I always love your videos on Charles Dickens. I can listen to you speak about his novels endlessly. This one was really fun and felt like a chat with a friend at a coffee shop.
Fabulous - and a lot of fun! Thanks for doing this. Our Mutual Friend is definitely my favorite, it's "Practically Perfect in Every Way"! I've never loved Great Expectations myself, though I can see it's a great book, and like you I've never cared for Oliver Twist. Pickwick Papers was the first Dickens I read and it still holds a special place in my heart, though as you say it's mainly funny. I 've always loved A Tale of Two Cities and reread it last year. I see all its flaws but I still love it very much - for me the power of the French scenes and Madame Defarge, Sydney Carton, etc, override the weaknesses. Finally, I realized from this video that I must read Little Dorrit! You've brightened my day in what is a difficult week here in the States - thanks again.
We are of the same mind concerning Oliver Twist and Our Mutual Friend, and am always glad to see others spreading the good word! Love your discussion of Dickens's work always, but this was especially fun!
This is the best tier ranking video ever! Precision in what is ranked and analysed and yet, full of fun and enjoyment both on your part and ours. Will keep this close to go book shopping. Thank you!! ❤📚
Very cool to see it laid out visually. It will be interesting to see your ranking 15 to 20 years from now. Now that I'm middle-aged, I see things very differently in life, so that really affects my reading tastes. David Copperfield reigns supreme by a mile in all of those categories, but I doubt I would have felt that way 20 years ago. Next up for me is Pickwick Papers because I skipped it, but now I adore Dickens' humor.
This is so interesting! I’m reading in chronological order and have only made it to Nicholas Nickleby. I’ve really enjoyed all three (including Oliver Twist) which you rank as the three lowest, so I’m excited for what awaits me in his other works!
This was so fun to watch!! I am in the midst of Great Expectations right now and enjoying it so much. But I'm excited to get to his less popular books that are loved so deeply.
I loved this video soooo much. I've been doing my own "winter with Dickens" challenge since 2021 and I still have a lot of his books left to read. But so far that's what my ranking looks like 1. The Pickwick Papers 2. Great Expectations 3. David Copperfield 4. Nicholas Nickleby 5. Barnaby Rudge 6. Oliver Twist 7. The Old Curiosity Shop
My cat (Pip) and I were enjoying your struggles with the tier ranking. If he could talk, I'm sure he would confirm that Great Expectations is, and always has been, Dickens' most perfect and greatest novel, although your liking for several others is accepted and understood. My spouse loves Little Dorrit (she's read it a couple of times) and I have many times watched versions of it and Bleak House with her, with great pleasure. She is also both puzzled and amazed by Edwin Drood. I intend to take another run at reading OMF this fall. Can you recommend a video version of Dombey that you consider best (guessing I might not get to that one)? As a writer, CD just got better and better. What an amazing and unique talent. Your enthusiasm oozes from the screen.
A very great name for a cat. I do kind of think Great Expectations is the most perfect, though I love a few others more. Do you mean a film of Dombey and Son? I've never actually seen one. I gather there is a 1983 miniseries that I should watch sometime.
@@katiejlumsden Interesting. Yes, I meant a film, but I had never seen one either. I wonder why they don't exist? Perhaps it's that certain stories, like Jane Eyre, P&P, Oliver Twist, or GE have ONE character that so dominates the action that it is much easier to dramatize. You have to be really good to dramatize something like Bleak House or Little Dorrit. I'll try to find the D&S miniseries. Thanks. Pip is lovable but kind of stodgy. We also just acquired a new female kitten (named Peaches) but she seems to be channeling a very wired and over-the-top female version of Peachy Carnehan (she's crazy and clever, adorable and curious, like Michael Caine).
