The pleasures of rereading Dickens

David Gates has a lovely essay in Newsweek about why he enjoys rereading books -- and many of the books he most enjoys rereading are Dickens books.

Above the table on which I'm now writing hangs an old framed print showing Mr. Pickwick's street-smart servant, Sam Weller, prophetically pointing out to his chubby little master—in tights, gaiters, and spectacles—a vast, teeming mob of tiny figures: the characters Charles Dickens was to create in the novels to come after The Pickwick Papers. I still haven't identified all of them, but I see Fagin and the Artful Dodger from Oliver Twist, Little Nell and her grandfather from The Old Curiosity Shop, the sanctimonious Mr. Pecksniff from Martin Chuzzlewit, the choleric Major Bagstock from Dombey and Son, and Bob Cratchit from A Christmas Carol carrying Tiny Tim. Ah, and that must be the mad old dealer in secondhand clothes from David Copperfield. His name, in what appears to be an odd self-tribute, is Charley—Dickens names another madman in that same novel Mr. Dick—but I remember him best, as you will if you've read the book, for his greeting to young David: "Oh, my eyes and limbs, what do you want? Oh, my lungs and liver, what do you want? Oh, goroo, goroo!" It's because I can't get enough of characters like these that half my Dickens paperbacks now have their covers held on with duct tape. . . .

I suspect that the most widely reread writers in English have been Dickens, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen—hardly a month goes by without my revisiting one of them—who combine the sleepy-time comforts of story and character with all the challenge and complexity, the inexhaustible newness, that anyone could ask for. I've taught them all in the classroom, while in the bedroom their books have slipped from my hands as their stories shaded into my dreams.

The whole piece is worth a read, but probably the best line of all -- a line that any lover of Dickens will appreciate, even though it refers to multiple authors -- is this one: "In a recent New York Times op-ed in defense of rereading, Verlyn Klinkenborg lists some of his old favorites—he turns out to be a Dickens hound too—and concludes: 'This is not a canon. This is a refuge.'"

Comments

[christopher harris]

Gina, here's a link to the illustration referenced in Gates' essay. This is an unfinished painting by Robert William Buss that was started in 1875, and is entitled, "Dickens' Dream".

Here's the link: http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/buss.html

Cheers! Chris

[Nibs]

That's a neat picture; interestingly, the "dreams" floating around are reproducing illustrations to his books. If you look right in the middle, you can see Micawber as well as a scene with David and Dora from Fred Barnard's pictures.

[Gina]

Beautiful! You guys have better eyes than I do, though; I can hardly make out any of the characters at all. Anyone see the picture of Pickwick and Sam Weller?

[christopher harris]

Gina & Nibs, here's the Pickwick/Sam Weller drawing! Enjoy!

http://www.fathom.com/course/21701768/s6_reception.html

Cheers! Chris

[christopher harris]

...and speaking of "Dombey and Son", as David Gates does in the essay above, I have to say that my wife and I are thoroughly enjoying the terrific 1983 BBC film adaptation (available through Netflix); and we'll be finishing the final five episodes tonight. The character casting is exquisite! One can easily tell that the BBC was very faithful to the original illustrations by 'Phiz' in character casting, costuming, and scene staging. "Dombey and Son" is one of my top four most favorite Dickens novels (i.e., in the order written, "Dombey and Son", "Bleak House", "Little Dorrit", and "Our Mutual Friend"). They are sublime and as near perfect as a novel could be, IMHO. Cheers! Chris

[Gina]

Oh, that's the Pickwick picture! Very nice! Thanks for both of these, Chris.

You're the second person in the past few weeks to talk up "Dombey and Son" to me. My cousin Annie, a fellow rabid Dickensian, told me it's her favorite Dickens novel. Another one that I haven't read in far too long and need to pick up again.

[Nibs]

I have great respect for the 1980s BBC adaptations - they have a mix of good production values but also stay very true to the characters and stories. I haven't seen their version of Dombey and Son, but I'm going to be ordering a Region 2 version of DC from 1986 soon. (Thank goodness for malfunctioning DVD players that encourage the purchase of a multiregional one!) <3<3<3