flemmings | (no subject)

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Ah well. Finally finished Bleak House after how many years? If that's Chuck's masterpiece... Well, it might be. But if so, Dickens leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. Someone on Goodreads said that most Dickens characters, no matter their age, are children:

"As a rule, only those who represent institutions are convincing as adults and the adult world is a hostile world of institutions and clockwork industry. Dickens characters don't really grow up in the course of his novels; rather, they find other children to play with."

By me, his characters are grotesques, the good as well as the bad. Dorothy Parker adored him. But then, Parker was a wit: and wit takes little account of depth.

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I think both the Goodreads summary and your own hold true. In some cases he depicts real scenes with verve and colour, but real people? Hmm, I don't think so. Having said that, I really haven't read much Dickens.

Honestly, I don't get why Dorothy Parker was so keen.

Everyone seems agreed that Great Expectations is an exception. My own vague memories is that it at least moves a good deal faster.

Maybe because Dickens was the oposite of Parker's short cutting incisive wit? He satirized things too, but took 800 pages to do it. Such luxury. And of course, satire doesn't deal with real people. But again, he isn't satirizing his sympathetic characters, and they're cardboard too.

Bleak House is still on my to-read list, maybe someday. I wonder if I'll end up feeling the same afterward.

It's half satire on the legal system- the law's delays, the venality of lawyers, etc etc. Unfortunately it makes its point about the longdrawn Jarndyce case by being long and drawn out which may not have been Dickens' intention. Paid by the wordness.

Half the novel is narrated by one of his saintly females which doesn't help.

Sounds like it might be good for when I want to feel sleepier!

Can certainly appreciate something about the speed of the legal system though. For instance, I'm currently buying a house in the UK, the process typically takes months here and needs a solicitor, in the US I just needed my realtor and it was always far faster (no good reason for it to be otherwise).

I've heard about the UK house buying system. A nightmare.

Do we chalk that up to lead poisoning, in Dickens and his characters alike?

It would explain much, but doesn't explain everything. Tweeness isn't a common symptom, I believe.

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