Despite what's on the books' spines, the title of this one is The Old Curiosity Shop. And it's another two volume thing, Volume I being XVII + 373, Volume II 363, for a grand total of 753 pages. (Funny--that seems a little short to me now.)
There's a handwritten note in the front of Volume I which says July 1970, and another one in the back which says 12/1972. Have to say that I hope that that second notation is from a different reading or reader, because 17 months is way too long. (That'd be an average on one and a half pages per day!) There's also a notation in the front of Volume II which just says 1970...and one in the back which says 1/73. So I'm going to go for the two readings or readers theory on that.
There's also an address label in front of Volume I that says
(I'm going to guess that this person has long since done the mortal coil shuffle, but just in case....)
So this book has made a little journey or two.
And who knows what stops in-between. And maybe one more stop, at least, as once I've finished with these books, I'm pretty sure I won't be reading them again, and they might be able to find another home.
Day 1 (DDRD 1,737) August 3, 2022
Read to page 17, the end of Chapter I. Also read the Introduction, by the Earl of something or other, and a Preface by Dickens. The Perfect was quite alright, but the Introduction was really awful, and I'd definitely recommend that you skip it if you find it blocking your way to the novel proper. For one thing, this Earl fellow goes out of his way not only to spoil the ending of this book, but of several other Dickens works as well. For another thing, he seems to think that the function of an Introduction is to summarize the plot...which makes no sense to me whatsoever. If he could add a little insight into his understanding of the novel, that might be nice...but (thing three) he is such a poor writer that if he has any insight into this work, it remains stuck in his craw. (Thought I sincerely doubt that he had any insight to share, and thus his craw would remain unstopped.)
Wikipedia offers some information which I did find interesting. To wit, this novel was first published in a magazine, Master Humphrey's Clock, which was weekly and produced entirely by Dickens from April 4, 1840 until December 4, 1841. Can you imagine? And as for The Old Curiosity Shop itself, it appeared from "1840–1841, UK, Chapman and Hall, Pub date (88 weekly parts) April 1840 to November 1841." So there's another I Can't Imagine for you: writing a novel in weekly installments. Talk about working without a net.
The first chapter of the novel was pretty interesting, and of course Little Nell immediately tugs at the heartstrings with her innocence and vivacity.
The illustrations for this novel aren't by the usual fellow (Phiz). So far as I can tell they're by a fellow named George Cattermole.
One other interesting thing about the way this novel was presented. Dickens intended Master Humphrey's Clock to be a gigantic work which included a framing story, short stories, and two novels--this one and Barnaby Rudge. There are several copies of this 1840 publication out there, such as this one
from Biblio.com...which I have to admit I feel great desire for. The description of this 3 volume set also confirms that this George Cattermole fellow was one of two artists involved in the illustrations...the other being Hablot Browne * (in case you don't feel like reading the fine print). One look was enough to let me know that the art was by a different fellow--it was much darker and murkier than the Phiz illustrations from the previous volumes.
* UPDATE: Well...apparently that's Hablot "The Phiz" Browne, so my ability to discern a difference in style is either even better than I'd thought, since I thought the art was quite different from that in the Dickens books I'd read previously, or worse than I thought, in that I was unable to discern the hand of Phiz in these plates. **
** UPDATED UPDATE: Just read this in a seller's description on AbeBooks for all 88 original parts of The Old Curiosity Shop:
"These 88 original wrappers were designed by Cattermole with 2 frontispieces, 130 woodcuts and 25 initials by Browne; 1 frontispiece and 38 woodcuts by Cattermole; 1 woodcut each by S. Williams and Maclise."
(https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=12177365297&searchurl=x%3D55%26fe%3Don%26y%3D23%26bi%3D0%26ds%3D30%26bx%3Doff%26sortby%3D1%26tn%3DMaster%2BHumphrey%2527s%2BClock%26an%3DCharles%2BDickens%26recentlyadded%3Dall&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1)
So it looks like most of the work was by the so-called Phiz, but that there were some other hands in it as well.
P.S. This item is listed as "Master Humphrey's Clock (In 88 Monthly parts)"...which is not correct. These were WEEKLY parts. I feel an email contact coming on.
P.P.S. What the hell, I went for it. Tried to keep it low key and friendly:
News as it happens, of course.
Day 2 (DDRD 1,738) August 4, 2022
Read to page 50.
This Quilp fellow is an interesting character. The way Dickens describes him makes me think that Jack Kirby was thinking of this character when he designed MODOK, as they share the same basic description of hideous and large head on tiny body. As I was poking around I found that Anthony Newley had played Quilp in a movie produced by Reader's Digest--Mr. Quilp. Which I the found posted in its entirety on YouTube (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q68QkxzGxxs). It's clearly not a high demand item, as there were only 549 views, but I'm a big Anthony Newley fan, so I might have a go at it later on.
