problem. I was mocked for that a lot - "please say 'video' again" - years ago in London. Not in a bad way, it was actually funny and I think I now pronounce it half-correctly :-) .
Do you know why Dickens did that? Is it to show that they are 'lower rank' people? I also don't remember this from Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol which I both read in English.

2. In all the other Dickens I read so far I found the length of the chapters better balanced. Here are some very short ones and then some extremely long ones. Do you know if the chapters for PW are correspondig to the published installments?

Really enjoying your DAILY DICKENS Peggy and my first experience of the great man was The Pickwick Papers which I am now fondly remembering.

woefully behind but picking up again starting here :)

>161 Deern:: Nathalie, I worked with a woman who used to call it "vool" when we all knitted together on our breaks. I still think of it as vool now. That's a good question and I hope Peggy has the answer.

I swear I can hear a Dickens character saying "wittles" (vittles) but I don't know who it is. The convict, perhaps, in Great Expectations?

AHA! Google is a wonderful thing.

Thanks for dropping in, Lucy, Leonie, Nathalie, Paul, Susan, and Tui! Leonie, I loved the BBC's Bleak House, but it's a completely different experience from reading CD's wonderful language! And of course, they couldn't get all the characters in.......
Nathalie, briefly CD loved the Cockneys and is reproducing their pronunciation. Tui, I have no idea about your vool voman, but I'm afraid that I'm going to think of it as vool now too.
And now for CD in the Gothic vein. The owner of a great house burned by the Gordon rioters has climbed at night up into the ruins because somebody seems to be up there. His companion is watching.

DAILY DICKENS
"Terrified to be left there by himself, under such desolate circumstances, and after all he had seen and heard that night, Solomon would have followed, but there had been something in Mr Haredale's manner and his look, the recollection of which held him spellbound. He stood rooted to the spot; and scarcely venturing to breathe, looked up with mingled fear and wonder.
Again the ashes slipped and rolled - very, very softly - again - and then again, as though they crumbled underneath the tread of a stealthy foot. And now a figure was dimly visible; climbing very softly; and often stopping to look down; now it pursued its difficult way; and now it was hidden from the view again.
It emerged once more, into the shadowy and uncertain light - higher now, but not much, for the way was steep and toilsome, and its progress very slow. What phantom of the brain did he pursue; and why did he look down so constantly? He knew he was alone. Surely his mind was not affected by that night's loss and agony. He was not about to throw himself headlong from the summit of the tottering wall. Solomon turned sick, and clasped his hands. His limbs trembled beneath him, and a cold sweat broke out upon his pallid face.
If he complied with Mr Haredales' last injunction now, it was because he had not the power to speak or move. He strained his gaze, and fixed it on a patch of moonlight, into which, if he continued to ascend, he must soon emerge. When he appeared there, he would try to call to him.
Again the ashes slipped and crumbled; some stones rolled down, and fell with a dull, heavy sound upon the ground below. He kept his eyes upon the piece of moonlight. The figure was coming on, for its shadow was already thrown upon the wall. Now it appeared - and now looked round at him - and now -
The horror-stricken clerk uttered a scream that pierced the air, and cried, 'The ghost! The ghost!'"

I think that the Victorians would have eaten this up. I like the sifting of the ashes as somebody walks the ruins, but the rest of it leaves me pretty cold. Anyway, that's a pretty fair early sample of CD evoking the creeps.

Amazing what the word 'softly' does when put in just the right spot!

Call me Ishmael (softly).

>161 Deern:, 164 You have reminded me of my Nan who was from Latvia. She used "W" in place of "V", we grew up hearing her say "wegetables" and the like, and when I think about it I have really fond memories of her!

you know, reading these Dickens tidbits, it struck me that he was just as much of a people-watcher, albeit in a different way, as was Austen...

