It seems weird to me that people would criticize Dickens for being sentimental. Meanwhile, literary fiction today seems to be a competition on who can write the saddest, most depressing picture of life one can dream up.
You are going to have to justify your comment because it comes across to me as absurd since there are so many new fiction books out there of all sorts. So, I'm guessing that you only read the ones that you complained about and seem to believe that their genre is the only one that has new additions.
@decimustv4257 I'm not referring to all fiction, just what has been termed "literary fiction" in modern bookish communities. In the book circles I frequent, it's fairly universally agreed upon that the books tagged as "literary" are predominantly incredibly depressing. Otherwise, they are probably classified as something else: romance, coming of age, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, contemporary, etc. And I'm not nessecarily criticizing any book for being sad. Sadness and depressing things ARE parts of life. It's reasonable and sometimes beautiful to write about it. Moreso, I'm commenting on the fact that it's popular, pervasive, common, or something in the vicinity of those things, so it seems strange to me that someone would criticize Dickens for the same thing. Particularly since literary fiction tends to be most admired by people that one might call 'academic' or 'pretentious'; the same descriptions that lovers of Classics are often associated with.
Wow, thank you! That's so lovely for you to share that. I hope that you students don't mind my ramblings! You have my deepest respect for being a teacher. A very noble profession. 😀❤️
You are simply a joy to listen to. I cried at the end of this Dickens one! In a good way, ha! You do not ramble in the slightest. Every word is steeped in gravity and insight. The head at my school loves Dickens too so I shall be sharing with him.
I hated reading as a child (because of dyslexia), but I loved the rich world of Dickens and his novels helped me overcome my distaste for reading. Now I listen to audio books and have just finished a year long quest to listen to all of his works (mostly read by Mil Nicholson for LibreVox). They are so vivid, so insightful, and so wickedly funny.
Mil N is a delight to listen too. She has made the stories come alive. I completely forgot I'm multitasking __listening AND following along with my book.
I was cleaning the kitchen and listening to Little Dorrit when this popped up. I stopped immediately to listen to you Tristan and thoroughly enjoyed this presentation. I have forwarded it to a son, and friend who just yesterday was talking with me about needing to reread Dickens. Your summary is so beautiful!
Your tribute to Charles Dickens is masterful. Every word and image is perfection. Thank you for this very satisfying way to enjoy my Saturday morning!! You are delightful company.❤❤❤
Thank you for honouring Dickens who is, as you effectively demonstrate, much more than a writer; he is a hero, and advocate for the poor, the little and the children. He makes them beautiful and worthy of love. Your ending words and images are powerful, as Dickens deserve. My favorite of all your videos. Thank you.
As cliché as it is, I read A Christmas Carol every year around the holiday season. I find that, even though I know the story very well at this point, the message is one that will never be irrelevant. We always need to hear it, and maybe that's why it's remained as popular and beloved as it has. You're absolutely right that Dickens saw what was wrong with the world and used the talent and skill available to him to correct it. But I just love his storytelling as well. I liken his writing to a Norman Rockwell painting- it's realistic, but it's stylised, there's character there, more than real life. It's vivid, and that makes it memorable. I will never stop loving his writing. Thank you for your perspective, I really enjoyed it.
I started reading Pickwick Papers and immediately started ordering all his writing. It is my quest to read everything he wrote in order of publication. I don't know if I'll be able to do that exactly, but I will try. I love him.
Great video! I do think people often find Dickens confusing because they except classics to be ‘serious’ when Dickens was mostly trying to be fun. Pantomime is a great way of looking at it.
I want to thank you for inspiring my eldest to get back into reading. I came across one of your videos a few months back, thought I'd play it in the background, and a few minutes in I was hooked. My eldest daughter was too. She'd become disenchanted with books (felt fed up with having YA recommendations blasted at her non-stop), and now she's reading Dostoevsky, Oscar Wilde, and H.G Wells at 13 years of age. She's about to start reading Dickens, so this video appeared at the right time. Your enthusiasm is infectious and I really can't thank you enough ❤
Thank you thank you thank you! A few decades ago my former father-in-law told me that Dickens was paid by the word blah blah blah. I don't know why I ever believed him! Never saw him read anything, not even a newspaper. Shows you how words can affect a young person's future. Fortunately my own father was a fan of Dickens so I have carted my copies around and thanks to you I will be reading all that I have THEN I shall head off to the library for the rest. You sir have opened my eyes to some great literature that was right under my nose.
Wonderful video. Puts Dickens in absolute context. I’ve recently read Dombey and Son and oh the superb example of a pantomime villain that is James Carker with his “two rows of perfect glistening teeth…it was impossible to escape observation of them, for he showed them whenever he spoke….” I’ve always found that reading Dickens aloud or even silently to yourself is a great help.
This was one of the best videos you’ve ever presented. Charles Dickens is one of my favorite novelists. I have read many of his novels and have just finished Our Mutual Friend which I thoroughly enjoyed. I totally agree with all the ways you described how to enjoy his novels. I especially identified with the importance of thinking as a child. Forty years of teaching young students gave me an appreciation of how children think and perceive their world. Thanks for your wonderful tribute to a great novelist.😊
That was amazing. Tristan. I live in the United States where it seems that waves of hatred have been unleashed and threaten to overwhelm all efforts at kindness and compassion. In times like these, Dickens is more important than ever. I’m going to print out your final comments in tribute and keep them handy to keep reminding myself of the enduring and universal obligations we have to each other. Thank you.
Thank you Mr. Tristan. That was beautiful. I love Dickens, but after hearing you speak of him with such awe, I want more of Dickens, and will read him mouth agape. Love the beard. ❤❤❤❤❤
I hate it when Dickens is accused of sentimentality. Like you point out in your video, it comes as a response to hardship and brutality and in my opinion is very appropriate. I was Just reading the first chapter of Little Dorrit which depicts the harsh reality of a prisoners life, when your video appeared. Great video. Thank you.
As a blind American who's come across several recordings of his works via both Audible and UA-cam, well done. Am considering buying a recording of Our Mutual Friend, and one of Little Dorrit in the future.
Tristan I smiled all the way through this because your joy shone through. I've enjoyed reading Dickens for many years, but I learned some new insights from you today. Thank you.
