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Start your discussion here.

Thanks, Robbie!

All are welcome to join in the read/discussion. Just be kind enough to mark any spoilers, accordingly.

Sera, are you reading this?! This is my all-time FAVORITE Dickens book. Hands down. And that says a lot because I am not a big Dickens fan.

Yes, ma'am. It is a buddy read with my friend, Jeremy. We are both huge Dickens' fans and really looking forward to this one. I love reading Dickens this time of year.

I like reading Dickens around January because that's when it's rainy in Sacramento. I may read it then, although I've also committed to starting Swann's Way in January. :-/

Join in whenever you can, Sarah. Too many books....

Maybe I should do this in December, because I have a feeling that all I'll want to read alongside Swann's Way is easy light stuff.

Sarah, would read this in Dec. swann's way is amazing but it's slow. It's like savoring tiny little bites. bleak House you can eat in giant mouthfuls. It's a good "winters" read.

Sera, let me know where you're at. I just thought this one was so much fun. Better than Woman in White and I really enjoyed that one.

Yeah I joined a Proust reading group and there's a reading schedule and stuff. It's like 50 pages a week for the whole year to read all of In Search of Lost Time. I'm not committing to the whole thing, but I want to at least try Swann's Way.

I think you will enjoy it. I loved reading it in a cafe and savor the words while people watching and sipping a latte. It's that kind of book.

50 pages a week isn't too bad. You may be able to get through some parts faster than others, which may give you some flexibility. Maybe I'll pick it up again then. We'll see :)

But read Bleak House!!!!!

OK. I have tons of books on the docket already for this month but I will put Bleak House on the rotation for December.

I totally got gypped out of reading my spooky/magical/etc books for October because the weather here was so gorgeous. I just never felt like the mood was right. :(

Yay! You also need to read Anna K in winter too.

I just started this morning. I have only read the short first chapter but so far it seems to have much, much different feel than the other Dickens that I have read.

Meghan wrote: "Yay! You also need to read Anna K in winter too."

Yes, absolutely!

Jeremy wrote: "I just started this morning. I have only read the short first chapter but so far it seems to have much, much different feel than the other Dickens that I have read."

I read the first two chapters last night. When you say "different feel" do you mean in the subject matter or the writing style? I thought the former because so far, I haven't really found those types of characters in a Dickens book. However, I thought that the writing style was very Dickens. It made me feel like coming home to an old friend ;)

To put what I said into context, I have only read David Copperfield, Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities so that is a relatively small sample size. (if I am using phrases like sample size you know I have been paying way too much attention to presidential polls - thank God it is finally election day!!...or wait, maybe that is from listening to too much sports analyses) And I have only read 4 pages so that is hardly much to judge it on!! If anything I feel it is closest to AToTC so far because of the mood. Only mud and fog instead of blood.

Mainly I just feel that his beginning has a slightly different style with some stilted sentences and a lot of repetition and I believe he is trying to set the stage. In fact, I felt that the whole first chapter was akin to the first scene of a play. At the very end of the chapter was like a stage exit.

The other thing that really struck me is the reference to a man "blowing his brains out". Although in AToTC there was a lot of violence, this seemed to be dark and strangely humorous all at once. Especially when a second reference was made at court.

As for the characters, I just do not feel familiar enough with them yet. In my short journey thus far they have more of a feel of the Copperfield characters when he was a clerk. And actually this is where I feel the old friend that you feel when he is describing the old woman in the bonnet and the character that comes to court every day(?) to try to get a word in edgewise to the chancellor but is never able to say more than, "My Lord!"

After chapter 2, which just reminds me how much I love this author!!, I am starting to think this is one of those books I may have to go back and re-read the first couple of chapters after I really get into the book. I feel somewhat confused about what is going on - maybe that is intentional on the part of Dickens as he continues to set the stage. I.e. Mr Tulkinghern about to read some of the legal proceedings is continuously interrupted by Lady Dedlock and we, the readers, learn nothing about what actually happened at the court, but we do learn about Lady Dedlock...

One of the reasons that Dickens is one of my favorite authors is that he packs a punch and gets the most out of each sentence that he writes. In Chapter One, he makes his views known about the judicial system by showing and letting the reader draw his or her inferences from the pictures that he portrays. I like your point about the opening of the book feeling like a play. It certainly felt when reading it that Dickens sets the stage of much to come.

Lady Dedlock is fascinating so far - I am curious as to what she saw on the paper that made her swoon. I agree that things are confusing, because as you said, Dickens is only providing small glimpses of what's happening. I am looking forward to reading more tonight.

Due to the election I haven't read a page since my last post - and I am dead tired. However, that is about to change!!

No worries - I was up late with the election, too. I was able to get almost through Chapter 3, but not quite ;) I probably won't be able to read much tonight either, but we'll see.

