Dicken's Shortest and Most Polemical Book This is one of Dicken’s shortest novels, and one a bit heavy-handed in its sledgehammer criticism of capitaliDicken's Shortest and Most Polemical Book This is one of Dicken’s shortest novels, and one a bit heavy-handed in its sledgehammer criticism of capitalist exploitation of factory workers and the concept of Utilitarianism. He is filled with righteous anger at the callous abuse of the wealthy as they dehumanize their workers as just “hands” to be used and discarded as needed in pursuit of profit. It’s still got the various Dickensian villains and heroes/villains, though they are not as fully-formed and complex as those found in his larger works. All told, it’s a book on a mission, which was sorely needed in those early and brutal days of the Industrial Revolution, but doesn’t stand up as well today compared to his better works....more
The Abridged BBC 4 Radio Version Was Perfect for Me - A Sprawling Work in Full This is without question Dicken’s most dense and sprawling novel, with tThe Abridged BBC 4 Radio Version Was Perfect for Me - A Sprawling Work in Full This is without question Dicken’s most dense and sprawling novel, with the clever framing narrative of an interminable and impossibly drawn-out Court of Chancery case, Jardyce and Jardyce, that connects a huge cast of characters over 900+ pages. As I wimped out and opted for a mere taste of this dense masterpiece (and solid doorstopper) via a 5-hour abridged BBC 4 Radio full-cast dramatization, I feel I am not entitled to weigh in (pun-intended) on the full tome itself. In fact, I instead spent a pleasant hour some of my favourite GR reviewer’s thoughts on the book, which are as entertaining or more than the audio version, and provide as much insight at far less time-cost, that I find it too daunting and pointless a task for me to provide a review of my own. Instead, I’ll just say that it was a very interesting listen, but I am glad I didn’t dedicate the full 43 hours for the Full Monty, as I don’t have energy or patience or stamina for that, however worthy an endeavor it might be. ...more
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