How do you feel about Dickens?

[Arwen Elf]

Some say "yay", some say "nay". How do you feel about Charles Dickens? I personally think he is one of the best writers in the English language and so agreeable. I think that he did a lot fo the poor, perhaps not as much as is hyped, but still, he had an ingenius way of building reform. A Christmas Carol, of course, is one of my favorite, but what do you say?:huh:

[Catz]

Intellectually i can appreciate Dickens.......unfortunately i just cant seem to get into his work emotionally......i wish i could........i always feel very detatched from his tales, no matter how hard i try to get involved
:catz:

[Melain]

I say yay to dickens some off my favoite books were written by him. But there are still many books of his that I am to simple for, like Arwen Elf I like the Christmas Carol and read it near Christmas every year. But my favorite one is probably Oliver Twist, not everyone is realated in the end, and it is rather simple for a small mind like mine.

[Polly Sandybanks]

I love Dickens! I've read a lot of Dickens for school and I've loved every book I've read.. and I also love all mini series and movies based on his books.
My favourites are "A Christmas Carol", "David Copperfield" and "Oliver Twist" though.

[Rumil]

Really important social commentary - some of his characters are more charicatures and boy are they looooooooonnngggggg. Not in itself a problem but when you've read a couple of pages of someone going on about how you shouldn't bolt your food...yawn... sorry not my favourite.

[Rosolas]

My favourite novel was written by Dickens! "A Tale of Two Cities". I love that book. I have a few of his others too. I bought "A Christmas Carol" a few years ago, with the intention of reading it every Christmas, but I still haven't got around to reading it yet! It is still on my bookshelf in the same condition as when I bought it! LOL

And my excuse for not reading it the Christmas just gone? Well, the answer to that is I was finishing "The Hobbit" which I read for the first time, and then I started LoTR "The Fellowship of the Ring"!!

Oh Well!! Maybe next Christmas!


"It was the best of times it was the worst of times"

[BelovedCaptain]

AHHHHHH! A Dickens Forum!!!! :yahoo:
This is too good to die!
I have tried to read all of his works that I could get my hands on, and I still haven't read all of them. :-/ Christmas Carol was the first of his that I read, then I read Great Expectations. Then I read Oliver Twist, but my favorites are David Copperfield and Tale of Two cities. I just love how he puts random useless events into the whole plot of the story which turn up later as really important.
As I read ToTC, I was practically on the edge of my seat near the end. Ah, the characters of Charles and Sidney were so good. It was a great book.
As for David Copperfield, that has got to be my favorite of his works. I just love how the story unfolds and the romance in the end. It was a great book. :grin:

[Frodo's Pearl]

My favourite is "Oliver Twist". My dad read me "A Christmas Carol" and I know the story of "Great Expectations". Also, I read the seemingly more unknown "Cricket on the Hearth". It's a rather strange book, but it's cute. Very Dickens, I assure you.

[BelovedCaptain]

I have been wanting to read cricket for so long!
I saw a cartoon movie for it one christmas and I was probably the only one in my family who liked it. Now I know why! :grin:

[Frodo's Pearl]

A cartoon movie! Really? That's awesome, I didn't think that book had much in the world of media. I'm glad it does now! :D

[Annawen]

I really like Dickens. My favorites by him are "David Copperfield" and "Great Expectations". I have yet to read "A Tale of Two Cities", and we also have "The Old Curiosity Shop", which I haven't read yet. They're on my (rather long) list, though! :p
One of the greatest movies is "Oliver Twist" with Elijah Wood as Dodger. :grin:

[BelovedCaptain]

David Copperfield is sorta supposed to be like his autobiography, I've read. Tale of Two cities was great! It had me on the edge of my seat, but a girl older than me was stunned when I told her I liked it. She didn't really like it, I guess. :huh:
I saw that version, but I like the newer version better. Wood was good as Dodger, but this one seemed more like the Dodger I read about than Wood's Dodger.

[Frodo's Pearl]

I am DYING to see the Elijah Wood "Oliver Twist"!!! I have the musical "Oliver!", and I love it, although there's a whole part of the story that was taken out! And Fagin and Dodger have a happy ending! :( Was the new one more like the book? You see, I haven't seen that one, because I haven't checked why it is PG-13.

[BelovedCaptain]

Oh it's alot like the book! It just doesn't have the whole thing with Rose and her family along with Noah joining Fagin's crew and the whole thing with Oliver's half brother because probably for time and because they just wanted to keep with Oliver's direct story. I even think they used many quotes strait from the book. It's PG-13 because of the darkness of Sykes and some mild violence. Sykes made the movie really dark which is probably the main reason why it has its rating. He hits Nancy and pulls her hair, and of course there's blood when she dies, but it's all in the mood of the story as you probably know.

[Annawen]

I haven't seen the new one....I should look for it, I guess. I would love to see it. I don't remember seeing it at the movie rental store that we go to, though.

[BelovedCaptain]

I don't think it would be on the top sellers in the rental store. ;)

[Frodo's Pearl]

Really? Don't see why not. :(

[BelovedCaptain]

Well, I don't think the critics liked it that much. :huh:

[Annawen]

:( Aww...
But I think that we're finally going to start a NetFlix account though, so I'm sure that they'll have it. :p

[BelovedCaptain]

oh yeah. Netflix has everything. ;)

[Frodo's Pearl]

I just saw a little ad somewhere where if you buy a certain children's DVD, they send you a free copy of a "Cricket on the Hearth" DVD. It was kinda interesting to see that.

[BelovedCaptain]

Really? Cooooool...

[Lady Galadriel]

Oh, Dickens is a marvelous writer. I just finished Our Mutual Friend and it was fantastic. This man gives his characters such depth and diversity. Charming writer and very witty.

So far, I think I like David Copperfield and Our Mutual Friend best. Bleak House was also interesting and well, A Tale of Two Cities too. I still have to reach a verdict for Hard Times, Pickwick Papers and Great Expectations. I have them already for my summer reading.

[Frodo's Pearl]

Ooh, I just saw the "Great Expectations" Wishbone episode! I love his Dickens ones. :)

[Lady Galadriel]

Ah, but isn't Great Expectations sad. This girl at my job told me that I'll be depressed after reading it.:-/

[Frodo's Pearl]

Yeah, I also have an older movie of it.

[Lady Galadriel]

Oh, so you're not talking about the one with Gywneth Paltrow. Interesting. I didn't know there was another version.

[Annawen]

I have the BBC version that's split into several episodes. It's really good. Though it's not Dickens...the BBC version of Jane Eyre is great too. ;) You can get them both from NetFlix. :)

[Erebwen Cristaer]

I love Dickens! "A Tale of Two Cities" is one of my favorites!!! :grin:

[Lady Galadriel]

I have the BBC version that's split into several episodes. It's really good. Though it's not Dickens...the BBC version of Jane Eyre is great too. ;) You can get them both from NetFlix. :)

This is the first time I've heard of the BBC version. I'm not signed up to Netflix. I'll go read the reviews on it at amazon.com.

[Lessa]

there have been at least 10 versions of Great Expectations made for the telly or for the cinema

[Lady Galadriel]

What's the best adaptation?

[Annawen]

Well, even though you aren't subscribed to NetFlix, I think you can still see the viewer reviews of all of the different versions that they have. I believe that it was based on those that I picked the BBC version. ;) That's the only one that I've seen.

[Lady Galadriel]

Okay. Usually BBC is very good with these productions so I can imagine that they're version might indeed be the best.