I have to agree about the first chapter being different for Dickens. I was not a huge Dickens fan, so this change of pace is what really grabbed me. Then when it did get more like Dickens, I was already hooked.

Lady Dedlock is one of my favorites. But they are all good.

This is not a spoiler, but i can't wait for you to get to the Growlery! I really want one for my own. :)

This is the first time in literature where someone spontaneously combusts. I don't know why that makes me smile, but it does.

Meghan wrote: "I have to agree about the first chapter being different for Dickens. I was not a huge Dickens fan, so this change of pace is what really grabbed me. Then when it did get more like Dickens, I was al..."

Growlery? Sounds interesting ;)

I didn't get to read any of this last night, but that should change tonight.

Phew! It seems like we are on the same pace at the moment anyway. I finished chapter 3 just this morning. More puzzle pieces but also some hint on what is going on. It was curious to me that this chapter was written in the first person. Also, this chapter reminded me a lot Great Expectations. So it has now reminded me of all 3 books I have read in one way or another.

Meghan - I am looking forward to this Growlery character. He must be a good one.

On another note, I keep thinking how much I love Dickens and wondering why I couldn't get into him earlier in life. To be fair I read David Copperfield at 24. But in a freshman English class (for a non-English degree) I took a class I was very excited about called Popular Fiction. The idea is that we would read the books in installments just as they were released. Unfortunately, I could not keep up with the reading. At all. I gave up. I don't know if it was because I was trying to adjust to the class work and crazy college life or what but I could not do the reading which I thought was crazy given how much I loved to read. The book was Dombey and Son. And I am sure when I pick that book up again it will not seem like a chore like it did back then.

Jeremy, my parents "made" me read Oliver Twist and David Copperfield when I was younger (11, 12ish?) It turned me off of Dickens so hard I couldn't even read A Christmas Carol. And then about 7 years ago I got this beautifully illustrated version of ACC and apparently, all I needed was pictures. And I realized I loved this story (and not just because it's a Christmas movie tradition). So then I ventured and read Great Expectations, which I did not so much enjoy story-wise, but I really understood why Dickens is considered such a great writer. And then I read Bleak House and this story just appealed to me. I've read Our Mutual Friend and really enjoyed that one too. (That book apparently really influenced Tolstoy.)

So I totally agree that you can learn to love an author. Sometimes it takes age and maturity to get there. I think sometimes experience has to happen. A lot of what Dickens writes about is the political state of his country and as a 12 year old, I had no clue about the subtext. But now as an adult, I greatly appreciate what he's trying to say in his stories.

It can be difficult to appreciate great literature in between beer bongs and recovering from hangovers, even for people who love to read :)

By way of contrast, I read A Tale of Two Cities in high school and loved it. I didn't pick up another Dickens book until I read Great Expectations a couple of years ago. We didn't read any Dickens in college. After GE, I fell in love with Dickens all over again. It is now my mission to read 1-2 books by him a year. I have a long way to go because he was so prolific as a writer.

I hope to be able to read some more tonight.

I was trying to read 1 Dickens a year just to get through his canon. But this year I took off. I "like" him, but he's not a favorite. I'm finding I'm not so much a Victorian period girl. I like the content but not so much the writing style.

I read A Christmas Carol in 7th grade and I have always loved it. The description of Scrooge in the first chapter is one of my favorite passages of prose in all of literature. I read Great Expectations in high school and liked that too. Then I read A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield and was bored out of my mind. I read Oliver Twist about ten years ago and loved it and got interested in Dickens again. I re-read about the first half of A Tale of Two Cities and liked it MUCH better.

Forgive me for not italicizing the titles. I'm too lazy at present.

What? No italicization? :)

Funny that we have all read GE and AToTC. Of course they are probably the two most popular but the reasons for me choosing those two in particular were more personal.

I'm somewhere between Sera and Meghan on my goals of reading Dickens. I'd like to do 2 per year but it turns out to be more like 3 in 2 years! At one point I read that his writing gets darker with every book. Then I realized that most of the books I have already read are in the latter half of his career.

Sera - I just started chapter 4 this morning. I left my physical book at work so I downloaded on my Kindle since it was for the low cost of $0.00. I may ended up reading this one through combination of paperback, kindle and phone. That would be a first for me.

I made it to Chapter 6 last night. I like the way in which the story is unfolding bit by bit. Was this book also initially written in serial format by Dickens? I'll have to check.

Dickens once again is able to depict the most interesting characters who always feel incredibly "real" to me. Esther is just the sweetest girl ever and the Jellby clan are a real hoot. I'm curious to see what you think about these folks.

Jeremy, as you become more comfortable, you many find yourself frequently moving among different forms of media when reading a particular book. A few months ago I was listening to Life of Pi on audio. I had one disc left and it was due back at the library. Instead of renewing it, I returned it since I had the hardcover at home. I ended up reading the last 40 pages, which was interesting.