I am french and started reading dickens at university: great expectations, dombey and son , David copperfield. But now I reread them all ...with hard times..a tale ofvtwo cities. I also read several of dickens biographies...and so far, my favourite character is mrs Betsy Trotwood in David Copperfield. I really love this woman, her courage, her optimism her stamina, her generosity, her total disregard of conventions....thank You mr Dickens
If there is perfection, this was it. Tristan, you did an amazing job with this video. Dickens was who guided me into reading. One of my teachers in elementary school had a set of "important" books, adult books we were encouraged to read. I took home David Copperfield as my choice. It took me quite awhile to read it but it opened the world of books for me. I've read this book three times. The last time was in 2019. I was confined to bed for a week and I picked up David Copperfield with no real intention of reading it. As soon as I read the first paragraph, I was hooked. I read it during the week I was bedridden. And, when I came to the end of the book, reading David's thoughts after Dora died, I cried. I could not believe how I was moved by Dicken's words. Needless to say, I fell in love with his writing from the time of my first reading him. To experience him in later life so importantly justified why he has always been one of my favorite authors. In your video you spoke of sentimentality and you coupled it with the word humanity. I am so glad you addressed this topic. A reader must be aware of the importance of what humanity is in order to understand Dicken's books. I consider him to be the most compassionate writer I've ever read. You gave examples of what he wanted people to see, what they needed to understand in order to correct social ills. We live in a world dictated to us in sound bites. Many have lost the ability to feel. When we don't feel, we don't care. Dickens did care. And, he purposefully used words to penetrate our hearts so we will feel something, something outside of our own selves. When this happens, we can effect change, a change that corrects wrongs. Thank you, Tristan, for this video. It was incredible.
I've read some good classic writers but I still find Dickens standing at the pinnacle of all the good writers. He's that good and really hard to compare with other good writers.
Your video in which you read the opening of Dombey and Son made me go and devour it. Now, again, I feel myself in need of a draught of Dickens. Thank you for such a heartfelt presentation❤️
Thank you So much for this video! I love Charles Dickens. I focused on Victorian Literature when studying for my Masters Degree. He is so iconic. You should read The Artful Dickens: The Tricks and Ploys of the Great Novelist by John Mullan! He is such a good scholar on Dickens :)
Dicken's writing was vivid. Before writing a scene, he went to the large mirror in his room and spoke the words of his planned dialogue using those character's voices. He honed it to make it sound right, and be theatrical. In his public appearances, he had a large wooden frame that he stood inside. There were lights on the frame to illuminate him. He would read out scenes, imitating the character's voices, Even women and children characters. There are newspaper reviews of his performance that say that sometimes a woman in the audience would faint during an especially dramatic scene, such as Shylock shouting words and then falling off the rope hanging down from the rooftop near the end of Oliver Twist.
I have read a few of Dickens's novels long ago, but just last week decided to read all of them in publication order. I just started with The Pickwick Papers and I am enjoying every bit of it. I can't wait to read them all...some again with a different mindset, and some for the first time. Fantastic video! You are the best!!!❤
Superb! Thank you 🙏🏻 for your expert presentation and deep insight into Dickens - I will be drawing on your perspective the next time I read/listen/watch Dickens.
What a lovely video! I'm on a bit of a Dickens spree at the moment, and the more of his work I read, the more I love it. I've just finished 'Bleak House' and am now embarking on 'Our Mutual Friend'. His books are indeed colourful, entertaining and thought-provoking, and he is an absolute genius with language.
This could not have come at a better time ! I purchased a beautiful edition of Great Expectations yesterday and I’m looking forward to getting to know it ❤
I love the classics, and objectively I know that Dickens is a great author and his books are absolutely worth reading. But despite trying several of them over the course of many years, I've just never been able to get into it with any real engagement or enjoyment. However, I do keep trying periodically because I do believe in him, and the insights presented here make me feel hopeful that I'll really "get it" the next time I try. It's certainly the best elucidation of his work and thought processes that I've ever heard. Thank you for taking the time to explain it all so eloquently.
Outstanding explanation and an in depth explanation of why stories, particularly Dickens’ stories, were and are so valuable, even today. Well done Tristan!!!
My favorite Dickens is Great Expectations, though I prefer the original ending before Dickens was convinced to change it (unfortunately most publications print the changed ending). I think Great Expectations is also a great place to start if one has never read Dickens. It's relatively short for a Dickens novel, but it's also a great story. Finally, forgetting the religious nature of the website, there's a great guide to Great Expectations written by the literary scholar Leland Ryken on The Gospel Coalition website titled "Christian Guides to the Classics: Great Expectations".
@@ТатьянаГубина-и1и Two Endings One of the most curious aspects of Great Expectations is the existence of alternative endings, whose relative merits and implications have been passionately debated by critics, ever since the unused ending was published as a footnote in Forster’s 1870 biography of Dickens. (The most detailed study of the case is ‘Putting an End to Great Expectations’, an essay by Edgar Rosenberg, published in the Norton Critical Edition.) Many writers have revised or tweaked details of the text after publication - notably Henry James - but it’s hard to think of another major novel in English which presents this delicate problem. Dickens sent the last chapters of Great Expectations to the printer in the middle of June 1861. To relax after his efforts, he then went to stay with his wealthy aristocratic friend Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a hugely popular crime and historical novelist (no longer read today) whom he greatly admired and respected. Dickens decided - we don’t know precisely why - to show his host the last chapters of Great Expectations in proof. What Bulwer-Lytton read in the final paragraphs was this: Pip hears that the oafish Bentley Drummle has died and Estella has quietly remarried a country doctor. One day, two years after his return from the east, I was in England again - in London, and walking along Piccadilly with little Pip - when a servant came running after me to ask would I step back to a lady in a carriage who wished to speak to me. It was a little pony carriage, which the lady was driving; and the lady and I looked sadly enough on one another. “I am greatly changed, I know, but I thought you would like to shake hands with Estella too, Pip. Lift up that pretty child and let me kiss it!” (She supposed the child, I think, to be my child.) I was very glad afterwards to have had the interview; for, in her face and in her voice, and in her touch, she gave me the assurance, that suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham’s teaching, and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be. Bulwer-Lytton advised Dickens against this downbeat ending - again, on what precise grounds we do not know for certain. ‘Bulwer was so very anxious that I should alter the end… and stated his reasons so well, that I have resumed the wheel, and taken another turn at it. Upon the whole I think it is for the better’ was his explanation for the change in a letter to Wilkie Collins, and one can only assume that Bulwer-Lytton had told Dickens, in the manner of a Hollywood producer, that the public would crave a more positive outcome to the novel. The substitution, almost always selected in modern editions, has Pip and the widowed Estella meeting in the grounds of Satis House. “I little thought”, said Estella, ‘that I should take leave of you in taking leave of this spot. I am very glad to do so.” “Glad to part again, Estella? To me, parting is a painful thing. To me, the remembrance of our last parting has been ever mournful and painful.” “But you said to me, “ returned Estella, very earnestly. “‘God bless you, God forgive you!’ And if you could say that to me then, you will not hesitate to say that to me now - now, when suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape. Be as considerate and good to me as you were, and tell me we are friends.” We are friends,” said I, rising and bending over her, as she rose from the benChapter “And will continue friends apart, ” said Estella. I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her. Just to complicate the matter, the final line also exists in two other versions. ‘I saw no shadow of another parting from her’ has been the standard reading in editions since 1862, presumably authorised by Dickens, but the first editions read ‘I saw the shadow of no parting from her’, while the manuscript reads ‘I saw the shadow of no parting from her, but one.’ The Piccadilly ending has an exquisitely understated and offhand melancholy to it, matched to the tough message that life does not neatly deliver one’s dreams of perfect happiness - all Great Expectations are doomed, even when, like Pip, you have learnt lessons the hard way. Dickens knew this first-hand: in 1855, when his marriage was collapsing, he had been overwhelmed with excitement on receiving out of the blue a letter from Maria Beadnell, the great passion of his youth, whom he had not seen for over twenty years. Their subsequent reunion was a disillusioning disappointment, inasmuch as Maria proved to be a plump and garrulous married matron devoid of her former allure. Estella was Pip’s dream as Maria was Dickens’ - a dream from which he had to wake. The Satis House ending has usually been thought to imply that Pip and Estella walk off into the sunset together. But there is considerable and, I think, deliberate ambiguity to that last line. Although they leave holding hands, Estella has just stated that she wishes to remain alone (“and will continue friends apart”), while a couple of pages previously Pip has told Biddy that he intends to remain a bachelor. Of course, they may be protesting too much, as people do, and in truth mean the opposite. But the joining of hands could be amicable rather than romantic, and what Pip perhaps means in the final line is that their parting in the ruins of the past had been final, because any bitterness or misunderstanding had been emotionally resolved and they did not need to meet again - both can now go onwards into their own separate lives. Had Dickens wanted Pip and Estella to live together happily ever after, he could easily have done what he does at the ends of David Copperfield, Little Dorrit and Bleak House and told us as much. The second ending shows Dickens trying to have it both ways. He didn’t want to betray Pip and Estella with the merry sound of wedding bells followed by the patter of tiny feet which Bulwer-Lytton probably advised, but entertainer that he was, always with one eye on the market, he must also have realised that his sentimental readership wouldn’t have felt satisfied by the bittersweet inconsequentiality of the meeting in Piccadilly. The first edition’s awkwardly phrased ‘I saw the shadow of no parting from her’ does indeed imply marriage, and the manuscript’s ‘I saw the shadow of no parting from her, but one’ is even more emphatic, implying their union unto death. Yet Dickens scratched both of those versions out, and his last thought was to authorise something which allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusion. That said, I still feel the Piccadilly ending is truer to the book’s underlying mood (as does Edgar Rosenberg in the Norton Critical Edition essay). For those who demur, the case for the Satis House ending is forcefully made by Q D Leavis in Dickens the Novelist. exec.typepad.com/greatexpectations/the-two-endings.html
@@philtheo Thank you very much for your kind explanation! Yes, the Piccadilly ending maybe truer to life, but I like the Satis House one better: it gives the reader some hope. Otherwise the novel would have been ABSOLUTELY gloomy!
I think the matter of the intent of the author is important as you point out. The sentimental and two dimensional character criticisms are common trappings for novice writers but are of a different variety when done in service of the story as opposed to being done mistakenly.
This is the first video of yours I’ve seen, and it is brilliant. I have long struggled with Dickens since studying novels like Hard Times and Bleak House when at uni doing English Lit. In the last few years however, I’ve gone back to A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations to give them another go. I decided to grab audiobooks and read along and it was a game changer - Eddie Izzard reading Great Expectations to me and A Tale of Two Cities read by Simon Cowell. Having watched your video, I now also have those three perspectives which will also help me get through the ‘tricky bits’ and rediscover the amazing stories that Dickens tells. I have always loved Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, and am now adding more favourites to my list.
A very moving tribute. I have read every Dickens work and I still find so much more to learn about him (and us) every time I reread his novels. This is a masterful video. Thank you.
Tristan, I have to give you credit, this video was beautiful. I have never read any Dickens, but next year he will definitely be on my list. This video was an incredible introduction. Thank you for spending the amount of time you did in making the video, it truly touched me.
Thank you for a very especial video. About my most favourite writer. I like your videos very much. And your English is so well spoken, I understand every word. I am from Perú.
Your videos are always excellent but this one is truly superb. I am a great lover of Dickens. In fact this month I plan to read Dombey and Son for the first time. Thanks for this informative and beautifully executed video. You're the best!😢
All of your videos are excellent, this one was absolutely outstanding! I shall read Great Expectations again with all this in mind. You have helped me so much to appreciate classic literature. ❤
Oh- what a fantastic presentation. ThanK You, Tristan 👏. I’m a Charles Dickens fan and have always loved his style (unique and of his time). Picking up any of his work , opening the first page is like stepping into a time travel pod and being whisked away to feel, hear, smell, laugh and weep at everything shown to you. Just brilliant.
What a wonderful gift you have given us! I am one of those who have struggled to find my love for Dickens' writing. I've always felt like I would love it if I could just "get it right." Now, I see that I have been approaching his books just as you said, expecting great, deep literature. As our family genealogist, I have never been one to seek a long lost claim to royalty. It is the stories of what life was like that have always drawn me in. For that reason alone, I know I will love Dickens. Thank you for helping me find my way!
I love Dicken's descriptions. He could just change the mood of the scene with one word in a second. One moment it's so serious and the next you're in stitches. Big fan of most of his books, but David Copperfield in particular.
When I read The Pickwick Papers, I always imagined a family gathering in the drawing room after dinner, to listen to the latest installment of the misadventures of the Pickwickians.
Remember reading Oliver Twist over night for a seminar when I studied literature at university (we had so much to read). I do not remember one word of it and have never read anything by him since...perhaps it is time to read something again!
Thank you for this what a masterful discussion about dickens I love dickens my favourite is tale of two cities .all his works are amazing and they are such an insight to Victorian live and times .he was also friends with wilki Collins and I love his writing as well ( they collaborate together in certain perils of certain English prisoners.) Please could you do one of these talks about wilki Collins love this type of content you do a great job thank you .
What a brilliant video this was! I so so enjoyed it. You have reignited my interest in Dickens (he always got shoved to the back of my tbr). Thank you again for a superb video 👍.
I am old and read Dickens decades ago having little to no information about him except his name. Still, I loved the books. I wonder if you have read George Reynolds and his "Mysteries of London". He was inspired by Eugène Sue's "Les mystères de Paris". Sue is one of my favorite writers. Both Sue and Reynolds were the best selling writers of their time in their respective countries.
