Anyway, what's gotten me into these novels again is that I've been watching dramatizations of them, mainly produced by BBC. The guys here at work tease me about it, but I just totally love those shows. Right now we're doing Dickins's Bleak House and I'm doing Middlemarch, and both are almost thrillingly good. I suppose I love the combination of the setting, the bygone English culture, the accents, the good characterization, and the wonderful performances. I even love the Jane Austen ones, which just makes my male coworkers hoot and holler with derision. But I am what I am.
I recently ordered Vanity Fair—which is perhaps my favorite of them all—and Middlemarch to read again, which is a rare step for me because I practically never reread novels. And I'd really like to get my Dickins on and work my way through him. Though Hard Times didn't particularly impress me, a couple of years ago I was unexpectedly taken with David Copperfield, which I started reading just by random chance and couldn't put down, and I think I'll try to pick up Bleak House this year, though it's dauntingly thick and the first few pages I browsed last night featured rather long, complex sentences that zonked me out pretty quick. (As I get older, I find that reading puts me to sleep disconcertingly fast.)
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I hear you clucking, big chicken. I too have gotten into English literature recently. My mother-in-law, an inveterate reader and academic, had me buy her a bunch of literature on the internet for her Palm. Fortunately for me, I have the same model, so I was able to download all of her purchases onto mine. I literally have hundreds of classic works in the palm of my hand. Whenever I have a spare moment I crack one open. It's pretty awesome.
Make sure you keep an eye out on your local PBS station for a wonderful adaptation of Little Dorrit, coming in April, I think. And don't forget Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, Cranford, or Wives and Daughters!
Your comments have given me the courage to start re-using a purse and sitting down to urinate. Thanks big brother.
-Dave
Hey CB, I just started Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell because I've heard it's charming, or some other positive adjective. Remember the girl in Middlemarch whose neck was like a lily on a stem? And Vanity Fair, that you suggested to me, was great! Those were nice reading times. Kathryn
Also try Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend." One of his last, and one of my all time favorite novels. There's also a VERY good BBC adaptation of that of that one. If you haven't read "A Tale of Two Cities," that one is a must.
BBC Period dramas are also a favorite of mine and my wife's. The "Bleak House" your watching is the newest, right? It's marvelous! We've also been really surprised with how much we've enjoyed "He Knew He Was Right," "The Way We Live Now," and the "Barchester Chronicles," all adapted from Anthony Trollope's novels. Don't know who Anthony Trollope is? Neither did I, but I do now!
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