The thing is, Lucy, that this stuff simply flowed. He typically made very few changes when he edited his work. He had so much going on all the time that real editing would have been impossible, and anyway, he got it right the first time. On the other hand, his set pieces are usually not as good, I don't think. Well ---- "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times..." is (ahem) pretty good.
(Hi, Mr. Ishmael Kitten *laughing very softy*)
Megan, that's a lovely memory --- I have to ask. Did she say, "Latwia" or is the country actually called something else. I wallow in ignorance.
Suzanne, Dickens tried to eat up the whole world, I think. Another thing I love about him is his ability to create a real person in only a sentence or so. I'm thinking of his characters who may appear only once in a book, many of them unnamed. That's real people-watching!
Meanwhile, on the Cockney front, I was just browsing on the OED site (where I failed to sign up for the Word of the Day by e-mail.....done) and found this about my man: "London's great chronicler Charles Dickens, notably with Sam Weller and his father, is unsurprisingly keen on setting down the sound of Cockney speech, most obviously in the substitution of ‘v’ for ‘w’ and vice versa. The pioneering sociologist Henry Mayhew recorded his impoverished or criminal interviewees in much the same style. Dickens at least offers an implied moral judgement on those who drop their aitches and reverse their v’s and w’s: irrespective of their background ‘virtuous’ characters, such as Oliver Twist and Nancy, never stray from standard English. It is left to Sykes and the Dodger to display the author's underworld knowledge. Yet ‘Dickensian’ Cockney was short-lived. By the century's end a new school of Cockney novelists—notably William Pett Ridge, Edwin Pugh, and Arthur Morrison—had emerged. It is ‘their’ Cockneyisms that are far more like what one hears today." I find that interesting because I had never noticed that Nancy speaks standard English. Oliver has some reason for being able to do so. Now, what that moral judgment says about the Wellers is unclear - exceptions that prove the rule, I guess? (And I've only recently become aware that "prove" in that context means "test." Makes a whole lot more sense to me than "establish the truth of.")
For my DD, I've chosen one of those nothing characters to illustrate my point. Mr Haredale needs help getting a murderer to London's police. In the aftermath of the riot, nobody in the village will help him.

DAILY DICKENS
"...he drew out the chaise with his own hands, and would have harnessed the horses, but that the post-boy of the village - a soft-hearted, good-for-nothing, vagabond kind of fellow -- was moved by his earnestness and passion, and, throwing down a pitchfork with which he was armed, swore that the rioters might cut him into mincemeat if they liked, but he would not stand by and see an honest gentleman who had done no wrong, reduced to such extremity, without doing what he could to help him."

Purgatory by Tomas Eloy Martinez

I reviewed this ARC on the book page, and I invite you there if you are curious about my ill-informed, ill-thought-through ramblings. I think that this is an important book, and I look forward to some definitive reviews from brighter stars here. (Larry Riley, where are you?)

DAILY DICKENS

"...he knew he was tortured by anxiety for those he had left at home; and that home itself was but another bead in the long rosary of his regrets."

Peggy: Purgatory sounds wonderful. On my list.

Excellent review of Purgatory, Peggy. Sounds very well thought-out to me!

Beth, I'm eager to hear what you think about Purgatory when you get to it.
Nancy, you're generous. I keep thinking of things I meant to discuss and forgot to put in.

Just slithering through......

Slither back any time, Lucy!

CHANUR'S VENTURE by C.J. Cherryh
I'm not sure why this is a separate little book . It's very short and it ends with two of our favorite characters in imminent danger, so it's impossible not to move right into the next in the series. I'm just very happy to be reading it now when the next one is readily available!

DAILY DICKENS
"...for the prisoners within, seeing from between their bars that the fire caught in many places and thrived fiercely, and being all locked up in strong cells for the night, began to know that they were in danger of being burnt alive. This terrible fear, spreading from cell to cell and from yard to yard, vented itself in such dismal cries and wailings, and in such dreadful shrieks for help, that the whole jail resounded with the noise; which was loudly heard even above the shouting of the mob and roaring of the flames, and was so full of agony and despair, that it made the boldest tremble."

(There it is: an ordinary piece of narration with nothing distinctive except competence.)

>>#171 I think it's indicative of their relative positioning as tragic and comic, rather than a moral judgement.

Nancy's diction does drive me up the wall; although I can accept that putting Sam Weller's patois in her mouth was hardly an option. :)

In the back of one of the Chanur's Cherryh actually explains about why the books came out the way they did -- if I remember correctly -- she wanted to do them that way and they let her, even though they 'prefer' trilogies...... But Venture and Kif (books 2-3) do 'feel' like one book.