I finished the Dickensalong last week and I might have to start again with Pickwick Papers, to come up with some kind of half reasonable order of preference. I had read a few before so the rereads were interesting and how the mind picks up on different things at different times. In particular, I did enjoy Old Curiosity Shop; Nell Trent and her Grandfather. The way Nell tries to cope with the nameless Grandfathers addictions, etc. The child guiding the decrepit is an interesting idea. Also the descriptions of rural and industrial England, and the way Dickens has these cosmic flights when observing nature. I agree with you about the possibilities of Edwin Drood and what might have been. Thanks Kate for setting this up and looking forward to the 10 year Trollope Readalong!-The Trollopolong!😄
Hi Katie. First, well done for your hard work and dedication, making you (today) one of the premier booktubers. My concern, which I wanted to raise with you, is the proliferation of rankings of authors' works by booktubers. There are just too many of these and they have come to detract from discussion and analysis of the works themselves. I make this point here, because I liked the way you structured these "rankings". Nevertheless, I still regard the concept (ultimately) as absurd. For example, to rank Oliver Twist low is not to suggest that it is in any way a bad novel or, relative to the works of many other authors (including from the same period), inferior. My advice: focus ever more on analysing all aspects of works being considered and either move away from rankings altogether or emphasise (instead) the strengths and weaknesses of a set of works (by a single author, etc.). Keep up the good work.
I think a ranking of an author's works can be useful to people who are interesting in that particular author, whether they're early or late on in reading books from that author. A ranking can also make you analyse in a slightly different way, weighing up the values and failures of particular books in comparison to each other. Ranking videos are good fun to make, and I find them good fun to watch, and I personally love the great balance Booktube has of analysis and fun. One of the lovely things about Booktube is that there are so many different kinds of videos for different kinds of watchers and readers.
Well that was fun. I particularly enjoy it when I disagree with you, because it allows me to reassess my opinions. Generally though I'm pretty close to you. Rudge is a better novel than it's generally given credit for, Drood is just wonderfully dark & mysterious & once we've done the Christmas readalong next month I'm going to start my own slightly mega-Dickens re-read. Greetings from Thailand again by the way😃👍
Hi Katie! Thanks for all of the work and passion you put into these videos. I’ve never seen a tier ranking like this one before, with the additional categories across the top! I feel as though at some points, academic professor Katie was struggling with heart-centered book lover Katie, which was interesting! I will choose one of your top five recommendations! By the way, I have Canva and have wanted to make a tier ranking video for a few years because of the ones I have seen on UA-cam (mostly horror books!) and now yours. Question: how do you get your video commentary in the lower corner of the canva screen? Are you recording your self on Zoom and sharing the tier with a speaker image? Sorry to be so not technical! Great video, thanks!
Hi! So, I just filmed myself using my camera - positioned it next to my computer as I was doing the tier ranking - and then overlaid them in my video editing software.
It's just not as much for me! I love Dickens so much, but Oliver Twist is missing some of the things I love so much in his books, and Oliver always falls quite flat as a character for me. He feels much less like a real child than the children we see in Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, etc.
@katiejlumsden It is just that, when I reread OT a few years ago, I suddenly realised what a great realist Dickens was. I'd forgotten that. I am by no means an expert like you. I've only read 5 or so works by him, Bleak House being my favourite. But OT a runner up.
I like OT, but to be honest it is lower in my lists because of the problem of Fagin. It's a nasty antisemitic portrayal even for the time it was written.
I'm so excited to read The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I've had some trouble with Dickens, but the mystery surrounding this one is exciting enough on its own. This was such a fun video!
They is nothing wrong with your tear ranking I absolutely love it prayers and blessings for you and your family love your Aussie family friend John ❤❤❤
I'm on the last book of the Dickens Read-a-long -- The Mystery of Edwin Drood -- which I should finish today. I am planning to rank mine after I complete it. I do know that for me Great Expectations is 1 and Bleak House is #2, but it depends on the day. I think that Joe Gargery is Dickens's most wonderful character and I actually teared up again on my third read of that book. I also wonder -- and am curious what you think about this -- whether there may be a difference between a man's ranking of the books and a woman's, in the average?
Fantastic video. When you went through your categories, I thought, “Wait! How can Great Expectations not be the very top??? Because I know how much you love Our Mutual Friend. I love the mix of hard facts and just plain love here.
Am now looking forward to a Dickens' Christmas, as I await my Amazon package containing his short stories from the 1830s - 40s. As for this ranking - and the Mega project as well ofc - I'm afraid I cannot contribute much, tho I do enjoy it. So, thx!!
Thank you Katie: I defy anyone else to attempt such an exercise in detail and get it done within an hour. Our Mutual Friend assumes its rightful place, of course.