In other news...
It took me awhile, but on the third illustration--
--it hit me that this is the first volume in this series that I've read in which the illustrations are incorporated into the text rather than set aside on a separate (and blank-backed) page. Which I like better. For one thing, because it makes the reading go a little bit faster, and I'm always good with that.
At the end of Chapter III, the narrator * says, "And now that I have carried this history so far in my own character and introduced these personages to the reader, I shall for the convenience of the narrative detach myself from its further course, and leave those who have prominent and necessary parts in it to speak and act for themselves."
* An unnamed old man who happens upon Little Nell as she is wandering around, lost. He sees her safely home, then returns to the home the next day as he is consumed with curiosity and concern for her. From another source...probably Wikipedia, but I don't remember ...I found out that this unnamed old man is actually Master Humphrey, from Master Humphrey's Clock. **
** Ever since I read about the 3 Volume version of Master Humphrey's Clock, it has occupied some space in my consciousness. So I've been poking around here and there, looking at copies, reading a bit about it here and there. (I intend to read G.K. Chesteron's comments on it, which can be found HERE). *** I also went looking for my copy of that work in one of the CENTENNIAL volumes, and found some curiosities there. For one thing, the spine of the volume
does not correspond to the order of the contents:
Which I find to be strange on two counts: (1) obviously--that it doesn't correspond with the listing on the spine, and (2) that chronologically there is a huge gap between these two works, with MHC being published in 1840 - 1841 and the half-finished TMoED published in 1870...thus (again) indicating that MHC should have been first...or, even better, should have been published in a separate volume. As to that, however, MHC begins on page 303 and ends on page 447, so obviously it's not long enough to be published in a separate volume...at least not in this CENTENNIAL series, wherein volume averages between 400 and 500 pages.
*** And it was an interesting little essay, for sure. Mostly focused on what Chesterton sees as the failings of Master Humphrey's Clock, but not in a snide way. Chesterton primarily focuses on the idea that only in this work did Dickens attempt to revive previously used characters, and points out that (1) it was a failure, (2) other writers did these kinds of crossovers successfully, and it's kind of surprising that Dickens only did it once, and then poorly, and (3) why it didn't work out for CD, Well worth reading, I'd say.
Day 3 (DDRD 1,739) August 5, 2022
Read to page 80. And here's another new word for me:
condign
Which dictionary.com tells me is an adjective meaning "well-deserved; fitting; adequate," as in "condign punishment." (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/condign)
Thank you, dictionary.com.
Day 4 (DDRD 1,740) August 6, 2022
Read to page 111.
And it looks like Nell and her grandfather are about to be kicked out of their home. Which is curious, because The Old Curiosity Shop has played almost no part at all in this story, and if they leave it it will obviously play even less of a part. So why did Dickens choose that as the title of the work? Seems like Little Nell would have served better, since it seems to be primarily her story.
In other news, I was thinking about how at least in Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, and The Old Curiosity Shop (aka Little Nell), Dickens creates a villain who is truly evil, who goes out of his way to hurt other people, even when he gains little or even nothing by so doing. (And even when it actually costs him something to do evil.) And yet at the same time he gives you enough narrative to see why the character is the way that he is: Fagin has been hated because he is Jewish, Ralph Nickleby's heart was broken when he was a young man, and Daniel Quilp is a dwarf and has been ill-treated on that count.
Day 5 (DDRD 1,741) August 7, 2022
Read to page...well, I don't know, I'm still working on it. Up most of the night with my melting down, covid-positive son, and pretty much wall to wall with him this morning, so I'm probably not going to have any sustained reading time. On the other hand, Dickens is good for a troubled mind, so I'll try to squeeze in 30 pages over the course of the day.
Meanwhile, though, here are some things I learned (in the middle of the night when sleep eluded me) about the 3 Volume Master Humphrey's Clock from The Gutenberg Project:
The Old Curiosity Shop begins about six pages in. And this is what happens in the body of the book:
And.. made to page 140.
Day 6 (DDRD 1,742) August 8, 2022
Another Covid isolation day with #2🌞, so another day in which it will be hard to get any reading done. Especially so since I slept "late"--until 5:45--and only awakened with said 🌞. Oh, me? I'm still testing negative, thanks, although there have probably been several dozen times when I've thought, "Oh, I've got it now"--which is usually followed by the thought, "With my shitty heart, that means I'm going to die." But (thus far) it's just paranoia, psychosomaticism, and cynicism. May it remain so, please.
In what little I have read so far today, though, here's a line which struck me as funny, especially given my current circumstances:
"...when your finely strung people are out of sorts, they must have everybody else unhappy likewise...."
Yep. In a fuckin' 🔩🐚.
And...read to page 170. And there was much rejoicing.
