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I have never undertaken a literary challenge before, but have been inspired to set something up by so many friends' fantastic examples. But I'm reluctant to overplan, as I then tend to feel less pleasure in my reading than when it is a spontaneous choice. So I wondered what would suit me best. One book from each group each month maybe, alternating with some from my TBR shelf? Pretty good... but then the inspiration kicked in.

Those of you who know me know that my favourite author, by a mile, is Charles Dickens. So why are there no reviews of his books on my shelves? Since joining Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ writing reviews is what I've put most of my efforts into after all.

But the simple fact is that I had already read all of Dickens novels before joining Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ - and dozens of his short stories too. Familiar though many of the storylines still are through films and so on, I did not feel I had read the novels themselves recently enough to review them. Starting this year, 2014, I hope to put that right.

I shall start with "The Pickwick Papers" in January and possibly February. This is a challenge in itself for me, as it is the one I like least! Up to now I have told myself it does not really qualify as a novel anyway. This is my list then, in chronological order:

The Main Novels of Charles Dickens:

The Pickwick Papers � Jan 2014 comments up to 159 Jean's review
March 1836 to Oct 1837 complete schedule in message 42

Oliver Twist � March 2014 comments 160 - 306 Jean's review
February 1837 to April 1839 complete schedule in message 275

Nicholas Nickleby � May 2014 comments 307 - 448 Jean's review
March 1838 to September 1839 complete schedule in message 308

The Old Curiosity Shop � Sept 2014 comments 461 - 586 Jean's review
April 1840 to February 1841 see message 576

Barnaby Rudge � February 2015 comments 628 - 686 Jean's review
February to November 1841 see message 647

Martin Chuzzlewit � April 2015
complete list and comments from message 723 - c.820 Jean's review
January 1843 to July 1844

Dombey and Son � August - October 2015
complete list and comments from message 883 - 943 - Jean's review
Oct 1846 to April 1848

David Copperfield November - December 2015
complete list and comments from message 944 - 1073 - Jean's review
May 1849 to November 1850

Bleak House
Hard Times
Little Dorrit
A Tale of Two Cities
Great Expectations
Our Mutual Friend
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished)

These 14-15 I think are usually considered to be his major novels, and I hope to tackle one about every other month, so this is a 2-year plan at the moment. Then I'll look at his shorter works, although I'm joining a readalong of "A Christmas Carol" in a few days, which is great too.

Edit June 2014:

It's a quarter of the way through the time I had allocated for this, and I've kept to the schedule, but now intend to tweak it a bit. Well, quite a lot really! I've really enjoyed the fact that quite a few people have joined in at various times, reading alongside me, and I very much appreciate all the input from everybody from this. Thank you! :) I've also loved rereading the novels for myself in more depth, allowing the time to analyse them a bit more, but also leaving me time to read other classics too.

But I'm aware that there's an increasing number of books and biographies about Dickens I want to read or reread, and I'm just not getting round to them. So what I propose to do is to build them into the plan. I'll alternate one novel with one Dickens-related book.

This means the original timescale will be virtually doubled. In fact I'm not going to set an end-date at the moment, as there are other minor works by Dickens that I'll probably want to read after the novels.

I'll annotate the list to show the dates when they were read for this challenge, and also approximate comment numbers (very approximate, as they overlap quite a bit and the conversations do tend to go off at a tangent - fun though they are! LOL!) I'll also add a list here, adding each book as I read it to allow for more flexibility:

Reading Around Charles Dickens:

Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World by Simon Callow � July 2014 comments 449 - 460 Jean's review

The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin � November 2014 Jean's review

The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London by Judith Flanders � May-July 2015 Jean's review

Extra Charles Dickens Reads:

A Christmas Carol � December 2103 Jean's review

The Chimes � December 2104 comment 621 - 627 Jean's review

The Cricket on the Hearth � December 2105 comment 1074 - end of thread Jean's review

Additional interesting lists:

Word length of novels message 695
First Publication dates message 706
Dickens' children message 381

This is magnificent Jean! I am grinning like the proverbial Cheshire Cat about this challenge.
I know you will have fun and hope I can join in with some of these gems.

