Tag Archives: Dickens in December

Dickens in December – Wrap up

Posted in Books, Literature, Readalong by

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It’s a sure sign that the year is ending when we publish more wrap up posts than original posts. The end of 2012 also marks the end of Dickens’s bicentenary and of Delia and my Dickens in December event. It’s time to thank all of those who have participated and have joined in the readalong or reviewed books and movies. The links below show that the event was quite a success. I enjoyed it a lot and am glad that I have finally read one of Dickens novels. It will not be my last. A special thank you to my co-host Delia.

Thank you once more and I hope you enjoyed  it as well.

Intro Delia

Intro Caroline

Intro Post (Resistance is Futile)

Intro Post (Leeswamme’s Blog)

Intro Post (50 Year Project)

Intro Post (Rikki’s Teleidoscope)

Intro Post (Page 247)

Intro (Books Speak Volumes)

Dickens in December Begins Today (Beauyt is A Sleeping Cat)

Intro (Too Fond)

Dickens in December Start (Postcards for Asia)

Some Dickens for December (Kaggy’s Bookish Ramblings)

Giveaways Delia – Caroline

Classics Club December Meme – A Christmas Carol (Too Fond)

Great Expectations (Fanda Classiclit)

Bleak House (The Argumentative Old Git)

My Favorite Dickens Quote (On the Homefront)

Great Expectations (My Reading Journal)

A Tale of Two Cities (Babbling Books)

Dickens in December – A mixed bag (Lizzy’s Literary Life)

The Muppet Christmas Carol (Rikki’s Teleidoscope)

Dickens Project (Reader Woman)

A Christmas Carol – Jim Carrey Version (Beauty is a Sleeping Cat)

Great Expectations mini series (Fanda Classiclit)

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby (2001) — (Postcards from Asia)

Oliver Twist- The Movie (Leeswamme’s Blog)

The Chimes (The Argumentative Old Git)

Dickens on Screen: David Copperfield, The old Curiosity Shop, Great Expectations (Postcards from Asia)

The Old Curiosity Shop (Tabula Rasa)

Great Expectations (Beauty is a Sleeping Cat)

A Tale of Two Cities (50 Year Project)

Three Detective Anecdotes (Cceativeshadows)

Havisham and Bleak Expectations (Lizzy’s Literary Life)

Blackadder’s A Christmas Carol (Rikki’s Teleidoscope)

Great Expectations (Lynn’s Book Blog)

A Christmas Carol BBC Version (Rikkis’ Teleidoscope)

The Pickwick Papers (Tony’s Reading List)

A Christmas Carol (Surgabukuku)

Great Expectations (50 Year Project)

A very short review A Tale of Two Cities (Leeswamme’s Blog)

Three Short Stories (Postcards from Asia)

A Tale of Two Cities (Tabula Rasa)

Dodger by Terry Pratchett and Dickens by Peter Ackroyd (Tabula Rasa)

Hard Times (Vishy’s Blog)

The Old Curiosity Shop (Kiss a Cloud)

Readalong participants

50 Year Project (TBM)

Dolce Bellezza (Bellezza)

Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings

Polychrome Interest (Novia)

Postcards from Asia (Delia)

The Argumentative Old Git (Himadri)

The Things You Can Read  (Cynthia)Questions and Answers

The Things You Can Read Student Comments

The View From the Palace (Shimona)

Lost in the Covers (Elisa)

Leeswamme’s Blog (Judith)

Lynn’s Book Blog

Love. Laughter and a Touch of Insanity (Trish)

A Work in Progress (Danielle)

Sandra – please see comments section

Tabula Rasa (Pryia)

Slightly Cultural, Most Thoughtful and Inevitably Irrelevant (Arenel)

My Reading Journal (Ann)

Vishy’s Blog (Vishy)

Resistance is Futile (Rachel)

Too Fond

Beauty is a Sleeping Cat (Caroline)

The Winner of the Dickens in December Giveaway – Tom-All-Alone’s

Posted in Books by

Random org has determined the winner of the second Dickens in December giveaway.

The winner of a copy of  Tom-All-Alone’s, including a book-plate signed by the author is

Séamus Duggan (Vapour Trails).

Congratulations Séamus.

Please send me your address via beautyisasleepingcat at gmail dot com

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Dickens in December – A Christmas Carol – Readalong

Posted in Books, Novella, Readalong by

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It didn’t take Delia and me very long to decide which book to choose for our Dickens in December readalong. There really couldn’t be a more fitting book to read just before Christmas than Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Last week we sent out a few questions. Some of you have chosen to answer them for the readalong, others wrote a review. Both is fine and all the links to the different contributions can be found at the end of my post and will help you to find the participants and visit their blogs. It’s updated regularly, so come back and check who else has contributed.