I am the odd one because my absolute favorite is Barnaby Rudge. Dickens addressed the treatment of the mentally ill during this time period. Thank you for sponsoring this read along. I am glad this novel went up in your ranking. It is usually poorly rated.
Bleak House, Little Dorrit, Our Mutual Friend, and Great Expectations all vie for first place in my mind. I can’t ferret out all the various elements as you do, but these four books are at the top of my list. Katie, I simply love the spreadsheets!
I like the debate you had about if this subjective personal ranking is "correct" - the only answer clearly is to keep rereading and reranking all of Dickens every 4 years. I would have ranked Oliver Twist higher for humour just for the very first page about Oliver needing to breathe as it's one of the first Dickens laugh out loud moments that I had. I agree Great Expectations is objectively a very good book but also not one of my favourites.
"The origin of the Pickwick Papers, and the connection that subsisted between him and my husband, was well known to many respectable people. The sketches had even been seen by several parties before we had heard of Dickens, and all our misfortune ought to claim his assistance; he had once claimed our sympathies when he was a struggling author, and had we been as callous to his sufferings the probability is that he would have been where a poor author is, or was, for he was said to be dying, and who was said to have been the author of some of the books which bore Mr. Dickens' name. These I have suppressed, that the feelings of the family should not be wounded. The name of another has been given to me as the author of some of Boz's successful works--I think a Mr. Morris, but whether true or false I can neither affirm nor deny. People will talk of Mr. Dickens and I cannot help hearing."--Jane Seymour, widow of Dickens' first illustrator, Robert Seymour, in "The Origin of 'The Pickwick Papers,'" page 7.
Wow! This was excellent! I feel bad for A Tale of Two Cities though, I loved it but of course, I haven't read every Dickens yet and I haven't reread it yet so, my opinion could change in the future, who knows 😅
Katie you left out one significant Dickensian category,namely the gothic,even though you have the umbrella designation of atmosphere. Even what you consider his lesser works are brilliant in themselves,such as Oliver Twist.The real problem is what to leave outside the top five,a near impossible task.But I certainly rate Little Dorrit and Our Mutual Friend very highly.Yet unfinished or not The Mystery Of Edwin Drood is my number one.
Yes, gothic came under atmosphere for me. I love how he uses the gothic. Yes, you're quite right - how to know what to leave outside the top five? I think my top five would include the five in my top five, plus Edwin Drood and Barnaby Rudge 😂
Great video! Though of course you rank things differently to how I do lol - even with categories, how we rate things is all so tied to our own preferences and interests and experiences... e.g. if I had had gender as a category (which I didn't) I would have probably ranked Nicholas Nickleby higher than you did for Kate's experience of sexual harassment including sexual harassment in the workplace... but that's also not fun to read about so if it's not an actually interesting subject to people I can understand why it may not balance out the more iffy gender elements in NN like the arguably insulting depiction of and interpretation of women like Mrs Nickleby...
Yes, I get very cross with the depiction of Mrs Nickleby and also with how entirely bland Madeline Bray is. But you're right that Kate's story has some interesting elements there.
I love how you are both passionately methodical and passionately subjective here. So you!
Nicely put!
Very important to follow Dickens and have a good balance 😄
I always love your videos on Charles Dickens. I can listen to you speak about his novels endlessly. This one was really fun and felt like a chat with a friend at a coffee shop.
Thanks so much :)
Fabulous - and a lot of fun! Thanks for doing this.
Our Mutual Friend is definitely my favorite, it's "Practically Perfect in Every Way"! I've never loved Great Expectations myself, though I can see it's a great book, and like you I've never cared for Oliver Twist. Pickwick Papers was the first Dickens I read and it still holds a special place in my heart, though as you say it's mainly funny. I 've always loved A Tale of Two Cities and reread it last year. I see all its flaws but I still love it very much - for me the power of the French scenes and Madame Defarge, Sydney Carton, etc, override the weaknesses. Finally, I realized from this video that I must read Little Dorrit!
You've brightened my day in what is a difficult week here in the States - thanks again.