This was helpful, thank you so much. I'm one of those who, whilst admiring and respecting Dickens' obvious genius as a storyteller and his untrammelled social conscience, has struggled with the verbose and seemingly over-sentimental qualities of his writing. The way you frame it makes so much sense, and you're absolutely right - we should enter wholeheartedly into the author's own perspective, rather than allowing ours to become a judgemental voice in our head, competing with what we're reading. I did find I was getting a glimpse of this when I read Bleak House a while ago, for the first time with Dickens I found I was so pulled into the world he creates in that book, my own inner voice was actually shutting up for once. 😀 I'm about to embark on Great Expectations, so I'm glad I came across this video. ❤
I love this video! Thank you for the study on Dickens. I’ve only ever read A Christmas Carol, but I own others. I’ve wanted to read his works, but I’ve been intimidated. No longer. You have given me reason to believe that Dickens is my favorite author!!
i admit that i have never read a Dickens as i have always been scared reading him thinking it is too hard, but after watching all your videos and also in your patreon group i can't wait to read my first Dickens. Thanks so much Tristan!
Thank-you for a wonderfully informative video Tristan. Charles Dickens is my English Literature hero. For me, he is the only author who has moved me with his deep understanding of the human condition in all forms. I will definitely try the child-like stance that you've described here in future with his books, particularly as I'm currently reading Oliver Twist. I've committed to reading his Top 10 novels in 1 year and loving every minute.! Thanks again for the great insights🙏🏼👍🏼
You are the “Lit-man” I’m so glad I stumbled upon you as I’m beginning my quest to read the classics before I die. Thank you so much for your content. ❤
Thank you for this wonderful video honoring Dickens. I am on my very last one of his novels now, and it has been quite the ride! The end of your video was spot-on and had me a bit emotional! Thank you, Tristan!!
I so deeply appreciate this video. I've read the entire Dickens canon (sadly not yet in order nor paced as they were serialized.) I am a raving fan and agree with all you said. He didn't turn out to be a terrible kind parent to his sons or a good husband. But alas, his work does speak to the future of humanity the way Whitman did. So tragic that he died so young. I hate the criticisms that his women were one-dimensional or that his stories are cheap sentiment. They are attempting to tap our better angels. Bravo for this video. I'm sure it took quite an effort to craft. I will bookmark it and share it every time anyone mentions Dickens. Favorite characters: Quilp and Mdm DeFarge; Favorite novels in no particular order: Nicholas Nickelby (for the romp), Tale of Two Cities (bc I find the story so gripping), Great Expectations (for the incredible wordsmithing) and A Christmas Carol (if its a novel--for its beauty.) Curious if you have read Demon Copperhead and if so, your thoughts. I DNF'd it. I find it belittling to the downtrodden of Appalachia and to David Copperfield. Sure, drug addiction is a rural poverty ill in those mountains but also in New England, and Nevada, and Wyoming and Illinois and Michigan and everywhere. And Kingsolver toys with the reader's emotions in ways that I found very exploitative and unnecessary. We know David Copperfield's step-father is cruel and that David is suffering. That is enough to make the reader care. I'm saddened that Dicken's personal favorite will be forever associated with that Kingsolver grandstander. But I'm a minority opinion. The world has cheered her on. marjorieapple.substack.com
Thank you Tristan for such an excellent video on Charles Dickens. I must begin my rereading of his books with a new eye for understanding. Blessings to you.
This was great . Thank you. So far, I have only read 5 Dickens novels and have enjoyed them all to varying degrees. I would say that there is more nuance in Dickens than some give him credit for. An example of this would be his brilliant portrait of Steerforth in "David Copperfield."
Awesome insights on Charles Dickens. I can never forget the ten year old me, reading and re - reading David Copperfield and later on --- Oliver Twist , and then thinking about all those vivid experiences of worlds within worlds . Yes : we must walk with the author and see the world as they saw it , at that time , with their own magnificent mind's - eye.
This was wonderful! I am getting set to read Nicholas Nickleby for Victober. I will be thinking of what you’ve said as I read. Thanks for such a thoughtful video!
Great video as always Tristan! I seem to have fallen out with reading over the years for some reason but I'm determined to get back into it and am currently reading David Copperfield, which I'm loving!
Thank-you for helping us read Dickens. He was never suggested to me & I don't recall seeing his work in any library or him being mentioned by any teacher. I read Lord of the Rings when I was 11. I was then capable of reading Dickens. I lost out. I can only guess that Dickens was out of fashion in some way in the early to mid 1980s (UK).
It seems weird to me that people would criticize Dickens for being sentimental. Meanwhile, literary fiction today seems to be a competition on who can write the saddest, most depressing picture of life one can dream up.
You are going to have to justify your comment because it comes across to me as absurd since there are so many new fiction books out there of all sorts. So, I'm guessing that you only read the ones that you complained about and seem to believe that their genre is the only one that has new additions.
@decimustv4257 I'm not referring to all fiction, just what has been termed "literary fiction" in modern bookish communities. In the book circles I frequent, it's fairly universally agreed upon that the books tagged as "literary" are predominantly incredibly depressing. Otherwise, they are probably classified as something else: romance, coming of age, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, contemporary, etc.
And I'm not nessecarily criticizing any book for being sad. Sadness and depressing things ARE parts of life. It's reasonable and sometimes beautiful to write about it.
Moreso, I'm commenting on the fact that it's popular, pervasive, common, or something in the vicinity of those things, so it seems strange to me that someone would criticize Dickens for the same thing. Particularly since literary fiction tends to be most admired by people that one might call 'academic' or 'pretentious'; the same descriptions that lovers of Classics are often associated with.
Couldn’t agree more. Personally love a bit of sentimental anyway
Media and politicians use sentiment to steer the populace towards their agendas.
Sentimental is what everyone should have a dose of.
@@AsuraSantoshaevery main character has some big trauma, yeah :’)
I teach English in school and we always listen to your videos. Your passion is infectious. ❤
Wow, thank you! That's so lovely for you to share that. I hope that you students don't mind my ramblings! You have my deepest respect for being a teacher. A very noble profession. 😀❤️
@@tristanandtheclassics6538 well you have in you what any of the MOST inspiring and enthusiastic good English teacher has - well done ✅
You are simply a joy to listen to. I cried at the end of this Dickens one! In a good way, ha! You do not ramble in the slightest. Every word is steeped in gravity and insight. The head at my school loves Dickens too so I shall be sharing with him.
I hated reading as a child (because of dyslexia), but I loved the rich world of Dickens and his novels helped me overcome my distaste for reading. Now I listen to audio books and have just finished a year long quest to listen to all of his works (mostly read by Mil Nicholson for LibreVox). They are so vivid, so insightful, and so wickedly funny.