Is this the first time you are reading the story?

I have read A Christmas Carol before, I guess some 5 or 6 years ago and already knew then that I would read it again some day.

Did you like it?

I liked it very much 5 years ago that’s why I knew I would read it again. I still liked it this time around but for very different reasons. I was much more attentive this time to the moral of the story. The first time I was paying more attention to the descriptions.

Which was your favorite scene?

I have two favourite scenes or parts. One is the scene when Marley’s ghost appears. It’s quite spooky and Scrooge’s shock is shown so well. It’s also a very dark passage as there is clearly no redemption for Marley. It’s too late for him to change anything. While the whole story is about the power of change, this first part is a cautionary tale showing us that while Dickens did believe in change that didn’t mean he was an optimist who didn’t see that there were lost souls too.

The second part I liked a lot was when Scrooge first follows the second spirit. The descriptions are among the most evocative. They show Dickens’s style amazingly well.

Which was your least favorite scene?

I couldn’t think of a scene I didn’t like.
Which spirit and his stories did you find the most interesting?

I found the third spirit and how he was described, his appearance, the most interesting. He was the most ghostly but I liked the stories and what the second spirit showed Scrooge the most. These were the stories, I think, which reached Scrooge’s heart and let it melt.
Was there a character you wish you knew more about?

I would have liked to know more about Marley. Why did he become such an embittered old man?
How did you like the end?

It’s a perfect ending, Scrooge’s joy can be felt in every line and is very contagious. It’s the illustration of the belief that people can always change as long as they are still alive. And it also shows that there are good people in the world. While Scrooge has to make an effort and change, if the others were not ready to forgive him, we wouldn’t have this happy ending.
Did you think it was believable?

I think that someone can change profoundly but maybe not in such a short time.
Do you know anyone like Scrooge?

I know people with Scrooge-like traits but nobody who is as bad as he is.
Did he deserve to be saved?

Scrooge had a heart of stone but he wasn’t treating himself any better than others which I think makes a huge difference. If he had been spending a lot, living in luxury, feasting but depriving others, I would not so easily say yes to this question but given that he didn’t harm others for his own sake or actively inflict pain, I’d say, yes, the change of attitude and sentiment is reason enough for him to be saved.

Other contributions

50 Year Project (TBM)

Dolce Bellezza (Bellezza)

Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings

Polychrome Interest (Novia)

Postcards from Asia (Delia)

The Argumentative Old Git (Himadri)

The Things You Can Read  (Cynthia)Questions and Answers

The Things You Can Read Student Comments

The View From the Palace (Shimona)

Lost in the Covers (Elisa)

Leeswamme’s Blog (Judith)

Lynn’s Book Blog

Love. Laughter and a Touch of Insanity (Trish)

A Work in Progress (Danielle)

Sandra – please see comments section

Tabula Rasa (Pryia)

Slightly Cultural, Most Thoughtful and Inevitably Irrelevant (Arenel)

My Reading Journal (Ann)

Vishy’s Blog (Vishy)

Resistance is Futile (Rachel)

Too Fond of Books

Beauty is a Sleeping Cat (Caroline)

Dickens in December – Giveaway – Tom-All-Alone’s

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It’s time for the second Dickens in December giveaway. Delia and I are both giving away a book but the choices are quite different. Don’t miss to visit her blog and find out what she has to offer.

Lynn Shepherd’s novel Tom-All-Alone’s is one in a long tradition of books which have been inspired by Dickens. While I must honestly admit that I haven’t had the chance to read it yet, I decided to give away a copy of this novel as I think it sounds excellent. More than one blogger I appreciate has written a favorable review of this book (here and here and here)  and I think it’s safe to assume it will be a great read.

And there is even an additional treat included in this giveaway – Lynn has offered to send the winner a signed book-plate. Thank you so much, Lynn! 