Oh, almost forgot about The Grass.
I probably shouldn't delineate the limits of my intelligence by admitting this, but I shall do so anyway: upon hearing the phrase All flesh is grass, I had always thought of it as a metaphor, that we are small, feeble, and die rather quickly. Mr. Dickens tells me that that's not it at all, that it's saying that we die, we rot, seeds feed on our rot, and we become blades of grass.
Thank you, Mr. Dickens. 😮
By the way, I just checked (via Project Gutenberg and and SEARCH TEXT box) and so far every Dickens novel has included references to two things: (1) a nightcap and (2) a fat man. Just sayin', sir.
Day 7 (DDRD 1,743) August 9, 2022
Read to page 205...and was finished by 5:20 am. That's what waking up at 4:30 am will do for you, even when you are isolating with a Covid-positive autistic individual.
It occurred to me that there are two more things which are probably associated with every Dickens work that I've so far read: boiled beef and beer. Let's see what our survey says.
PP no boiled beef, but cold beef yes; beer yes
OT boiled beef yes; cold beef yes; beer yes
NN no boiled beef; cold beef yes; beer yes
OCS boiled beef yes; no cold beef; beer yes
So extensive research now shows that in every Dickens work (thus far) there is mention of nightcaps, fat men, beef (sometimes boiled, more often cold), and beer. I'm thinking that there's the basis for a major treatise here...but as I'm old and feeble, I'll leave that to you.
Day 8 (DDRD 1,744) August 10, 2022
Read to page 231. Day 5 of isolation, btw.
As Kit prepares to leave home for his new job, he tries to calm his distraught mother down, and assures her that he will come and visit as often as he can. He says, "... I can get a holiday of course; and then see if we don't take little Jacob to the play, and let him know what oysters meant." (219)
I can't help but think that What Oysters Meant would be a great title for a poem, short story, or novel.
At this point, The Old Curiosity Shop itself is pretty much out of the picture, and it occurred to me that one thing lacking is this novel (IMHO) is that there was no real long and detailed exploration of the place, which (1) would be interesting and (2) seems warranted...even imPLIed...by the title of the book. But hey, who am I to question Charles Dickens.
Feel like reading a bit more, but right now duty calls: we walk for at least 45 minutes a day (what else is there to do outside of the house when you're quarantining?), and since it looks like it will rain later, the time to walk is now, the place to walk is here.
Day 9 (DDRD 1,745) August 11, 2022
Read to page 260, so you know what THAT means: I will go under 100 pages tomorrow. Or maybe today if I get half of a chance.
At one point in Today's Thirty, Mr. Quill reflects that
"...he did not mean to beat or kill his wife, and would therefore, after all said and done, be a very tolerable, average husband." (236)
And of course his reflection is bound up with Dickens' perspective in some way, which indicates to me that Dickens is appalled at the fact that there are many men in his society who find it acceptable to do physical violence to their wives.
I'm also thinking about the illustrations in this volume. They seem so murky compared with those in the other works I've read in this series. For instance:
A bit blurry because of low light and shaky hands, but you get the idea. And then it occurred to me that just because the illustrations in the previous volumes were clear, that didn't mean the same production standards applied to this volume. Plus the fact that in all of the previous volumes, the illustrations were set on separate pages, which might mean that a different printing technique applied to them. So I had a dip into The Gutenberg Project version of the book, and lo and behold...
As you can see, there's a bit of blurriness by the drinking lady's hat caused by a lazy scan, but there's no comparison between this picture and the one in the volume I'm reading in terms of clarity and detail. So that's another knock against the fine feathered folks at Heron, isn't it? At least so far as this volume is concerned. We'll see if things improve in Volume II (very doubtful) or in the next work, Barnaby Rudge (another two volume work in this edition, btw).
Lastly, here's a bit of authorial conceit which amused me:
"It happened that at that moment the lady of the caravan had her cup (which, that everything about her might be of a stout and comfortable kind, was a breakfast cup) to her lips, and that having her eyes lifted to the sky in her enjoyment of the full flavour of the tea, not unmingled possibly with just the slightest dash or gleam of something out of the suspicious bottle—but this is mere speculation and not distinct matter of history—it happened that being thus agreeably engaged, she did not see the travellers when they first came up."
As if he doesn't know for SURE that she's got booze in that little bottle. CD often plays the part of, "I'm just here looking on, just like you, Dear Reader."
I find it rather charming.
Slightly later...found a minute and read to page 275 (end of Chapter XXVII), putting me inside the last 100 pages. Woo and hoo. Also took a look at the book binding, and...
...no signs of it breaking apart (knock wood). Of the previous five volumes of THE CENTENNIAL DICKENS that I've read thus far, only the first, The Pickwick Papers Volume I, is equally intact...and it is showing a bit of strain at its hinges.