And there really are no more Chanur adventures? I do feel that Hallan Meras is given such a build-up, as 'the new kind of hani guy'.... sigh.

I'd actually like a new Chanur book set sometime after Legacy that showed us how Tully and Khym—the two outsiders to a normal hani vessel—have come along after all the years.

Perhaps we can send her a request?

Liz, thanks for your comments with regard to Dickens and Cockney. I was unsettled by a couple of parts of that brief quotation. I would have liked some concrete distinction between Cockney and "underworld" dialect. I buy your distinction between tragic and comic characters, but I also have a sneaking suspicion that the morality consideration played some part with Nancy. It has been a long time since I read *OT*, and I have no recollection of noticing Nancy's speech. Was I that unconscious? Probably so!
Lucy and Tad, I know a group who are pretty much Cherryh-worshipers. Maybe I can inquire as to whether they have ever begged for more Chanur and what the response was. I know that Chanur is the favorite of many of them.
Meanwhile, here's my man CD on capital punishment:

DAILY DICKENS

"... this last dreadful and repulsive penalty, which never turned a man inclined to evil, and has hardened thousands who were half inclined to good"

I sent a letter to Cherryh years ago—back when I still thought letters to popular authors had some chance of influencing their topics. She did reply but I could summarize the content as, "Gosh, thanks for reading my books."

Of popular authors, the most non-generic answer I received was from Robin McKinley who actually took the time to answer what I asked and explain some of her future plans. It was rather a nice letter. Of course...she lied. (I'm kidding; I'm sure it wasn't a lie, just a bad prediction of the future.)

Cherryh-worshippers—that's pretty much me.

That's pretty interesting, Tad. The last time I wrote anything to a famous person (other than a politician!), it was a request for signed pictures of movie stars with which I papered my bedroom walls as a child - all long gone. The response of the Cherryh fanatics was negative.

>171 LizzieD: I have to ask. Did she say, "Latwia" or is the country actually called something else
In Latvian, it's Latvija (said as I would say Latvia), but the 'V' managed to come out in that word. Weird.

Purgatory sounds like a harrowing topic to be reading about. Im not sure I can go there, nice review though :)

Loved your review of Purgatory, Peggy. A thumb from me. I'm continually impressed with your reading range.

I'm laughing at "not sure I can go there" re purgatory. hahaha

Our Peggy is wholly whitty!

simply stopping by to wave hi.

thumb for me as well re. Purgatory!

Greetings to Megan (the witty one and that is interesting about the V sound in the name of the country), Becky, Tui, Lucy, and Linda. I do appreciate visits and thumbs (!) especially now when I'm doing such a poor job of visiting myself.............not visiting myself but I myself doing the visiting to the rest of you, you know. Ain't Engfish a great language?
I am about to finish the *Rudge Trudge*. I think I'll have it done in time to count for TIOLI and maybe earn a point with Dee. I've made a firm commitment, which I just blathered on about on Becky's thread, to read what I want to read for the next little while and not be pressured by group reads or TIOLI or anything else. So I'm sure that it's a goodby to God's Philosophers for awhile and maybe some other stuff. I will start Dombey and Son, but I won't feel the pressure to read it in a month unless the book itself compels me - and it might. I'm going to read the second in the LBJ biography, Means of Ascent, and The Siege and some of the other stuff I already have going. Yippeee! Makes me feel happy just to think about it! Meanwhile, there's still *Barnaby*.

DAILY DICKENS
"But, notwithstanding, and in spite of the melancholy forebodings of that numerous class of society who see with the greatest clearness into the darkest perspectives, the town remained profoundly quiet."

190: I do appreciate visits
Dropping by while I'm, um, "working", to catch the daily Dickens.

Wow, you are seriously on a Dickens binge!!!

Yeah, work and LT... I'm sure there are some studies to be done on productivity rates and the Internet, no?

