I have to admit that although I've seen a million versions of "A Christmas Carol" I've never read a book by Charles Dickens.
His stories though, at least on film, are very compelling. So I figured, being still alive, it would be good for my literary sensibility to read one of his novels.
Also, to be truthful, there were two other reasons I wanted to read a Dickens novel. 1. My name used to be Dickens... from birth (well, at least slightly after, not longer than a year or so) until 18. 2. Charles Dickens engaged in activism and elucidation of many morbid conditions in his writing, such as orphans, legal manipulations, classism, child work/exploitation, debtors prisons, etc. Dickens was sensitive to issues control by social policy, due to his forced employment at age 12 due to his father being sent to debtors prison, and his work in the courts which allowed him a keen perspective on the failings of Parliament as well as the Chancery system of law. This lead to his becoming a contributing writer to the periodical "True Sun" and his eventually founding his own 24 page periodical on social issues that reached a circulation of 60,000. Dickens early involvement as a periodical writer and the serialization of his works is the manner in which his first several novels were written as well as the avenue for his becoming the most popular writer in England.
As far as my personal interest in Dickens, it was based primarily in Charles Dickens abhorrence with the American system of slavery. In "American Notes" Dickens recounts his travels in America and he voices clearly his disgust for the chattel slavery system and the blunting effect of humanity it has upon it's proponents. Dickens refers to slavery as, "...that most hideous blot and foul disgrace - Slavery."
Dickens' comments severally upon his feelings in "American Notes" on his feelings upon viewing areas in the south where slavery was the condition:
...in this district, as in all others where slavery sits brooding... there is an air of ruin and decay abroad, which is inseparable from the system. The barns and outhouses are mouldering away; the sheds are patched and half roofless; the log cabins... are squalid in the last degree. There is no look of decent comfort anywhere... the negro children rolling on the ground before the cabin doors, with dogs and pigs; the biped beasts of burden slinking past: gloom and dejection are upon them all.
All men who know that there are laws against instructing slaves, of which the pains and penalties greatly exceed in their amount the fines imposed on those who maim and torture them... the darkness - not of skin, but mind - which meets the stranger's eye at every turn; the brutalizing and blotting out of all fairer characters traced by Nature's hand; immeasurably outdo his worst belief. That travelled creation of the great satirist's brain... was scarcely more repelled and daunted by the sight, than those who look upon some of these faces for the first time must surely be.
For the full text of, "American Notes" by Charles Dickens, go to: www.dickens-literature.com/American_Notes/
Which brings me to Bleak House...
Dickens draws very full characters. They are "full" yet, they all lack a certain habitation of soul and purpose. They are more objects of the circumstances of condition, unable to rise above it (at least in this novel), and thus, perfectly suited to serve as pawns for Dickens' silk-lace commentary though drama. I became well acquainted (or as well as you can in 7 chapters) with Esther, Ms. Jellybee, the Lawyer, Kenge, Richard, Ada and Mr. Jarndyce.
The opening in particular, is beautiful, with the mud, the people, the fog, the odd and full descriptions of the court. it's sweeping, and was reminiscent of the flights of Thomas Wolfe (the one who wrote "Of Time and the River"). I especially liked the preface, where Dickens states that cases such as Jarndice vs. Jarndice, are not uncommon in the age. But, after the initial flurry, things settle down into the lint catch of common everyday occurrences and a snails pace of action.
There's a motherless child, who is told that she and her mother are each other's disgrace, to mean that the mother got pregnant in an socially inappropriate fashion, and that as the daughter grew, the mother's transgressions would forever stain her. That was a nice touch, because in many cases, the circumstances of ones birth, or the arrangement between the parents, contains elements which are unspeakable to the children for many, many years.
But after this, the story moves to just... i don't know, it's vague, mysterious, yet nothing really happens, but you are pulled along, incriminated at every chapter and a bit more tantalized to solve the mystery. So for me the question was, was I willing to pay the price i.e., read several hundred pages of this book, to find out? The simple answer was "no". I would really like to see a movie of Bleak House. Of the several hundred pages of a Dickens novel, although there is much filler, if you stripped it away to a movie, there is more than enough parts from which to chose to make a gripping movie. I get it.
The novel has an air of genteel serialization, in that it seems to go nowhere, other than the present description, conversation, or interaction. It almost plays like an antebellum romance except it wasn't antebellum, nor romantic... but what I mean, is, it's a story where a piece of teacake, could be the center of the action for many a page. The feeling I got was of being on a long bridge between landmasses, that stretched into the distance with no destination.
If you like beautiful writing, and subtlety and a lot (I mean, a hell of a lot) of filler, then this is probably something for you.
Dickens has wonderful sensibilities, patience, and love of words and observation. He's poetic at times, and like to play upon quirks of personality and alliterative "prose-etry" at times.
I called a friend after the first 5 chapters to get his assessment. He concurred with my feelings/descriptions, and he quickly gave me permission to stop reading. I went on an additional 2 chapters. if i was on a cross country trip, I could read it, but I wouldn't really want to. It's not bad at all. It's quite good. Just not my cup of tea.
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