The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

When The Old Curiosity Shop was first published in serial form in 1840 to 1841, its Victorian readers were enamoured with it. The story became an immediate success and so I was a little surprised upon reading the book at how much less enjoyable I found it compared to other books I've read by Dickens.

Whilst still retaining his wonderful way with words and introducing some remarkable characters, Dickens unfortunately overwhelms the story with sentiment, especially in regards to the main character, Nell.

Nell and her Grandfather are reduced to poverty and are forced to flee from their home in the old shop. Begging as they go, they travel away from the city and into the unknown. While they are wandering around the countryside, the story returns to events back in the city and Nell disappears for long periods in the narrative. 

While she is sidelined, other characters appear who are more interesting, such as Quilp, the grotesque tyrant, evil and cunning: 

Quilp...ate hard eggs, shell and all, devoured gigantic prawns with the heads and tails on, chewed tobacco and water-cresses at the same time and with extraordinary greediness, drank boiling tea without winking, bit his fork and spoon till they bent again, and in short performed so many horrifying and uncommon acts that the women were nearly frightened out of their wits, and began to doubt if he were really a human creature.

Richard Swiveller, an idle young man who regularly uses literary quotes to bemoan his fate, is a character who doesn't show much promise at first but his character develops and expands as the story progresses. And then there's the Marchioness, the mistreated 'small servant,' - nameless, parentless, locked up and deprived.

I mentioned in my post on A Tale of Two Cities that one of the delights of reading Dickens is his skilful ability to intertwine tragedy and humour. His clever juxtaposition of the two creates an atmosphere that makes for natural sympathy with his characters. This ability was less obvious in The Old Curiosity Shop.
    

G.K. Chesterton in Appreciations and Criticisms of the Work of Charles Dickens, made this observation regarding Dickens' use of pathos:

He strained himself to achieve pathos. His humour was inspiration; but his pathos was ambition. His laughter was lonely; he would have laughed on a desert island. But his grief was gregarious. He liked to move great masses of men, to melt them into tenderness, to play on the people as a great pianist plays on them; to make them mad or sad. His pathos was to him a way of showing his power; and for that reason it was really powerless. He could not help making people laugh; but he tried to make them cry. 

I agree with Chesterton that:

The real hero and heroine of The Old Curiosity Shop are of course Dick Swiveller and the Marchioness. It is significant in a sense that these two sane, strong, living, and lovable human beings are the only two, or almost the only two, people in the story who do not run after Little Nell. They have something better to do than to go on that shadowy chase after that cheerless phantom. They have to build up between them a true romance; perhaps the one true romance in the whole of Dickens. 

 

The short story, Dick Swiveller and the Marchioness, can be read online here.

'This poor little Marchioness has been wearing herself to death!’ cried Dick.

‘No I haven’t,’ she returned, ‘not a bit of it. Don’t you mind about me. I like sitting up, and I’ve often had a sleep, bless you, in one of them chairs. But if you could have seen how you tried to jump out o’ winder, and if you could have heard how you used to keep on singing and making speeches, you wouldn’t have believed it — I’m so glad you’re better, Mr Liverer.’

‘Liverer indeed!’ said Dick thoughtfully. ‘It’s well I am a liverer. I strongly suspect I should have died, Marchioness, but for you.’

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

The Storming of the Bastille by Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houel

*   Charles Dickens wrote fifteen novels, the final book remained unfinished at the time of his death. Two out of the fifteen were historical fiction - Barnaby Rudge, written in 1841 and A Tale of Two Cities in 1859.

*  A Tale of Two Cities begins and ends with famous lines that are familiar even to people who haven't read the book.

*  The 'Two Cities' refer to London and Paris where the story takes place.

I'm a long-term admirer of Charles Dickens' writing, but some of his books have more developed plots than others and flow with an intensity that sweeps the reader along, regardless of the fact that they are often convoluted sagas.  A Tale of Two Cities is certainly in that category, although it is shorter in length (about 450 pages) than some of his others.

Dickens paints a large canvas in which the atmosphere of London's Old Bailey and the unrest and terror of the French Revolution form the background. Against this background he places such memorable characters as Mr Cruncher, the grave robber, and Mr Lorry, the old faithful friend and 'man of business.' Miss Pross, the devoted servant; Madame Defarge, formidable and implacable, and Sydney Carton, the dissolute young man - not to mention the three main characters - Doctor Manette, his daughter Lucie and Charles Darnay - plus a host of seemingly unconnected individuals. 

One of the most pleasurable aspects of reading Dickens is the way he handles both tragedy and humour, often in quick succession, without losing the sense of either. He is an expert wordsmith.

...Mr Lorry looked at Jerry in considerable doubt and distrust. That honest tradesman's manner of receiving the look, did not inspire confidence; he changed the leg on which he rested, as often as if he had fifty of those limbs, and we're trying them all; he examined his finger-nails with a very questionable closeness of attention; and whenever Mr. Lorry's eye caught his, he was taken with that peculiar kind of short cough requiring the hollow of a hand before it, which is seldom, if ever, known to be an infirmity attendant on perfect openness of character.

"I should have hoped, gentlemen both," said the spy, always striving to hook Mr. Lorry into the discussion, "that your respect for my sister—"

"I could not better testify my respect for your sister than by finally relieving her of her brother," said Sydney Carton.