Mil N is a delight to listen too. She has made the stories come alive. I completely forgot I'm multitasking __listening AND following along with my book.
I was cleaning the kitchen and listening to Little Dorrit when this popped up. I stopped immediately to listen to you Tristan and thoroughly enjoyed this presentation. I have forwarded it to a son, and friend who just yesterday was talking with me about needing to reread Dickens. Your summary is so beautiful!
Little Dorrit ❤
This is a brilliant, brilliant video.
“Please Sir I want some more”
Love from Italy
Your tribute to Charles Dickens is masterful. Every word and image is perfection. Thank you for this very satisfying way to enjoy my Saturday morning!! You are delightful company.❤❤❤
Thank you for honouring Dickens who is, as you effectively demonstrate, much more than a writer; he is a hero, and advocate for the poor, the little and the children. He makes them beautiful and worthy of love. Your ending words and images are powerful, as Dickens deserve. My favorite of all your videos. Thank you.
I absolutely adore Dickens and would actually say that he is one of my top ten authors of all time. Thank you for doing this video.
Magnificent! Tristan is a UA-cam Jewel! A thorough education on literature…….Very well done!
As cliché as it is, I read A Christmas Carol every year around the holiday season. I find that, even though I know the story very well at this point, the message is one that will never be irrelevant. We always need to hear it, and maybe that's why it's remained as popular and beloved as it has. You're absolutely right that Dickens saw what was wrong with the world and used the talent and skill available to him to correct it. But I just love his storytelling as well. I liken his writing to a Norman Rockwell painting- it's realistic, but it's stylised, there's character there, more than real life. It's vivid, and that makes it memorable. I will never stop loving his writing. Thank you for your perspective, I really enjoyed it.
I also read A Christmas Carol every Christmas - think lots of people do too.
I started reading Pickwick Papers and immediately started ordering all his writing. It is my quest to read everything he wrote in order of publication. I don't know if I'll be able to do that exactly, but I will try. I love him.
Great video! I do think people often find Dickens confusing because they except classics to be ‘serious’ when Dickens was mostly trying to be fun. Pantomime is a great way of looking at it.
I want to thank you for inspiring my eldest to get back into reading.
I came across one of your videos a few months back, thought I'd play it in the background, and a few minutes in I was hooked. My eldest daughter was too. She'd become disenchanted with books (felt fed up with having YA recommendations blasted at her non-stop), and now she's reading Dostoevsky, Oscar Wilde, and H.G Wells at 13 years of age. She's about to start reading Dickens, so this video appeared at the right time.
Your enthusiasm is infectious and I really can't thank you enough ❤
Thank you thank you thank you! A few decades ago my former father-in-law told me that Dickens was paid by the word blah blah blah. I don't know why I ever believed him! Never saw him read anything, not even a newspaper. Shows you how words can affect a young person's future. Fortunately my own father was a fan of Dickens so I have carted my copies around and thanks to you I will be reading all that I have THEN I shall head off to the library for the rest. You sir have opened my eyes to some great literature that was right under my nose.
Wonderful video. Puts Dickens in absolute context. I’ve recently read Dombey and Son and oh the superb example of a pantomime villain that is James Carker with his “two rows of perfect glistening teeth…it was impossible to escape observation of them, for he showed them whenever he spoke….” I’ve always found that reading Dickens aloud or even silently to yourself is a great help.
This was one of the best videos you’ve ever presented. Charles Dickens is one of my favorite novelists. I have read many of his novels and have just finished Our Mutual Friend which I thoroughly enjoyed. I totally agree with all the ways you described how to enjoy his novels. I especially identified with the importance of thinking as a child. Forty years of teaching young students gave me an appreciation of how children think and perceive their world. Thanks for your wonderful tribute to a great novelist.😊
Perfect! Dickens's bizarre characters, "wordiness" and sentimentality are the best things about about his books.
That was amazing. Tristan. I live in the United States where it seems that waves of hatred have been unleashed and threaten to overwhelm all efforts at kindness and compassion. In times like these, Dickens is more important than ever. I’m going to print out your final comments in tribute and keep them handy to keep reminding myself of the enduring and universal obligations we have to each other. Thank you.
Charles Dickens has been my favorite author since I was 16 and read Great Expectations in school. I’m rereading The Old Curiosity Shop now. ❤
Thank you Mr. Tristan. That was beautiful. I love Dickens, but after hearing you speak of him with such awe, I want more of Dickens, and will read him mouth agape. Love the beard. ❤❤❤❤❤
I hate it when Dickens is accused of sentimentality. Like you point out in your video, it comes as a response to hardship and brutality and in my opinion is very appropriate. I was Just reading the first chapter of Little Dorrit which depicts the harsh reality of a prisoners life, when your video appeared. Great video. Thank you.
And it helped change society.
Absolutely!
I have no inner child. This explains everything! The larger than life, 2D characters are exactly why I struggle with Dickens. Wonderful video! Thanks.
I struggle with the inner child thing, too, and also struggle with Dickens. But this video makes me want to give it another try.
As a blind American who's come across several recordings of his works via both Audible and UA-cam, well done. Am considering buying a recording of Our Mutual Friend, and one of Little Dorrit in the future.
Tristan I smiled all the way through this because your joy shone through. I've enjoyed reading Dickens for many years, but I learned some new insights from you today. Thank you.
Dickens’s descriptions are brilliant! As solitary as an oyster, as dead as a door nail!
I am french and started reading dickens at university: great expectations, dombey and son , David copperfield. But now I reread them all ...with hard times..a tale ofvtwo cities. I also read several of dickens biographies...and so far, my favourite character is mrs Betsy Trotwood in David Copperfield. I really love this woman, her courage, her optimism her stamina, her generosity, her total disregard of conventions....thank You mr Dickens
🎉🎉🎉
If there is perfection, this was it. Tristan, you did an amazing job with this video.
Dickens was who guided me into reading. One of my teachers in elementary school had a set of "important" books, adult books we were encouraged to read. I took home David Copperfield as my choice. It took me quite awhile to read it but it opened the world of books for me. I've read this book three times. The last time was in 2019. I was confined to bed for a week and I picked up David Copperfield with no real intention of reading it. As soon as I read the first paragraph, I was hooked. I read it during the week I was bedridden. And, when I came to the end of the book, reading David's thoughts after Dora died, I cried. I could not believe how I was moved by Dicken's words. Needless to say, I fell in love with his writing from the time of my first reading him. To experience him in later life so importantly justified why he has always been one of my favorite authors.
