Rant about Dickens

[alexandral]

This is just a rant, but I just can’t curb my feelings. **

The rant stems form the watching ”Our mutual friend” - very well-made adaptation, lovely actors, settings, and altogether great 8 hours of watching.. Truly, the dramatization was really good!

Nonetheless, I just must say that I don’t like Dickens. I feel very weird saying it. His first book I have read was “Oliver Twist” . It was saccharine, sentimental and had little boys dying. Was a string-pulling sort of book for me. I have also read “Nickolas Nickelby” and this book made the same impression – saccharine plus dying. I found this book and “David Kopperfield” also very long and **gasp** boring. I haven’t finished “David Copperfield”. If I don’t like the book, I usually quickly look at the ending to get to know what happened and leave it. I never can read a book I am not interested in **Feels very guilty**

I have watched few TV series made from the Dickens books, but it is not really fare to make an impression about the book writer from the series..

I am torn and wrong, but I don’t like:

1. There seem to be same types of characters in every book : Poor but saint girl, Old childless couple of saints, dying boy, Scheming underworld characters…
2. The stores are far-fetched – lost children, false identities, inheritances..
3. There is always somebody dying FOR A VERY LONG PEROID of book-time from consumption, or wounds..
4. Too much saccharine
5. Too long


UPDATE This all said, dangermousie just reminded me (thank you!!) that The Pickwick Papers Is Dickens's book too. AND - I ABSOLUTELY ADORE THE PICKWICK PAPERS, but again, this book is a little different from the rest ;)

I am dissatisfied with myself , I AM A BAD-TASTED person who doesn’t appreciate one of the greatest English writers O WOE! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME??????????

Comments

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

actually really like Steven Mackintosh's character. I think his romance with Bella is adorable because I love seeing the way she changes. She starts out as being so unlikeable and bratty but in the end she ends up being very lovable and loyal and I like it. I also think Anna Friel is very sweet so that helps.

O, they were lovely too, but I have this strange feeling about Steven Mackintosh that I have seen him somewhere and he was playing some “weak” type of a guy and this impression is forever stuck. ** woes her prejudices ** There is nothing really weak about John, but it just my poor head? I really liked them, especially their romance, it had some of the lovely BBC drama quality where she looks at him and he looks at her and this alone makes my poor heart melt ;). (I am a shipper I guess). I adored Bella, she was LOVELY and one of the best Dickens’s female characters, Because completely agree on:

Keeley Hawes is very pretty but Lizzie Hexam was always too sainty for me

But, Eugene **laughs ** and for some reason I found Eugene a bit stalkerish :P I thought he was rather sweet ;)

Agreed but it's a bit of how they wrote at the time. I just finished reading North & South and they have the rather saintly hero and heroine, the dying mother and blah blah.

Yes, in a way this is all true. BUT – 19’th century was a century of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy and Pushkin. Where Dostoyevsky had his share of early works resembling very much Oliver Twist, his latest ones are just mind-blowing for me ( and he is particular good at strong female characters IMHO).

I may be should try to read Dickens again ;)