Addison

I would have to confess that I am rather more attracted to the cynical style of Thackeray or of the myriad satirical/picaresque novels produced in the 18th Century. Therefore, although I do love Dickens, I often find the overwhelming sentimentality of his earlier novels rather too cloying for my tastes - Oliver Twist, I fear, is one of my least favourite of his works for this reason, though it does not offend so greatly as The Old Curiousity Shop. On the other hand, as he aged and matured (and generally grew wearier with society and the world), Dickens' style improved in my eyes; Bleak House and Little Dorritt are my particular favourites due to the increasing prominence of his melancholic satire and - indeed - his black humour. I generally suspect that in an age far less sentimental than his own, these latter novels are the more popular.

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Great God, how frail a thing is man; how swift his minutes pass:
His age contracts within a span, he blooms and dies like grass.

Mungye

I very much love both Dickens for himself and his works. Although I must admit that having been a severly battered child living and being raised by strangers I have great difficulty reading Oliver for instance or Little Dorit. Great Expectations is so depressing to me it somehow reminds me of the Lemony Snicket books.
I loved the truthfulness of the way society really was and the tiny glimmers of light here and there of redemption or kindness that totally goes against the grain of the average persona in his books.

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JP Wagner

Just because you disagree with someone is no reason to talk down to them. I agree Dickens is a great author and those who don't admire his work probably just don't understand it or haven't read deep enough into it. But thats no reason to be that harsh on someone. Take a chill pill.

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cecelia

I have only read one book by Dickens so far, and it was David Copperfield. I absolutely loved it. While I agree that his work, at least in Copperfield, is not an historical accounting, I do think it helps to understand the social and political climate of the times in order to really get it. There are many political and social references that could easily be overlooked if the context of the period is not understood. Just because something is fictional doesn't mean we can't learn about history from it! I hated social studies and political science in high school. I just didn't get it! My understanding of world history and politics is understood primarily through the different ways it is represented in literature and art. I hope to read more Dickens in the future...

chmpman

I've heard Hard Times has been used in history classes to teach about the times. This is the only one of his books that I've read. What I don't like is that Dickens tells you in his descriptions of the characters whether or not you should like them. Good characters are described positively and bad with negative descriptions. It's like he doesn't trust his audience to make a decision on actions but insists on placing his preference right smack in the faces of the readers. But maybe it's just this book. I want to read A Tale of Two Cities some time. I did strongly agree with the message of Hard Times though.

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Glfralin

Dickens has always been an author that I admire so much. He is one of the most enduring for the majority of his body of work of all authors I ever remember reading. There are many who are famous for one or two great works, and this draws attention to their less known, but Dickens different. I think probably the most recent author that could claim such talent would be Mark Twain.

My personal favorites are "A Christmas Carol" and "Oliver Twist".

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Finduilas

Yes; I agree! And I also loved David Copperfield.

Addison

I tend to be one of the many who prefer his later novels, such as Bleak House and Little Dorrit, to his earlier works, like Oliver Twist, which contain so much that is cloying as to actually annoy me in parts. That said, I do love Dickens, and have generally found that he is one of the very few authors to have mastered both the novel and the short story.

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Great God, how frail a thing is man; how swift his minutes pass:
His age contracts within a span, he blooms and dies like grass.

rboy27

David Copperfield has remained a favorite novel of mine for many years. To be perfectly honest though, I did see the made-for-TV movie on PBS before I actually read the book. If you've never seen it, it's really quite fantasticly done. It's sort of funny that most of the cast is from the Harry Potter movies (a very young Radclife plays Copperfield fantastically).

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VinrAlfakyn

I've read David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, and Great Expectations, and I'm reading Hard Times now. I think my favorite is A Christmas Carol, at least out of the ones I've read, though I may be slightly influenced by the fact that when I was a little kid I used to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol a lot. I really did like David Copperfield, and Great Expectations was great, though I wanted more out of the ending. Did anyone else like Magwitch? I mean before Pip really started liking him? I feel as if I was supposed to not like him in the beginning and grow to like him like Pip did, but I liked him long before Pip. Anyway, I'm only a few chapters into Hard Times, so I can't say much about it, besides the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Gradgrind and Mr. Bounderby are annoying, but they're supposed to be, I assume.

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it's a long long road, it's a big big world
we are wise wise women, we are giggling girls
we both carry a smile to show when we're pleased
both carry a switchblade in our sleeves
- Ani DiFranco, from "If He Tries Anything"
also in "Somplace To Be Flying" by Charles de Lint

VinrAlfakyn

Okay, finished Hard Times and now I'm reading A Tale of Two Cities. Hard Times was alright, but my favorite is still A Christmas Carol, followed by David Copperfield. I'm in the second part of A Tale of Two Cities, so hopefully it will really start to pick up now.

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it's a long long road, it's a big big world
we are wise wise women, we are giggling girls
we both carry a smile to show when we're pleased
both carry a switchblade in our sleeves
- Ani DiFranco, from "If He Tries Anything"
also in "Somplace To Be Flying" by Charles de Lint

comma127

There's nothing to disagree about. Historical fiction would mean fiction about the past from the present. Dickens WAS writing pieces in his about his own time. Just because they are historical now doesn't put it into the historical fiction category.

As for my view of Dickens, I wearied of him after I found out he rejected that seat in Parliament. To me many of his books were about how to improve society as a whole, or critiquing society and when he was finally given a chance to change things, he turned it down. Or is there more to this scenario than I know?

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VinrAlfakyn

Just finished A Tale of Two Cities, and I was so glad that it got better! The beginning seemed to drag on, but I finally got into and I loved it. Probably my favorite of Dickens now, along with A Christmas Carol and David Copperfield.

__________________
it's a long long road, it's a big big world
we are wise wise women, we are giggling girls
we both carry a smile to show when we're pleased
both carry a switchblade in our sleeves
- Ani DiFranco, from "If He Tries Anything"
also in "Somplace To Be Flying" by Charles de Lint