In your video you spoke of sentimentality and you coupled it with the word humanity. I am so glad you addressed this topic. A reader must be aware of the importance of what humanity is in order to understand Dicken's books. I consider him to be the most compassionate writer I've ever read. You gave examples of what he wanted people to see, what they needed to understand in order to correct social ills. We live in a world dictated to us in sound bites. Many have lost the ability to feel. When we don't feel, we don't care. Dickens did care. And, he purposefully used words to penetrate our hearts so we will feel something, something outside of our own selves. When this happens, we can effect change, a change that corrects wrongs.
Thank you, Tristan, for this video. It was incredible.
I've read some good classic writers but I still find Dickens standing at the pinnacle of all the good writers. He's that good and really hard to compare with other good writers.
Great Job Tristan. I love and read Dickens because he is sentimental and wordy (lol).
Your video in which you read the opening of Dombey and Son made me go and devour it. Now, again, I feel myself in need of a draught of Dickens. Thank you for such a heartfelt presentation❤️
Thank you So much for this video! I love Charles Dickens. I focused on Victorian Literature when studying for my Masters Degree. He is so iconic. You should read The Artful Dickens: The Tricks and Ploys of the Great Novelist by John Mullan! He is such a good scholar on Dickens :)
A simple and humble thank you for this lovely presentation on Mr. Dickens.
Dicken's writing was vivid. Before writing a scene, he went to the large mirror in his room and spoke the words of his planned dialogue using those character's voices. He honed it to make it sound right, and be theatrical.
In his public appearances, he had a large wooden frame that he stood inside. There were lights on the frame to illuminate him. He would read out scenes, imitating the character's voices, Even women and children characters.
There are newspaper reviews of his performance that say that sometimes a woman in the audience would faint during an especially dramatic scene, such as Shylock shouting words and then falling off the rope hanging down from the rooftop near the end of Oliver Twist.
I have read a few of Dickens's novels long ago, but just last week decided to read all of them in publication order. I just started with The Pickwick Papers and I am enjoying every bit of it. I can't wait to read them all...some again with a different mindset, and some for the first time. Fantastic video! You are the best!!!❤
Excellent portrait of the genius. Without the misery and hurt he experienced, he wouldn’t be the epitome of the great reformer!
Superb! Thank you 🙏🏻 for your expert presentation and deep insight into Dickens - I will be drawing on your perspective the next time I read/listen/watch Dickens.
What a lovely video! I'm on a bit of a Dickens spree at the moment, and the more of his work I read, the more I love it. I've just finished 'Bleak House' and am now embarking on 'Our Mutual Friend'. His books are indeed colourful, entertaining and thought-provoking, and he is an absolute genius with language.
This could not have come at a better time ! I purchased a beautiful edition of Great Expectations yesterday and I’m looking forward to getting to know it ❤
❤ Great Expectations ❤
This is exactly what I needed! Just bought three of his books and I felt lost. Thank you!!
Also, the beard fits you incredibly well, looks fantastic 🔥
This was beautiful! I’m dropping everything to read some dickens today
I love the classics, and objectively I know that Dickens is a great author and his books are absolutely worth reading. But despite trying several of them over the course of many years, I've just never been able to get into it with any real engagement or enjoyment. However, I do keep trying periodically because I do believe in him, and the insights presented here make me feel hopeful that I'll really "get it" the next time I try. It's certainly the best elucidation of his work and thought processes that I've ever heard. Thank you for taking the time to explain it all so eloquently.
Outstanding explanation and an in depth explanation of why stories, particularly Dickens’ stories, were and are so valuable, even today. Well done Tristan!!!
My favorite Dickens is Great Expectations, though I prefer the original ending before Dickens was convinced to change it (unfortunately most publications print the changed ending). I think Great Expectations is also a great place to start if one has never read Dickens. It's relatively short for a Dickens novel, but it's also a great story. Finally, forgetting the religious nature of the website, there's a great guide to Great Expectations written by the literary scholar Leland Ryken on The Gospel Coalition website titled "Christian Guides to the Classics: Great Expectations".
And what was the original ending of " Great expectations"?
@@ТатьянаГубина-и1и Two Endings
One of the most curious aspects of Great Expectations is the existence of alternative endings, whose relative merits and implications have been passionately debated by critics, ever since the unused ending was published as a footnote in Forster’s 1870 biography of Dickens. (The most detailed study of the case is ‘Putting an End to Great Expectations’, an essay by Edgar Rosenberg, published in the Norton Critical Edition.) Many writers have revised or tweaked details of the text after publication - notably Henry James - but it’s hard to think of another major novel in English which presents this delicate problem.
Dickens sent the last chapters of Great Expectations to the printer in the middle of June 1861. To relax after his efforts, he then went to stay with his wealthy aristocratic friend Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a hugely popular crime and historical novelist (no longer read today) whom he greatly admired and respected. Dickens decided - we don’t know precisely why - to show his host the last chapters of Great Expectations in proof.
What Bulwer-Lytton read in the final paragraphs was this: Pip hears that the oafish Bentley Drummle has died and Estella has quietly remarried a country doctor. One day, two years after his return from the east,
I was in England again - in London, and walking along Piccadilly with little Pip - when a servant came running after me to ask would I step back to a lady in a carriage who wished to speak to me. It was a little pony carriage, which the lady was driving; and the lady and I looked sadly enough on one another.
“I am greatly changed, I know, but I thought you would like to shake hands with Estella too, Pip. Lift up that pretty child and let me kiss it!” (She supposed the child, I think, to be my child.)
I was very glad afterwards to have had the interview; for, in her face and in her voice, and in her touch, she gave me the assurance, that suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham’s teaching, and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be.
Bulwer-Lytton advised Dickens against this downbeat ending - again, on what precise grounds we do not know for certain. ‘Bulwer was so very anxious that I should alter the end… and stated his reasons so well, that I have resumed the wheel, and taken another turn at it. Upon the whole I think it is for the better’ was his explanation for the change in a letter to Wilkie Collins, and one can only assume that Bulwer-Lytton had told Dickens, in the manner of a Hollywood producer, that the public would crave a more positive outcome to the novel.
The substitution, almost always selected in modern editions, has Pip and the widowed Estella meeting in the grounds of Satis House.
“I little thought”, said Estella, ‘that I should take leave of you in taking leave of this spot. I am very glad to do so.”
“Glad to part again, Estella? To me, parting is a painful thing. To me, the remembrance of our last parting has been ever mournful and painful.”
“But you said to me, “ returned Estella, very earnestly. “‘God bless you, God forgive you!’ And if you could say that to me then, you will not hesitate to say that to me now - now, when suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape. Be as considerate and good to me as you were, and tell me we are friends.”
We are friends,” said I, rising and bending over her, as she rose from the benChapter
“And will continue friends apart, ” said Estella.
I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.