It was in vain for Madame Defarge to struggle and to strike; Miss Pross, with the vigorous tenacity of love, always so much stronger than hate, clasped her tight, and even lifted her from the floor in the struggle that they had. 

So far I've read eleven of Dickens' novels and have re-read some of those. A Tale of Two Cities is high on the list as one of my favourites. Besides being a great story, Dickens' use of the historical context recreates the time period in a way not easily forgotten.

My favourite books by Dickens are:

A Tale of Two Cities

Bleak House

David Copperfield

Our Mutual Friend

Hard Times

A Tale of Two Cities is scheduled as a free read in Year 9 of the Ambleside Online Curriculum but it would also be a worthwhile read aloud.

Madame Defarge's culminating vengeance grew from the injustice her family suffered, but in the end she became a perpetrator of injustice herself. 

There were many women at that time, upon whom the time laid a dreadfully disfiguring hand; but, there was not one among them more to be dreaded than this ruthless woman, now taking her way along the streets. Of a strong and fearless character, of shrewd sense and readiness, of great determination, of that kind of beauty which not only seems to impart to its possessor firmness and animosity, but to strike into others an instinctive recognition of those qualities; the troubled time would have heaved her up, under any circumstances. But, imbued from her childhood with a brooding sense of wrong, and an inveterate hatred of a class, opportunity had developed her into a tigress. She was absolutely without pity. If she had ever had the virtue in her, it had quite gone out of her.

Unforgiveness, injustice and revenge; loyalty and self-sacrifice; faithfulness, courage and love - there is so much in this book that lends itself to some great discussion.

 Women's March on Versailles 1789

...the day came coldly, looking like a dead face out of the sky. Then, the night, with the moon and the stars, turned pale and died, and for a little while it seemed as if creation were delivered over to Death's dominion.

But, the glorious sun, rising, seemed to strike those words, that burden of the night, straight and warm to his heart in its long bright rays...

A trading-boat, with a sail of the softened colour of a dead leaf, then glided into his view, floated by him, and died away. As its silent track in the water disappeared, the prayer that had broken up out of his heart for a merciful consideration of all his poor blindness and errors, ended in the words, 'I am the resurrection and the life.'

This book is my 19th Century entry in the Back to the Classics Challenge 

Keeping Christmas Update

This post follows on from two I did previously: 1 & 2. We're continuing to listen to Handel's Messiah. I found an easier way to follow along if you don't have the CD - check the number of each section and google Handel's Messiah No. 38 (or whatever number you are up to) There are heaps of YouTube videos covering various sections. It's more time consuming than a CD but it's free.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - loving this. We've just finished reading Stave 4 - The Last of the Spirits. There's a good Kindle version of the book here - illustrated by Arthur Rackham. I was so pleased to have Nancy from the Netherlands, on other side of the world, join us in listening to Handel's Messiah over December as well as reading through A Christmas Carol. She has shared her very insightful thoughts on both Handel's music and Dickens' book at her blog, ipsofactodotme.

Handicrafts

Woodburning practice while listening to me read aloud the book above:

I've added a couple of Carols this year but we're still listening to our favourites from other years.



Also known as the Carol of the Drum:



If you're interested in how much the 12 Days of Christmas items actually cost...
http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/how-much-do-the-12-days-of-christmas-items-actually-cost/story-e6frfmci-1227141860687

 My wonderful sister-in-law is coming over next week to do some Christmas cooking with the youngest two and I'll be making my specialties - fruitcake, carob balls and fruit logs. My arm's being twisted to also make some Scottish tablet but it's lethal stuff. I'll annoy everyone and come up with a healthy version, which of course won't taste anything like the real thing.

'I Will Honour Christmas in my Heart'

I've started reading aloud  A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens using the beautifully illustrated version above. This version is published by Walker Books and is illustrated by Robert Ingpen, an Australian artist. We have a number of books illustrated by Ingpen, all quite different in subject matter from one another, and yet again he demonstrates his skill with the magnificent job he does in capturing the feel of Dickens' world in this lovely book.

Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his curiosity. He looked out.

The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley’s Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; none were free. Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. He had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step. The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever.

'I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.'

Silent Night: The Song and its Story by Margaret Hodges; illustrated by Tim Ludwig

A warm and touching book which tells how the hymn, Silent Night, came to be written in Austria in 1818; how it spread from country to country and the original composers, Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber were forgotten for a time. The book follows the hymn through the years to Christmas 1914 when, during a truce at Christmas, the German soldiers began to sing the carol from the trenches and were joined by British voices from across no-man's-land...and into a Russian prison camp during the same war...and even to the Korean War.
This book would appeal to a range of ages. The words of the hymn, piano music & chords are included.

Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo; illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline

Great Joy uses the story of a young girl, Frances, whose heart goes out to a poor organ grinder and his monkey out in the cold in the week before Christmas, to awaken compassion and the message of joy that Christmas brings. Set in the 1940's, the illustrations are large and have a lovely softness.
When the time comes for Frances to say her lines at the Christmas pageant, all she can do is think about the poor man and the monkey out on the streets but the gift of compassion within her rises and gives voice to the message of Christmas at the time when it is needed.

Kate DiCamillo said that this book began for her with the image of an organ grinder playing music in the depth and darkness of winter and that this music led her to the heart of the story:
"In a dark time, doors will sometimes magically open and let us step inside to the warmth and light of a community."

The book is recommended for ages 4 to 8.