I would love that, Tracey! Your enthusiasm for Mr Dickens has been a BIG factor in prompting me to do something about this! :D

Looks like a very 'Happy New Year' to me Jean. :D

Sounds great Jean, I'll be reading A Christmas Carol this month as well and it will be�.wait for it…my first ever Dickens! Good luck with your challenge :)

What fun! I might join you in a few of these, such as Nicholas Nickleby and Little Dorrit�

Good Luck Jean.

Great idea, Jean, I may well join you for one or two, as I'd like to read more Dickens!

I have decided to do Little Dorrit over The Old Curiosity Shop but I would still like to try it sometime. Maybe you reading might give the encouragement to do so. :)

I'm looking forward to reading your reviews, Jean. I always enjoy them. I would like to read some more dickens so will pick based on your reviews!

Oh wow, I have just come back online to update my reading progress, and look what I find!! So much support really brings a lump to my throat. Thank you all and I would love for you to join in whenever you too feel inspired :)

I did the list in chronological order as otherwise I'd be tempted to read my favourites first! If lots of people want to read the one that's due next, we could maybe make it a readalong? Oliver Twist would be great for that - though anyone's welcome to help me through Pickwick...

I have to admit I gave up on Pickwick 2 years ago. It was not keeping my attention. Got half way through so gave it a go! Not ready to try again. I haven't read Oliver Twist so maybe!

Awesome. Good luck jean! :-)

Sounds really great Jean! I'm planning, as you know, to read the few thigs still unread by him - some short stories and Barnaby Rudge and Martin Chuzzlewit.
We may meet along the way!!!

Pink - oh you have so much to look forward to - and I think "Oliver Twist" would actually be a great next read after "A Christmas Carol" if you fancy joining in on that early next year? Either that or David Copperfield... but I'll not be reading that for a bit yet.

Leslie - please do, that would be great. "Little Dorrit" is one of my favourites, and "Nicholas Nickleby" is just around the corner so to speak!

Alannah - I think your choice is the correct one for your studies, but YES! If you get hooked on Dickens and have the time, please join in on any!!

Heather - gosh what a compliment, thank you! (And what a responsibility too!) I'd love to do another readalong with you of "Oliver Twist" (and several others?) That's such a great book, but quite take your point about "Pickwick." I've thought so far that it's an acquired taste. We'll see.

Laura - I hope we do "coincide". I'd value your thoughts on these lesser novels.

Tracey, Shirley and Amber - I'm hoping we can read some of these together too.

And now I realise I have "revealed" some of my favourites already! But I'm trying to come to all of them with fresh eyes, and hoping for a few surprises now and then :)

Maybe Jean. We'll be reading A Christmas carol at the tattered tales book club soon anyway. that's my fave one of dickens but some of them I read in school which were okay.

Great! There's plenty of time to decide, Amber :) I never read any Dickens at school, except for one which was a "home reader" (so we never did it in class.)

People have said to me that they hate Dickens because they were forced to read him at school. I sometimes wonder if I like him so much because I wasn't, and so feel as if I "discovered" him all by myself!!

I thought he was okay Jean but will prob only read a Christmas carol cuz we read a tale of two cities and great expectations in school. But you have fun with your challenge. :)

That's fine. I'm looking forward to reading "A Christmas Carol" with you all! :)

;)

Very nearly time for me to allow myself a peek at "The Pickwick Papers"!

Jean wrote: "Very nearly time for me to allow myself a peek at "The Pickwick Papers"!"

:) I wouldn't tell on you either, if you peeked a bit early!

1.03 am I have peeked now lol

LOL Leslie and Tracey!