In one of our other groups, we have been discussing the notion of "bundling" - that is that when buying a paper book, getting a code for the e-version. More and more people are buying and reading books in multiple formats these days, which I think is great, because there is more reading being done this way.

Meghan wrote: "I was trying to read 1 Dickens a year just to get through his canon. But this year I took off. I "like" him, but he's not a favorite. I'm finding I'm not so much a Victorian period girl. I like the..."

Blaspheme! J/K

I have found that I love, love, love Victorian literature. In fact, I am already trying to figure what I am going to try to tackle next year without tying myself down too much.

I would second on the love of Victorian literature only that I have sadly read very little other than Dickens. Wuthering Heights, part of Middlemarch and very little other. Something I intend to remedy with some more Bronte, Austen and Hardy in the near future.

I very much hope they bundle in the future. I would imagine this would be a must for publishers hoping to keep the share of the market. Although I read an article that implied that the first of mergers has occured in which books and mortar and ebooks businesses are marrying.

As for audio I don't know what the Dickens is wrong with me but for the most part I will not listen to a book I intend to read. Stubborn, I know.

I have some catching up to do!!

I don't know what the Dickens is wrong with me

Ha ha - nice one.

I've only started to really scratch the Victorian surface this year. I spent too much time during college reading American literature. Plus, I was only an English minor so after taking the survey and writing courses, there wasn't much left and I spent my credits on the American novelists. Youth is truly wasted on the young.

I have much catching up to do, too.

What years are the Victorian era? I can never remember... but I always THINK it's like 1800-1865. Meaning anything from those years I classify as Victorian, even though I could be TOTALLY off. Haha.

Jeremy - read Jane Eyre!! I love that book. And then when you're done with that I have a few follow-up books. And my favorite Austen is Sense and Sensibility. I think it's the funniest.

I haven't read Middlemarch. Is it good?

I loved Middlemarch, but it is hit or miss with most people.

The Victorian period is 1837-1901, since it tracks the reign of Queen Victoria. There are sooooo many books that fit this time-frame.

Jeremy, if you read Jane Eyre, don't read the Penguin Classics edition. Or if you do, don't read the footnotes. The footnotes are written for people who have already read the book and there are early spoilers for ALL the plot twists which completely ruined the story for me. It's on my list to re-read.

I liked Middlemarch, but much better after reflection and not completely during the actual reading of it,

I really like the subject matter of Victorian books. I love the movie versions. I just have a problem with the language. It's too formal for me or something. It's a bit sad since she is my favorite Queen.

Yes, this book was published as a serial. You really get the sense of it when every chapter ends with a cliff hanger.

I will pull out my notes so I can remember where you all are.

So who's your favorite character so far?

It's early but Esther is my favorite. I am so glad that you will be joining in the discussions with us!

I am still on Chapter 6. I should, however, be able to get some reading done tomorrow.

Sigh. Esther is my favorite too. :) she's what sold me on this story.

To be honest, all the Dickens I've read feature male protagonists, so I think part of my problem is that I never really could relate to any of them (not being a poor street urchin either). So the fact this one featured a woman was a definite lovely change of pace.

Esther is just so darn likeable and real. She just jumps off the page for me.

I hope I am not too far behind. I just finished chapter 6 this morning. I'm starting to get a bit antsy about maybe something happening and am glad to see he is switching back to Lincolnshire for a bit.

Esther is also my favorite so far. That said she is really the only one I know at this point. The other characters you see mainly through her lens which seems to be rather rose colored. I have seen comments in the past that all Dickens female characters are weak which I would argue against, but certainly this is the first strong protagonist I have come across.

I want to say that Dickens also manages to make the house (or whatever major setting) almost like a character. Or it certainly has plenty of character.

I guess I will have to pick up Jane Eyre sooner than later. Thanks for the heads up on the footnotes as I detest spoilers.

This may be sad of my own character but I had a laugh out loud moment when Peepy fell down the stairs! I suppose DHS did not exist in the 1850s. While I am at it, I really liked the feisty character of Miss Caddy Jellyby. I'm hoping she has more to do with the story which is likely considering Dickens tends to keep most of his characters involved.

Don't worry about falling behind. I am home sick today with a sinus and ear infection so I was able to read a bit while waiting for the doctor today. I am on Chapter 10.

Yes, the house is like it's own character! Property appears to be a sub-theme of this book so far, which makes sense, because socio-economics is something that Dickens likes to write about. It's also why I like reading his books, because the topic remains very relevant today.

Esther's point of view continues to be the one that dominates the next few chapters. I think that Esther sees things very clearly but with a sense of optimism. I am always amazed by how certain people continue to have hope even when life has dealt them a difficult hand.

I would disagree that all Dickens characters are weak. I think Miss Havisham from GE is one of the most iconic characters written.