Just to complicate the matter, the final line also exists in two other versions. ‘I saw no shadow of another parting from her’ has been the standard reading in editions since 1862, presumably authorised by Dickens, but the first editions read ‘I saw the shadow of no parting from her’, while the manuscript reads ‘I saw the shadow of no parting from her, but one.’
The Piccadilly ending has an exquisitely understated and offhand melancholy to it, matched to the tough message that life does not neatly deliver one’s dreams of perfect happiness - all Great Expectations are doomed, even when, like Pip, you have learnt lessons the hard way. Dickens knew this first-hand: in 1855, when his marriage was collapsing, he had been overwhelmed with excitement on receiving out of the blue a letter from Maria Beadnell, the great passion of his youth, whom he had not seen for over twenty years. Their subsequent reunion was a disillusioning disappointment, inasmuch as Maria proved to be a plump and garrulous married matron devoid of her former allure. Estella was Pip’s dream as Maria was Dickens’ - a dream from which he had to wake.
The Satis House ending has usually been thought to imply that Pip and Estella walk off into the sunset together. But there is considerable and, I think, deliberate ambiguity to that last line. Although they leave holding hands, Estella has just stated that she wishes to remain alone (“and will continue friends apart”), while a couple of pages previously Pip has told Biddy that he intends to remain a bachelor. Of course, they may be protesting too much, as people do, and in truth mean the opposite. But the joining of hands could be amicable rather than romantic, and what Pip perhaps means in the final line is that their parting in the ruins of the past had been final, because any bitterness or misunderstanding had been emotionally resolved and they did not need to meet again - both can now go onwards into their own separate lives. Had Dickens wanted Pip and Estella to live together happily ever after, he could easily have done what he does at the ends of David Copperfield, Little Dorrit and Bleak House and told us as much.
The second ending shows Dickens trying to have it both ways. He didn’t want to betray Pip and Estella with the merry sound of wedding bells followed by the patter of tiny feet which Bulwer-Lytton probably advised, but entertainer that he was, always with one eye on the market, he must also have realised that his sentimental readership wouldn’t have felt satisfied by the bittersweet inconsequentiality of the meeting in Piccadilly. The first edition’s awkwardly phrased ‘I saw the shadow of no parting from her’ does indeed imply marriage, and the manuscript’s ‘I saw the shadow of no parting from her, but one’ is even more emphatic, implying their union unto death. Yet Dickens scratched both of those versions out, and his last thought was to authorise something which allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusion.
That said, I still feel the Piccadilly ending is truer to the book’s underlying mood (as does Edgar Rosenberg in the Norton Critical Edition essay). For those who demur, the case for the Satis House ending is forcefully made by Q D Leavis in Dickens the Novelist.
exec.typepad.com/greatexpectations/the-two-endings.html
@@philtheo Thank you very much for your kind explanation! Yes, the Piccadilly ending maybe truer to life, but I like the Satis House one better: it gives the reader some hope. Otherwise the novel would have been ABSOLUTELY gloomy!
Million thanks for this video Tristan!
This was one of the most moving and inspiring things I’ve ever seen on UA-cam. Thank you, Tristan, and thank you, Mr Dickens.
I think the matter of the intent of the author is important as you point out. The sentimental and two dimensional character criticisms are common trappings for novice writers but are of a different variety when done in service of the story as opposed to being done mistakenly.
This is the first video of yours I’ve seen, and it is brilliant. I have long struggled with Dickens since studying novels like Hard Times and Bleak House when at uni doing English Lit. In the last few years however, I’ve gone back to A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations to give them another go. I decided to grab audiobooks and read along and it was a game changer - Eddie Izzard reading Great Expectations to me and A Tale of Two Cities read by Simon Cowell. Having watched your video, I now also have those three perspectives which will also help me get through the ‘tricky bits’ and rediscover the amazing stories that Dickens tells. I have always loved Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, and am now adding more favourites to my list.
A very moving tribute. I have read every Dickens work and I still find so much more to learn about him (and us) every time I reread his novels. This is a masterful video. Thank you.
Tristan, I have to give you credit, this video was beautiful. I have never read any Dickens, but next year he will definitely be on my list. This video was an incredible introduction. Thank you for spending the amount of time you did in making the video, it truly touched me.
Thank you, Cody. I hope that you have a good time with Dickens.😀❤️
@@tristanandtheclassics6538 I’m sure I will. Thanks. Can’t wait to get started.
You are amazing. Please keep going. Love from India
Your commentary is a real eye opener on Dickens. And your delivery kept my interest up to the very end. Thank you.
It’s the little joys of life that enrich it. A fresh aromatic cup of coffee and a new Tristan video to start the weekend = bliss.
Thank you for a very especial video. About my most favourite writer. I like your videos very much. And your English is so well spoken, I understand every word. I am from Perú.
You have a superb way of explaining things. Your video is the highlight of my day. Thank you😊 Tristan.
Your videos are always excellent but this one is truly superb. I am a great lover of Dickens. In fact this month I plan to read Dombey and Son for the first time. Thanks for this informative and beautifully executed video. You're the best!😢
❤ Dombey and Son ❤
Tristan, I loved thee nice ending to this video. Very nicely done. I am currently 150 pages into David Copperfield.
All of your videos are excellent, this one was absolutely outstanding! I shall read Great Expectations again with all this in mind. You have helped me so much to appreciate classic literature. ❤
Oh- what a fantastic presentation. ThanK You, Tristan 👏. I’m a Charles Dickens fan and have always loved his style (unique and of his time). Picking up any of his work , opening the first page is like stepping into a time travel pod and being whisked away to feel, hear, smell, laugh and weep at everything shown to you. Just brilliant.
What a wonderful gift you have given us! I am one of those who have struggled to find my love for Dickens' writing. I've always felt like I would love it if I could just "get it right." Now, I see that I have been approaching his books just as you said, expecting great, deep literature. As our family genealogist, I have never been one to seek a long lost claim to royalty. It is the stories of what life was like that have always drawn me in. For that reason alone, I know I will love Dickens. Thank you for helping me find my way!
Absolutely brilliant! Thank you so much Tristan
I love Dicken's descriptions. He could just change the mood of the scene with one word in a second. One moment it's so serious and the next you're in stitches. Big fan of most of his books, but David Copperfield in particular.
When I read The Pickwick Papers, I always imagined a family gathering in the drawing room after dinner, to listen to the latest installment of the misadventures of the Pickwickians.
Dickens use of sentiment was honest and sincere.
Remember reading Oliver Twist over night for a seminar when I studied literature at university (we had so much to read). I do not remember one word of it and have never read anything by him since...perhaps it is time to read something again!