"I'm a good girl I am!"

Aww Jean because I added my book at 1,03 am it says I started it on 31st December 2013 booo hoooo!!! lol

LOL - "I don't believe it!" (Do you think I could go through the entire day talking in quotations?) That really doesn't seem very fair though, as you resisted for so long.

Have you got very far, Tracey?

chapter 2 but there was lots of blurb introduction and assorted notes on text and illustrations I skimmed over.

That's what I was thinking when I glanced at it. Probably just read the one actual chapter after I've finished my current read then :)

Tracey wrote: "Aww Jean because I added my book at 1,03 am it says I started it on 31st December 2013 booo hoooo!!! lol"

You can always change that ;)

Jean, My Fair Lady or Pygmalion??

Correct! Well identified Leslie! But what's the second one? (Clue: It's a British sitcom so perhaps not very fair. The main character is a bit of a curmudgeon. And there's that word again!!!)

I give up on the second quote -- I like British sitcoms (well, many not all) but that doesn't strike any bells.

One Foot in the Grave! Very famous in the UK and very British!

Heather wins the prize!

I'm really happy to have started this book The Pickwick Papers - it's just a great way to start the New Year laughing!

Reading this slowly is the key for me, for this one - at least at the beginning. I'm savouring all those comic cameos.

Today though, I had a look at one of Dickens' Prefaces to Pickwick. I knew that there was a sad story attached to the illustrations of this book.

Originally, Dickens had been asked by the publishers Chapman and Hall to provide short humorous passages to accompany some plates by the artist Robert Seymour. Dickens at the time was relatively unknown and quite poor. He was 22 or 23, and had just written a few pieces for magazines. Seymour was by far the more established and respected of the two.

Dickens was quite excited by the idea, but straightaway started to alter the plan. In his own words, he "objected... that it would be infinitely better for the plates to arise naturally out of the text; and that I would like to take my own way, with a freer range of English scenes and people, and was afraid I should ultimately do so in any case, whatever course I might prescribe to myself at starting."

One can only imagine how presumptuous this must have sounded! But he got his way - and now of course we know the brilliance of the man and can excuse him.

But there is a casualty. This preface of Dickens is in part a defence, and a justification. Seymour actually committed suicide before the second (out of a total of 20) issue was published. It seems unclear as to the reason. But rumours must have circulated for Dickens to feel the necessity to write:

"Mr Seymour never originated or suggested an incident, a phrase, or a word to be found in this book. Mr Seymour died when only 24 pages of this book were published, and assuredly not 48 were written... I never saw Mr Seymour's handwriting in my life... I never saw Mr Seymour but once in my life, and that was on the night but one before his death, when he certainly offered no suggestion whatsoever."

It makes my imagination run riot - what might have happened. I think this part of Dickens' life would make a great novel in its own right!!

Jean wrote: "I'm really happy to have started this book The Pickwick Papers - it's just a great way to start the New Year laughing!

Reading this slowly is the key for me, for this one - at least..."

If I had the talent, what a mystery I could write about that! I read The Pickwick Papers in my late 20s - it may have been my first classic read outside of school! I remember being disappointed. Perhaps I should revisit it now that I am older (wiser??)...

That's exactly my experience too, Leslie! I'd read Pickwick much earlier and not been impressed. Whenever I thought about reconsidering I told myself it wasn't really a proper novel. And of course it is more of a series of connected episodes.

But this time since I'm reading them in order, I'm taking the bull by the horns, and am so glad I am! His genius for creating unique characters is already there :)

Jean I am so glad I am reading this along with you and just a couple of chapters a day is perfect. I am finding I have time to dwell on the characters and the situations they find themselves in therefore absorbing it totally and savoring the comedy before moving on to the next madcap adventure. So for me a first time Pickwickion it is brilliant.

I agree, Tracey! It's working really well like that, isn't it?