Wow, how many polysyllables are in that sentence??? Now, I admit that endless pages of complex sentences like that would drive me nuts. Although -- pausing for thought -- I am wondering why Richard hates both Dickens and his stylistic antithesis, Hemingway....

great

Dickens, heavy on the polysyllables. And the long sentences...maybe that's why Im trudging through Great Expectations. I need more than 5 minutes at a time to read it! But once you do read it properly it makes great sense and that is what I like about it.

The thing that amazes me is that this was popular fiction - that CD was the Stephen King of his day. He does tend to polysyllables and long sentences, but none of them are words that we don't know (although having notes to explain 19th century things is useful), and as Megan says, you fall into the flow and go. And I don't know that there are pages and pages like that - or maybe so.... She's right that you need plenty of time to read him. Anyway, being unwilling to attract the Wrath of the Richard, I have never asked him his reasons for hating my man. I would guess they stem more from the sentimentality than from the style, but I certainly don't know.
Anyway, my last DD from Barnaby Rudge (YEEE HAAAAA!) is a typical piece of CD moralizing:

DAILY DICKENS

"'Let no man turn aside, ever so slightly, from the broad path of honour, on the plausible pretence that he is justified by the goodness of his end. All good ends can be worked out by good means. Those that cannot, are bad; and may be counted so at once, and left alone.'"

Happy Day! Not only did I finish *Barnaby* but a copy of Betrayal of Trust arrived from PBS. I'll be spending the rest of the afternoon with Simon and Cat and Co., thank you very much!

BARNABY RUDGE by CHARLES DICKENS
I still think that this is the worst that CD wrote, but I'm glad to have read it again. It is sentimental, was plotted with coincidence for a crutch, is not our idea of responsible historical fiction, and is saved again and again by CD's wonderful writing. I won't have to read this one again - maybe ever, depending on how long I live - but I'm glad I got through it this time.
Every time I think that Dolly Varden is the most objectionable of CD's young women, I have to recall that never once in the whole book does she shake her curls at anybody like Bella Wilfer and that she does grow up eventually unlike Dora Spenlow. The most interesting characters are Sir John Chester, who appears slightly changed as Horace Skimpole in Our Mutual Friend, and Grip the Raven, based on CD's pet raven, Grip.
This is not a review..... I'm just blathering on because I find it hard to believe that anybody other than a real Dickens Disciple will ever want to read this, and what I say is not going to matter to such a person anyway.

Congratulations on finishing BR. Even though it may be the least of Dickens' work, it certainly furnished some entertaining quotes.

Ah, I would have thought CD had a more complex view of the world than that expressed in #196. Too often, the choices we have to make are between two sets of good/bad outcomes. Either one will make us heartsick, and no synthesis seems to be available. If only identifying goodness were as easy as CD seems to be saying.

Hooray! I'm glad the Rudge Trudge is done! As it is unlikely I will ever read it, I am glad for your quotes and remarks.

>>#197 Ah, but when does Bella shake her curls. :)

It's been a long time, but the impression of Bella I carry from OMF is that she is the closest Dickens ever got to writing a real girl - a bit vain, a bit selfish, grumpy about "duty", but bark worse than bite - up until the moment she gets married, upon which she immediately transmogrifies into one of his ridiculous china dolls.

I always thought it must have a horrifying experience for John Rokesmith, waking up married to a complete stranger.

>201 lyzard:: Ah, but I wanted to choke John-boy for putting Bella through such a convoluted scheme to see if she had truly changed from her mercenary ways. I just finished Our Mutual Friend today and thought that part of the book was shameful, though it did make for good reading. I truly fell for Mr. Boffin's acting.

Peggy, I'm taking a break from our Mr. Dickens. I enjoyed spending the month with him and especially liked the idea of your Daily Dickens. I'm glad I have a few other books to read by him so that I don't have to read the dreaded "Drudge" for a good while.

Kudos to you for reading what you want. I pretty much do that, but once I say I'm going to read something, I usually dig my heels in and finish it. My next big challenge will be reading Infinite Jest! It helps to know that you think highly of that book. I've read enough of it to know that it will get better with time.