Little Dorrit is wonderful - I highly recommend it :)
We are of the same mind concerning Oliver Twist and Our Mutual Friend, and am always glad to see others spreading the good word! Love your discussion of Dickens's work always, but this was especially fun!
This is the best tier ranking video ever! Precision in what is ranked and analysed and yet, full of fun and enjoyment both on your part and ours. Will keep this close to go book shopping. Thank you!! ❤📚
Thank you so much :)
Very cool to see it laid out visually. It will be interesting to see your ranking 15 to 20 years from now. Now that I'm middle-aged, I see things very differently in life, so that really affects my reading tastes. David Copperfield reigns supreme by a mile in all of those categories, but I doubt I would have felt that way 20 years ago. Next up for me is Pickwick Papers because I skipped it, but now I adore Dickens' humor.
Yes, I definitely feel like my feelings on Great Expectations have shifted a lot as I've got older.
This is so interesting! I’m reading in chronological order and have only made it to Nicholas Nickleby. I’ve really enjoyed all three (including Oliver Twist) which you rank as the three lowest, so I’m excited for what awaits me in his other works!
This was so fun to watch!! I am in the midst of Great Expectations right now and enjoying it so much. But I'm excited to get to his less popular books that are loved so deeply.
I loved this video soooo much. I've been doing my own "winter with Dickens" challenge since 2021 and I still have a lot of his books left to read. But so far that's what my ranking looks like
1. The Pickwick Papers
2. Great Expectations
3. David Copperfield
4. Nicholas Nickleby
5. Barnaby Rudge
6. Oliver Twist
7. The Old Curiosity Shop
Love all of this analysis and love.
My cat (Pip) and I were enjoying your struggles with the tier ranking. If he could talk, I'm sure he would confirm that Great Expectations is, and always has been, Dickens' most perfect and greatest novel, although your liking for several others is accepted and understood.
My spouse loves Little Dorrit (she's read it a couple of times) and I have many times watched versions of it and Bleak House with her, with great pleasure. She is also both puzzled and amazed by Edwin Drood. I intend to take another run at reading OMF this fall.
Can you recommend a video version of Dombey that you consider best (guessing I might not get to that one)?
As a writer, CD just got better and better. What an amazing and unique talent.
Your enthusiasm oozes from the screen.
A very great name for a cat. I do kind of think Great Expectations is the most perfect, though I love a few others more. Do you mean a film of Dombey and Son? I've never actually seen one. I gather there is a 1983 miniseries that I should watch sometime.
@@katiejlumsden Interesting. Yes, I meant a film, but I had never seen one either. I wonder why they don't exist? Perhaps it's that certain stories, like Jane Eyre, P&P, Oliver Twist, or GE have ONE character that so dominates the action that it is much easier to dramatize. You have to be really good to dramatize something like Bleak House or Little Dorrit. I'll try to find the D&S miniseries.
Thanks.
Pip is lovable but kind of stodgy. We also just acquired a new female kitten (named Peaches) but she seems to be channeling a very wired and over-the-top female version of Peachy Carnehan (she's crazy and clever, adorable and curious, like Michael Caine).
I finished the Dickensalong last week and I might have to start again with Pickwick Papers, to come up with some kind of half reasonable order of preference. I had read a few before so the rereads were interesting and how the mind picks up on different things at different times. In particular, I did enjoy Old Curiosity Shop; Nell Trent and her Grandfather. The way Nell tries to cope with the nameless Grandfathers addictions, etc. The child guiding the decrepit is an interesting idea. Also the descriptions of rural and industrial England, and the way Dickens has these cosmic flights when observing nature. I agree with you about the possibilities of Edwin Drood and what might have been. Thanks Kate for setting this up and looking forward to the 10 year Trollope Readalong!-The Trollopolong!😄
One novel a month would take us four years. 😂
this ranking is so scientific l love it
Another brilliant video Katie,thank you. Our Mutual Friend is always number one for me.