Thanks for this video. Loved Dickens' writing before. Love it even more now. ❤
Thank you for this what a masterful discussion about dickens I love dickens my favourite is tale of two cities .all his works are amazing and they are such an insight to Victorian live and times .he was also friends with wilki Collins and I love his writing as well ( they collaborate together in certain perils of certain English prisoners.) Please could you do one of these talks about wilki Collins love this type of content you do a great job thank you .
Charles Dickens is my favorite Victorian novelist.
Such a wonderful video. I was moved by it, and Dickens is already my top of the tree author.
What a brilliant video this was! I so so enjoyed it. You have reignited my interest in Dickens (he always got shoved to the back of my tbr).
Thank you again for a superb video 👍.
Outstanding commentary. Thank you, Tristan!
Wonderful, thank you so much.
Stunning eloquence in your essay. And what evocative images too. Thank you for showing me a fresh perspective on the work of Charles Dickens.
I am old and read Dickens decades ago having little to no information about him except his name. Still, I loved the books.
I wonder if you have read George Reynolds and his "Mysteries of London". He was inspired by Eugène Sue's "Les mystères de Paris". Sue is one of my favorite writers. Both Sue and Reynolds were the best selling writers of their time in their respective countries.
This was helpful, thank you so much. I'm one of those who, whilst admiring and respecting Dickens' obvious genius as a storyteller and his untrammelled social conscience, has struggled with the verbose and seemingly over-sentimental qualities of his writing. The way you frame it makes so much sense, and you're absolutely right - we should enter wholeheartedly into the author's own perspective, rather than allowing ours to become a judgemental voice in our head, competing with what we're reading. I did find I was getting a glimpse of this when I read Bleak House a while ago, for the first time with Dickens I found I was so pulled into the world he creates in that book, my own inner voice was actually shutting up for once. 😀 I'm about to embark on Great Expectations, so I'm glad I came across this video. ❤
I love this video! Thank you for the study on Dickens. I’ve only ever read A Christmas Carol, but I own others. I’ve wanted to read his works, but I’ve been intimidated. No longer. You have given me reason to believe that Dickens is my favorite author!!
I hope you will convince many people to start reading literature as it should be . This generation should get a taste of it
great video, man. thanks a lot for this one. just finished 'great expectations', an hour ago... speechless, what a book!
i admit that i have never read a Dickens as i have always been scared reading him thinking it is too hard, but after watching all your videos and also in your patreon group i can't wait to read my first Dickens. Thanks so much Tristan!
Thank-you for a wonderfully informative video Tristan. Charles Dickens is my English Literature hero. For me, he is the only author who has moved me with his deep understanding of the human condition in all forms. I will definitely try the child-like stance that you've described here in future with his books, particularly as I'm currently reading Oliver Twist. I've committed to reading his Top 10 novels in 1 year and loving every minute.! Thanks again for the great insights🙏🏼👍🏼
You are the “Lit-man” I’m so glad I stumbled upon you as I’m beginning my quest to read the classics before I die. Thank you so much for your content. ❤
Your enthusiasm is contagious. Thank you. I have so much more Dickens I need to read.
Two weeks ago I took a trip to London with my parents and we visited the Dickens Museum.
Thank you for this wonderful video honoring Dickens. I am on my very last one of his novels now, and it has been quite the ride! The end of your video was spot-on and had me a bit emotional! Thank you, Tristan!!
I so deeply appreciate this video. I've read the entire Dickens canon (sadly not yet in order nor paced as they were serialized.) I am a raving fan and agree with all you said. He didn't turn out to be a terrible kind parent to his sons or a good husband. But alas, his work does speak to the future of humanity the way Whitman did. So tragic that he died so young. I hate the criticisms that his women were one-dimensional or that his stories are cheap sentiment. They are attempting to tap our better angels. Bravo for this video. I'm sure it took quite an effort to craft. I will bookmark it and share it every time anyone mentions Dickens. Favorite characters: Quilp and Mdm DeFarge; Favorite novels in no particular order: Nicholas Nickelby (for the romp), Tale of Two Cities (bc I find the story so gripping), Great Expectations (for the incredible wordsmithing) and A Christmas Carol (if its a novel--for its beauty.) Curious if you have read Demon Copperhead and if so, your thoughts. I DNF'd it. I find it belittling to the downtrodden of Appalachia and to David Copperfield. Sure, drug addiction is a rural poverty ill in those mountains but also in New England, and Nevada, and Wyoming and Illinois and Michigan and everywhere. And Kingsolver toys with the reader's emotions in ways that I found very exploitative and unnecessary. We know David Copperfield's step-father is cruel and that David is suffering. That is enough to make the reader care. I'm saddened that Dicken's personal favorite will be forever associated with that Kingsolver grandstander. But I'm a minority opinion. The world has cheered her on.
marjorieapple.substack.com
Great video. This has confirmed my decision to make reading all Dickens my 2025 reading challenge.
Thank you Tristan for such an excellent video on Charles Dickens. I must begin my rereading of his books with a new eye for understanding. Blessings to you.
Estou preparado para ler Dickens agora sem preconceitos. Obrigado!
Well you really did it this time, Tristan! Thank you for this beautiful tribute to Charles Dickens 😊
This is by far my favourite channel! Thank you so much, Tristan!❤
You got me with Ralph MacTell ! Great video!
Well done!!!!!!!! I will read Dickens next!
This was great . Thank you. So far, I have only read 5 Dickens novels and have enjoyed them all to varying degrees. I would say that there is more nuance in Dickens than some give him credit for. An example of this would be his brilliant portrait of Steerforth in "David Copperfield."
This was excellent! Thank you Tristan!
This video made me a subscriber.
Thanks Tristan for bringing one of my favorite novelists & human beings Charles John Huffam Dickens to life❤️
Awesome insights on Charles Dickens. I can never forget the ten year old me, reading and re - reading David Copperfield and later on --- Oliver Twist , and then thinking about all those vivid experiences of worlds within worlds . Yes : we must walk with the author and see the world as they saw it , at that time , with their own magnificent mind's - eye.
This was wonderful! I am getting set to read Nicholas Nickleby for Victober. I will be thinking of what you’ve said as I read. Thanks for such a thoughtful video!
Great video as always Tristan! I seem to have fallen out with reading over the years for some reason but I'm determined to get back into it and am currently reading David Copperfield, which I'm loving!
Beautiful, just beautiful. Thank you.
I am currently listening to David Copperfield and enjoying it immensely so this is a timely video. Thank you for your insights! Always appreciated.
Thank-you for helping us read Dickens. He was never suggested to me & I don't recall seeing his work in any library or him being mentioned by any teacher.
I read Lord of the Rings when I was 11. I was then capable of reading Dickens.
I lost out. I can only guess that Dickens was out of fashion in some way in the early to mid 1980s (UK).