Taking a bow to Roni and Lucy!
Judy, you are giving me a puzzle as is Liz. Of course, the speaker of DD 196 is Mr. Haredale, who is not necessarily in his remorse for what he did speaking for CD. On the other hand, I suspect that he might be - or might at least be reflecting CD's reading of what will go down well with his contemporary readers. It's hard to think that an adult would be so easily satisfied, so I just don't know.
Liz, yay! You may make it necessary for me to read *OMF* again sooner than I had planned. I have always, always dismissed Bella as another young twit......I see her playing with Rumty's hair and generally making her mother and sister's lives miserable, then gradually learning a little from the Boffins' instructions. Meanwhile, when does Bella shake her curls?

Donna, we cross-posted. I now see that I have to bump *OMF* up..... I'm generally so much taken with the Headstone/Wrayburne/Hexam triangle and the Veneerings and Co., and the Weggs and Venuses that I tend to slight Boffin and Rokesmith. So I definitely need to reread. But first, Dombey and Son!
Donna, the more I read of *IJ*, the more I wanted to read - not to say that it's easy, but it is compelling. And I've never read anything of any genre that conveys addiction and rehab better.

>>#202 I'm blanking on how culpable John was in Mr Boffin's scheme, so I might side-step this argument until I have time for a re-read. :)

>>#203 I know there's a lot of curl-shaking generally amongst Dickens' heroines, though I don't specifically remember Bella doing it. I do remember being struck by the fact that she was often cross and resentful of her situation - and occasionally badly behaved - which was a rather significant contrast to the please-step-on-me attitude of most of her (literary) sisters.

But the more I discuss this, the more I'm growing afraid I've had my memories of the novel warped by the BBC adaptation.

Hmm...shared read?? :)

(Not this month though! I am booked, and more than booked!)

(ETA: Another cross-post! You're already booked too, I see - but maybe later?)

A shared read in the second half of the year sounds like a winner to me, Liz. Let's count on it! And I'm having troubles with John's culpability with Mr. Boffins's scheme too, so I know I need to reread.

Excellent!!

Just lurking and not contributing to the OMF IJ et al conversation. (although it did take me a little bit to figure out what was being talked about :))

Moving OMF up mount Dickens tbr.
I am a bit more than half through the Pickwick Papers, and although I enjoy it very much (4 stars up to now), I'll probably take a Dickens break once it's finished. Dickens books have always been winter reads for me, they start calling out for me around October, but once spring has arrived I want to read something different. Maybe I can deal with the richness of his language only in winter (does that mean I should read Hemingway in the summer?).

Oh, Nathalie, please don't read Hemingway in the summer! (I'm one who'd say, "Don't read Hemingway at all.") Well, if you know you like him, go ahead......
Hi, Megan. I do love those initials, but they drive me crazy on other people's threads so I should know better.
Liz, done. Name the day.
All my DD's will come from Dombey and Son for the next month or so! Here's the set piece that begins paragraph 2. It sets the tone of the book.

DAILY DICKENS
"Dombey was about eight-and-forty years of age. Son about eight-and-forty minutes. Dombey was rather bald, rather red, and though a handsome well-made man, too stern and pompous in appearance, to be prepossessing. Son was very bald, and very red, and though (of course) an undeniably fine infant, somewhat crushed and spotty in his general effect, as yet. ---"

and one more from the early pages -

"They had been married ten years, and until this present day on which Mr Dombey sat jingling and jingling his heavy gold watch-chain in the great arm-chair by the side of the bed, had had no issue.
- To speak of, none worth mentioning. There had been a girl some six years before, .... But what was a girl to Dombey and Son! In the capital of the House's name and dignity, such a child was merely a piece of base coin that couldn't be invested - a bad Boy - nothing more."

(That reminds me of the Romans and their word for "girl" or "sweetheart," puella, which is literally, "little female boy.") (Amber, where are you? Did I make that up, or is it obviously true?)

I was telling my 92 year old mom about your Dickens efforts and quotations, Peggy. She told me she used to reread Pickwick Papers every February and that she misses it (she's legally blind now).

Tui, that touches me. I got my love of Dickens from my grandmother, who used to sit with a copy of *2 Cities* in her lap when she was no longer able to read it. (And for years before that, she would read and read and not remember a word two minutes later.) I was too young and too selfish to offer to read it to her - how I wish I had!