If there’s anyone reading this who knows their Dickens very well, I need a recommendation: if I loved David Copperfield what other Dickens should I read? The only other thing of his that I’ve read through is A Christmas Carol. (I did start Great Expectations a few years ago but somehow didn’t get too far – should I go back to it?)
What I liked about David Copperfield was the balance: there are very sad bits (not always the ones intended; Martha’s story was far more heartbreaking to me than Little Em’ly’s) but you’re never in the sad bits for too long before there’s a funny bit. Also, Betsy Trotwood is one of my most favorite characters ever. (In fact, it’s quite a feminist book overall.)
What I *don’t* want is one of the tearjerkers like The Old Curiosity Shop. If it helps any, since finishing David Copperfield, I’ve been listening to Cranford while erging. Like Copperfield, it is a terrible workout book – too little action, and also too funny in spots – but also like Copperfield I like it enough not to mind much.
I love Nicholas Nickleby. One of my favorite sentences in all of literature occurs in its first paragraph.
(Including the first sentence to explain the second:
There once lived, in a sequestered part of the county of Devonshire, one Mr Godfrey Nickleby: a worthy gentleman, who, taking it into his head rather late in life that he must get married, and not being young enough or rich enough to aspire to the hand of a lady of
fortune, had wedded an old flame out of mere attachment, who in her turn had taken him for the same reason. Thus two people who cannot afford to play cards for money, sometimes sit down to a quiet game for love.”
It is both a touching and funny book, with great characters such as the villainous Wackford Squeers and the very silly Kenwigses. The Crummles Theatre Troupe is also a high point.