My favourite is David copperfield 😊
Hi Katie. First, well done for your hard work and dedication, making you (today) one of the premier booktubers. My concern, which I wanted to raise with you, is the proliferation of rankings of authors' works by booktubers. There are just too many of these and they have come to detract from discussion and analysis of the works themselves. I make this point here, because I liked the way you structured these "rankings". Nevertheless, I still regard the concept (ultimately) as absurd. For example, to rank Oliver Twist low is not to suggest that it is in any way a bad novel or, relative to the works of many other authors (including from the same period), inferior. My advice: focus ever more on analysing all aspects of works being considered and either move away from rankings altogether or emphasise (instead) the strengths and weaknesses of a set of works (by a single author, etc.). Keep up the good work.
I think a ranking of an author's works can be useful to people who are interesting in that particular author, whether they're early or late on in reading books from that author. A ranking can also make you analyse in a slightly different way, weighing up the values and failures of particular books in comparison to each other. Ranking videos are good fun to make, and I find them good fun to watch, and I personally love the great balance Booktube has of analysis and fun. One of the lovely things about Booktube is that there are so many different kinds of videos for different kinds of watchers and readers.
The most thoughtful book ranking on booktube❤
Well that was fun. I particularly enjoy it when I disagree with you, because it allows me to reassess my opinions. Generally though I'm pretty close to you. Rudge is a better novel than it's generally given credit for, Drood is just wonderfully dark & mysterious & once we've done the Christmas readalong next month I'm going to start my own slightly mega-Dickens re-read. Greetings from Thailand again by the way😃👍
Do you think you'd like to do a read along for his nonfiction works in november?
Not this year - I've got plenty of other things to read, and a Christmas Dickens readalong first, but maybe another year.
I really enjoyed this!
This is amazing!
Hi Katie! Thanks for all of the work and passion you put into these videos. I’ve never seen a tier ranking like this one before, with the additional categories across the top! I feel as though at some points, academic professor Katie was struggling with heart-centered book lover Katie, which was interesting! I will choose one of your top five recommendations! By the way, I have Canva and have wanted to make a tier ranking video for a few years because of the ones I have seen on UA-cam (mostly horror books!) and now yours. Question: how do you get your video commentary in the lower corner of the canva screen? Are you recording your self on Zoom and sharing the tier with a speaker image? Sorry to be so not technical! Great video, thanks!
Hi! So, I just filmed myself using my camera - positioned it next to my computer as I was doing the tier ranking - and then overlaid them in my video editing software.
@ Thank you for your help!
I will never understand why Oliver Twist is in last place. It is SUCH! a great book - almost perfect in any way.😢😮😵💫💔
It's just not as much for me! I love Dickens so much, but Oliver Twist is missing some of the things I love so much in his books, and Oliver always falls quite flat as a character for me. He feels much less like a real child than the children we see in Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, etc.
@katiejlumsden It is just that, when I reread OT a few years ago, I suddenly realised what a great realist Dickens was. I'd forgotten that. I am by no means an expert like you. I've only read 5 or so works by him, Bleak House being my favourite. But OT a runner up.
I like OT, but to be honest it is lower in my lists because of the problem of Fagin. It's a nasty antisemitic portrayal even for the time it was written.
I just had the best hour of cleaning ever with this on in the background! This video was SO fun :)
Thanks so much, Jennifer!
This is fantastic!!
I'm so excited to read The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I've had some trouble with Dickens, but the mystery surrounding this one is exciting enough on its own. This was such a fun video!
It's amazing!
They is nothing wrong with your tear ranking I absolutely love it prayers and blessings for you and your family love your Aussie family friend John ❤❤❤
I'm on the last book of the Dickens Read-a-long -- The Mystery of Edwin Drood -- which I should finish today. I am planning to rank mine after I complete it.
I do know that for me Great Expectations is 1 and Bleak House is #2, but it depends on the day. I think that Joe Gargery is Dickens's most wonderful character and I actually teared up again on my third read of that book.
I also wonder -- and am curious what you think about this -- whether there may be a difference between a man's ranking of the books and a woman's, in the average?
Fantastic video. When you went through your categories, I thought, “Wait! How can Great Expectations not be the very top??? Because I know how much you love Our Mutual Friend.
I love the mix of hard facts and just plain love here.
(Melanie here) Maybe you should have given "Enjoyment" double or triple points :) Then your ranking might be more satisfying haha
Good idea for next time!
Am now looking forward to a Dickens' Christmas, as I await my Amazon package containing his short stories from the 1830s - 40s. As for this ranking - and the Mega project as well ofc - I'm afraid I cannot contribute much, tho I do enjoy it. So, thx!!
