en-US Fri, 26 Jan 2024 13:57:28 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Friend1387402158 Fri, 26 Jan 2024 13:57:28 -0800 ReadStatus7280399415 Sat, 09 Dec 2023 05:44:12 -0800 /review/show/5529382362 Michael finished reading Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
]]> Comment263731845 Sun, 23 Jul 2023 05:48:20 -0700 /topic/show/22561954-oliver-twist-chapters-44---53 Michael made a comment in the Dickensians! group:

I have been listening to a complimentary Great Courses series, via Audible membership, covering Victorian Britain. The lecturer talked about Jacob's Island. The professor quotes from Henry Mayhew, that chronicler of London's underclass and friend of Dickens, as he described Jacob's Island as the "Capital of Cholera" and the place was filled with "the stench of death".

The ditch Ms. Bionic mentions was a brook converted to a tidal open sewer during the reign of Henry II. The island was spared from the 1666 Great Fire of London. It was an area of Central London that retained a claustrophobic Medieval atmosphere.

As Ms. Bionic mentions, we have a man on horseback offers £20 to anyone who can get a ladder and old gentleman offers 50 guineas to anyone who captures Sikes alive.

We have this from the end of the Chapter 49:

“I will give fifty more,� said Mr. Brownlow, “and proclaim it with my own lips upon the spot, if I can reach it. Where is Mr. Maylie?�

“Harry? As soon as he had seen your friend here, safe in a coach with you, he hurried off to where he heard this,� replied the doctor, “and mounting his horse sallied forth to join the first party at some place in the outskirts agreed upon between them.�

Why would Dickens not specifically mention Harry and Mr. Brownlow? It does keep with the atmosphere Dickens creates of a nameless mob; the mob itself has become an individual character.

This is the 2nd scene from the novel of a mob of people pursuing a charged criminal. The Metropolitan Police was a new organization so residents of London were keeping the tradition of one of their duties was to pursue and capture criminals. I would also imagine there is the raw excitement of participating in an thrilling activity tinged with danger. ]]> Comment263323771 Wed, 12 Jul 2023 09:39:17 -0700 /topic/show/22560326-nominations-for-autumn-2023-trollope-in-the-fall Michael made a comment in the Victorians! group:

Michaela wrote: "I was no big fan of the Trollope books I read so far, but I´d give him another chance with Dr. Thorne, as many readers like this one."

That was my second choice as I enjoyed the Amazon Prime adaptation. ]]> Comment263236485 Mon, 10 Jul 2023 08:14:23 -0700 /topic/show/22548840-oliver-twist-chapters-35---43 Michael made a comment in the Dickensians! group:

"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall," (Proverbs 16:18)

The Victorian reading public expected didactic novels. As I am reading Mr. Claypole's arrogant attitude, I am now expecting some bad ending for him. He is acting like he is still the biggest fish in a little pond when he is now nothing but bait for the likes of Fagin.

I did note Noah, despite attending a Charity School, could not read the street signage for the Three Cripples relying on Charlotte instead.

Mr. Claypole taking cold beef from the dish, and porter from the pot, and administering homeopathic doses of both to Charlotte,

A tenet of homeopathic medicine was the use of minimal doses of the so-called medicine. Another example, of how poorly Noah treats Charlotte. As Ms. Bionic commented, his chauvinistic treatment of Charlotte is a positive sign to Fagin.

Dickens multiple times alludes to how impractical it was for Charlotte to steal a 20 pound bank note. People in the seamy parts of London do not carry around an amount equivalent to the annual income of many households. Also, the note, like a modern check, can be stopped since the banknotes have serial numbers. And the amount was so much it was worth the trouble to cancel it. Although one can image Charlotte just grabbing everything she can from Sowerberry's till.

“Number and date taken, I suppose? Payment stopped at the Bank? Ah! It’s not worth much to him. It’ll have to go abroad, and he couldn’t sell it for a great deal in the market.�

So Dickens has brought together most of the characters, with the exception of the Bumbles, into London. Has the Bumbles served their purpose, or will they find themselves in London too? ]]> Comment262641305 Sat, 24 Jun 2023 07:41:33 -0700 /topic/show/21588395-lady-maria-clutterbuck-s-birthday-felicitations Michael made a comment in the Dickensians! group:

Feliz Cumpleaños Dama Plateresca ]]> Comment262304269 Wed, 14 Jun 2023 10:38:54 -0700 /topic/show/22538964-oliver-twist-chapters-26---34 Michael made a comment in the Dickensians! group:

Bionic Jean wrote: "Thanks for the Biblical analysis of "Rose" Claudia. Do you have a copy of the essay, "Oliver Twist and Christian Scripture" by Janet L. Larson? It is in her book [book:Dickens and ..."

So George Eliot in "Middlemarch" using the name Rosamond for one of her very flawed characters was being ironic and telling an inside joke to her Victorian readers? ]]>