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Charles Dickens and other authors?
- Thread starter Cabbage
- Start date
I haven't read much Dickens (yes I know it is sad), but I do know this. When he wrote Oliver Twist he wrote it as a very sad story, but also funny. Oliver Twist is about how ridiculous people were back then and how terrible they treated children like Oliver. But in a crazy way he made it funny. You would think that a story like that would only be dark and miserable, but he put a little humor in it.
I think what I am trying to say is that other authors would focus on the bad and only in the bad. Charles Dickens managed to crate a light in the darkness.
I think what I am trying to say is that other authors would focus on the bad and only in the bad. Charles Dickens managed to crate a light in the darkness.
There always were a few things that stuck out to me about Dickens:
1. Description. The man talked forever about streets and buildings and things that seemed irrelevant (they're not if you look for overarching themes/messages).
2. Realism. He was coming after the Romantics and at a time when I personally was reading the Gothics. In comparison to these two movements, Dickens's writing (while still holding onto some of the romanticism of his predecessors) was predominantly concerned with showing the "unseen" and "ugly" levels of society as they were.
3. Serialized. His novels, large, heavy and good for burdening students with were originally released in serial. You can really see that because certain characters will fade in and out of importance (with the public/Dickens's interest) and rather than the slower novels we see today of an always steady incline of tension and then a climax - the serialized novel was more like a TV show with Dickens's trying to put enough punch at the the end of each chapter to make the reader want to buy the magazine again the next time his story was printed.
1. Description. The man talked forever about streets and buildings and things that seemed irrelevant (they're not if you look for overarching themes/messages).
2. Realism. He was coming after the Romantics and at a time when I personally was reading the Gothics. In comparison to these two movements, Dickens's writing (while still holding onto some of the romanticism of his predecessors) was predominantly concerned with showing the "unseen" and "ugly" levels of society as they were.
3. Serialized. His novels, large, heavy and good for burdening students with were originally released in serial. You can really see that because certain characters will fade in and out of importance (with the public/Dickens's interest) and rather than the slower novels we see today of an always steady incline of tension and then a climax - the serialized novel was more like a TV show with Dickens's trying to put enough punch at the the end of each chapter to make the reader want to buy the magazine again the next time his story was printed.