Great! It always makes me feel like reading more and more Dickens 😅
This was fun to watch.
Ive just recently gotten back into Victorian literature so this video came out at a great time :))
I love listening to Dicken's on audio. I listening to Barnaby Rudge for Victober!
Thank you Katie: I defy anyone else to attempt such an exercise in detail and get it done within an hour. Our Mutual Friend assumes its rightful place, of course.
Thank you Katie!
I am the odd one because my absolute favorite is Barnaby Rudge. Dickens addressed the treatment of the mentally ill during this time period. Thank you for sponsoring this read along. I am glad this novel went up in your ranking. It is usually poorly rated.
I do think Barnaby Rudge is just fantastic!
Bleak House, Little Dorrit, Our Mutual Friend, and Great Expectations all vie for first place in my mind. I can’t ferret out all the various elements as you do, but these four books are at the top of my list. Katie, I simply love the spreadsheets!
Bleak House is by far my favourite. Little Dorrit is my 2nd choice.
Four great books to have as your favourites!
I like the debate you had about if this subjective personal ranking is "correct" - the only answer clearly is to keep rereading and reranking all of Dickens every 4 years.
I would have ranked Oliver Twist higher for humour just for the very first page about Oliver needing to breathe as it's one of the first Dickens laugh out loud moments that I had. I agree Great Expectations is objectively a very good book but also not one of my favourites.
"The origin of the Pickwick Papers, and the connection that subsisted between him and my husband, was well known to many respectable people. The sketches had even been seen by several parties before we had heard of Dickens, and all our misfortune ought to claim his assistance; he had once claimed our sympathies when he was a struggling author, and had we been as callous to his sufferings the probability is that he would have been where a poor author is, or was, for he was said to be dying, and who was said to have been the author of some of the books which bore Mr. Dickens' name. These I have suppressed, that the feelings of the family should not be wounded. The name of another has been given to me as the author of some of Boz's successful works--I think a Mr. Morris, but whether true or false I can neither affirm nor deny. People will talk of Mr. Dickens and I cannot help hearing."--Jane Seymour, widow of Dickens' first illustrator, Robert Seymour, in "The Origin of 'The Pickwick Papers,'" page 7.
Wow! This was excellent! I feel bad for A Tale of Two Cities though, I loved it but of course, I haven't read every Dickens yet and I haven't reread it yet so, my opinion could change in the future, who knows 😅
Thank you! I do like A Tale of Two Cities, but the characterisation just isn't as strong for me. But any Dickens is a great book!
I really enjoyed Oliver Twist but I don't worry about all those categories. 😊😊
Katie you left out one significant Dickensian category,namely the gothic,even though you have the umbrella designation of atmosphere. Even what you consider his lesser works are brilliant in themselves,such as Oliver Twist.The real problem is what to leave outside the top five,a near impossible task.But I certainly rate Little Dorrit and Our Mutual Friend very highly.Yet unfinished or not The Mystery Of Edwin Drood is my number one.
Yes, gothic came under atmosphere for me. I love how he uses the gothic. Yes, you're quite right - how to know what to leave outside the top five? I think my top five would include the five in my top five, plus Edwin Drood and Barnaby Rudge 😂
Great video! Though of course you rank things differently to how I do lol - even with categories, how we rate things is all so tied to our own preferences and interests and experiences... e.g. if I had had gender as a category (which I didn't) I would have probably ranked Nicholas Nickleby higher than you did for Kate's experience of sexual harassment including sexual harassment in the workplace... but that's also not fun to read about so if it's not an actually interesting subject to people I can understand why it may not balance out the more iffy gender elements in NN like the arguably insulting depiction of and interpretation of women like Mrs Nickleby...
Yes, I get very cross with the depiction of Mrs Nickleby and also with how entirely bland Madeline Bray is. But you're right that Kate's story has some interesting elements there.
Oh.
Goodness.
Great Expectations and then Bleak House on top with Tale of Two Cities and Hard Times on the bottom.
Maybe. Today, anyway.
Still love Pickwick best.
It is absolutely hilarious.
_Drood_ 👍