Here’s the blurb

The story of Tom-All-Alone’s takes place in the ‘space between’ two masterpieces of mid-Victorian fiction: Bleak House and The Woman in White – overlapping with them, and re-imagining them for a contemporary reader, with a modern understanding of the grimmer realities of Victorian society. Charles Maddox, dismissed from the police force, is working as a private detective and can only hope to follow in his uncle’s formidable footsteps as an eminent thief-taker. On a cold and bright Autumn morning, a policeman calls on Charles at his lodgings with information that may be related to a case he is working on. He goes to a ruined cemetery to find a shallow grave containing the remains of four babies has been discovered. After examining them he concludes they are not related to his investigation, which is to find a young girl abandoned in a workhouse 16 years before, when her mother died. But all is not as it first appears. As he’s drawn into another case at the behest of the eminent but feared lawyer, Edward Tulkinghorn, London’s sinister underbelly begins to emerge. From the first gruesome murder, Charles has a race against time to establish the root of all evil. Tom’s-All-Alone is ‘Dickens but darker’ – without the comedy, without the caricature, and a style all its own. The novel explores a dark underside of Victorian life that Dickens and Collins hinted at – a world in which young women are sexually abused, unwanted babies summarily disposed of, and those that discover the grim secrets of great men brutally eliminated.

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If you would like to win a copy of this book, just leave a comment and tell my why you think you’d like to read it.

The giveaway is open internationally and ends on December 25. The winner will be announced on December 26. 

Dickens in December will end that same week and we wanted to let you know that we will wrap up the event on December 30. Please make sure all of your contributions and reviews have been added to the link list on my Dickens in December page. We would like to make sure that we have included all of you in the wrap up.

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Charles Dickens: Great Expectations (1861)

Posted in Books, British Books, Literature, Novel by

In Great Expectations the orphan Pip tells the story of his life. He tells us how, after having lost his parents as a small child, he was brought up “by hand” by his mean and quarrelsome sister who hit him and her husband. How his sister’s husband Joe and Biddy the teacher were the only kind people in his life. How he met a convict and helped him. How he was invited to the excentric and melancholy Miss Havisham to play at her house. How he saw the wonderous house for the first time and met the beautiful Estella who would be the love of his life. How being introduced to Miss Havisham and Estella made him long for another life and feel ashamed of his own. How finally he was made rich and hoping for great expectations from an unknown benefactor. And how in the end things turned out in a very different way.

Great Expectations offered everything I expected from Dickens and so much more. The only thing I could criticize is that it was predictable and that there were a lot of coincidences which didn’t seem all that realistic but who cares. There is so much in this novel to like that I can easily forget its flaws. The characters were, as was to be expected, quirky and over-the top, much more caricatures than portraits, but drawn which such a wonderful imagination that I loved each one of them.

I also liked the atmosphere, how with a few words, a few sentences he captures a mood, a season, the weather, a location, a house, a street. All his descriptions are highly evocative and one sees every little detail.

There were many uncanny, witty and captivating scenes and I would have a hard time picking favorites. I liked all the chapters at Miss Havisham’s house. The sorrow and grief which had made the time stand still in that place and entrapped its owner for eternity, gave the book a very gothic feel.

But I also loved all the scenes including Mr Jagger’s clerk Wemmick and his father. They made me chuckle very often. They are such an endearing couple.

To do this book justice and write properly about it, I would need more time which I don’t have. Maybe I will return to it next year and write something a bit more detailed.

For now I would just like to say, I loved it for many reasons but what stood out the most is that Dickens comes across as a writer with a huge heart who can even  make many of his villains endearing.

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Dickens in December- Giveaway – The Dickens Dictionary

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Earlier this year I reviewed John Sutherland’s The Dickens Dictionary and it was this book which started the whole idea of Dickens in December. That’s why we are particularly pleased that Icon Books have offered us two copies  of the Dictionary for our first giveaway. We are giving a way one book per blog.

I really like this book, it’s informative, interesting and contains a lot of illustrations. Here is the blurb

For fans old and new, a fascinating tour through Charles Dickens’ novels in the hands of a master critic.
Oliver Twist … Great Expectations … David Copperfield – all contain a riotous fictional world that still leaves and breathes for readers the world over today.But how much do we really know about Charles Dickens’ dazzling imagination, which has brought this all into being?
To celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Dickens – 2012 – Victorian literature expert John Sutherland has created a gloriously wide-ranging alphabetical companion to Dickens’ novels, excavating the hidden links between his characters, themes, and preoccupations, and the minutiae of his endlessly inventive wordplay.
Covering America, Bastards, Childhood, Christmas, Empire, Fog, Larks, London, Madness, Murder, Orphans, Pubs, Punishment, Smells, Spontaneous Combustion and Zoo to name but a few – John Sutherland gives us a uniquely personal guide to Charles Dickens’ books.

If you’d like to win a copy of this book, just leave a comment. If you want to improve your chances of winning you can leave a comment on this and one on Delia’s blog. That way your name will  be in both draws but you can only win once.

The giveaway is open internationally. The winners will be announced on Tuesday 11 December.