I wonder if we are actually naturally breaking at the point the weekly episodes did. Twenty episodes each of 32 pages may equate to 57 actual chapters, which seem to be of uneven length. It's a shame it doesn't seem to be noted anywhere in the books.

By the way, I feel as if I'm a first timer too, as I can't remember anything about the episodes, except maybe a couple which have been dramatised in their own right, as if they were short stories.

I thoroughly enjoyed chapter 5 with the horses. I could see the farce in my mind.

I haven't read that yet! Do you have the original illustrations in your copy Tracey?

yes Jean they really compliment the story :)

They do, don't they? First two installments by Seymour, the third by Buss and the rest by "Phiz" who went on to be a great friend of Dickens and worked with him for 23 years.

And I've found a schedule of the episodes! They were monthly, priced at a shilling each, except for the last double issue costing 2/-

I � March 1836 (chapters 1�2)
II � April 1836 (chapters 3�5)
III � May 1836 (chapters 6�8)
IV � June 1836 (chapters 9-11)
V � July 1836 (chapters 12�14)
VI � August 1836 (chapters 15�17)
VII � September 1836 (chapters 18�20)
VIII � October 1836 (chapters 21�23)
IX � November 1836 (chapters 24�26)
X � December 1836 (chapters 27�28)
XI � January 1837 (chapters 29�31)
XII � February 1837 (chapters 32�33)
XIII � March 1837 (chapters 34�36)
XIV � April 1837 (chapters 37�39)
XV � June 1837 (chapters 40�42)
XVI � July 1837 (chapters 43�45)
XVII � August 1837 (chapters 46�48)
XVIII � September 1837 (chapters 49�51)
XIX-XX � October 1837 (chapters 52�57)

I'm up to the end of the second issue now - I think you're a bit further on Tracey, aren't you?

Yes!! Chapter 5 was very funny and very visual. My favourite bit so far though was in chapter 4 when Mr Pickwick lost his hat. I thought it was absolutely hilarious!!

I have read up to chapter 7. I am going for 2 a day and in my copy there are 56 chapters so by 28th January I will have finished and then I will read the plethora of appendix, further reading suggestions, notes on text and the chronology and also write a review. Woo woop. (well that's the general idea lol )

I got half way through and stopped about 2 years ago. I found even 2 chapters a day hard going! Tempted to remind myself briefly of the 1st half and them give finishing a go.

Why 56??? How odd! I have a 2-volume one with 57 chapters, plus the Large Print one I'm reading. I only have the first part of that though so cannot look at chapter 57 until volume 2 arrives!

It seems clear that there should be 57 though. What's your final chapter called? Have they maybe doubled it up like the original episodes maybe?

I thought I'd start a new Dickens every other month. Some will take less time to read, but I'm not sure about this one.

Good idea, Heather - do join us!!

I found Chapter One a bit of a drag. It just sets the scene so you could easily skip that one. I think it really gets going with chapter 2, don't you Tracey?

Jean wrote: "Why 56??? How odd! I have a 2-volume one with 57 chapters, plus the Large Print one I'm reading. I only have the first part of that though so cannot look at chapter 57 until volume 2 arrives!

It ..."
hello it is definitely 56 last chapter is in which the pickwick club is finally dissolved and everything concluded to the satisfaction of everybody.
my book is all in one it is a penguin classic
ISBN 13:978-0-140-43611-2 801 pages Jean.

Yes, that is the exact title of my chapter 57!!

Chapter 56 is "An important Conference Takes place..." Is it a double final chapter, combined with this one, maybe?

Chapter 55 starts "Mr Solomon Pell, assisted by a select committee..."

Chapter 54 starts, "Containing some Particulars relative to..."

We will nail this!

my chapters are 1 behind yours Jean !

oooh as yours is in 2 volumes could there be a re cap chapter in volume 2 ?? just a thought. I was wondering if when it was first released monthly there might have been a re cap of the past chapters?