Day 10 (DDRD 1,746) August 12, 2022
Read to page 321. Also read the notes from pages 371 to 373, so you know what that means: I have a good shot at finishing this volume up tomorrow.
Dickens makes this puzzling reference:
"Miss Monflathers, however, rebuked this enthusiasm, and took occasion to reprove Mrs Jarley for not keeping her collection more select: observing that His Lordship had held certain opinions quite incompatible with wax-work honours, and adding something about a Dean and Chapter, which Mrs Jarley did not understand."
It's referring to Miss Monflathers' disdain for Mrs. Jarley's wax figure of Byron, but the Dean and Chapter stuff was beyond me. So I Googled. And found "The Dean and the Don: Derek Parker on Lord Byron, Don Juan." The first paragraph of this says:
"Back in 1968, when I was editing Poetry Review, published by the Poetry Society, I started a campaign to have a memorial to Byron placed in Poets’ Corner. I was tentative in my first approach to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey, suspecting they might not be particularly enthusiastic about giving space to a man who boasted of having enjoyed a hundred different women during his first two years in Venice and who thought that ‘all sense and senses’ were against belief in religion."
https://foxedquarterly.com/lord-byron-don-juan-literary-review/?fbclid=IwAR3Q_pPpgnF-mYDp6dLsYvpEelset-q5lE1W-dkdZzUkOpWXgsFT6puy34Y
And then the last bit comes courtesy of Wiktionary, which tells us that Dean and Chapter is "The governing body of a cathedral; the chapter consisting of a group of canons or prebendaries."
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=what+is+dean+and+chapter&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
So there you have it.
Also, I'm not sure what the sign has to do with the story...other than the fact that Miss Monflathers' place clearly wants nothing to do with men, who are not even allowed to enter the premises of her school, but I thought the sign in this picture--
--was pretty funny. (But not ha ha funny. Well...maybe a little ha ha funny.)
Day 11 (DDRD 1,747) August 13, 2022
Read to page 370...and since I read 371 to 372 yesterday, that means The End of Volume I. Ended on a high note, too, with a mysterious gentlemen (microwave owner referenced below) revealing that he is in pursuit of Nell and her grandfather, and we don't know if he means them good or ill. So we'll hit the ground running with Volume II tomorrow.
Interesting little printing error:
I don't hold this one against Heron Books--unless it appears in a great many or all of the copies they printed, and I've no way of ascertaining that--since little glitches in printing can happen, but I'd have to say that I have very rarely seen such things in other books, so there is that.
As for the rest of it...the focus shifts away from Little Nell and her grandfather to Dick Swiveller (no, really) and Mr. and Miss Brass, which is not a plus, but on the other hand there was quite a bit of ha ha, so that helped. Also, it almost seems as if Dickens is referring to Miss Brass as a transgender person: she has a mustache, she dresses in men's clothing, and she acts in a decisively masculine way (in the context of The Times, not by my own estimation, I hasten to add).
And if you doubt my assessment, here's the front and back of a character card created for Players Cigarettes from 1923. (The copywrite on these images wasn't clear, so for reference sake, here's the information I found vis-a-vis attribution: George Arents Collection, The New York Public Library. "Sally Brass, Old Curiosity Shop." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-784a-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.)
And check out the commentary on the back of the card:
So you can see that my comments on her appearance are not merely the product of a (lower) middle class, white, cisgender & mostly heterosexual male. Also, both Dick Swiveller (still yes) and Mr. Brass refer to Miss Brass by male euphemisms, such as "chum," etc. So there's that.
P.S. Looks like you can get the whole set of 50 cards on eBay, with the current low-price leader going for $100 + $12 shipping. Actually tempting...but hard pass.
In other news, I think Dickens also invented the idea of a microwave in this novel. Check this out. The previously mentioned Dick Swiveller (and yes, still yes) is witness to the actions of the new tenant of the apartment upstairs from the law office wherein he now works (with Mr. and Miss Brass):
"Greatly interested in his proceedings, Mr Swiveller observed him closely. Into one little chamber of this temple, he dropped an egg; into another some coffee; into a third a compact piece of raw steak from a neat tin case; into a fourth, he poured some water. Then, with the aid of a phosphorus-box and some matches, he procured a light and applied it to a spirit-lamp which had a place of its own below the temple; then, he shut down the lids of all the little chambers; then he opened them; and then, by some wonderful and unseen agency, the steak was done, the egg was boiled, the coffee was accurately prepared, and his breakfast was ready.:
If that's not a microwave oven at work, then I don't know what is. The only evidence against my conclusion is that The Unnamed Guest's "temple" works a hell of a lot faster than my microwave oven.
Day 12 (DDRD 1,748) August 14, 2022
Read to page 30.
We still haven't gotten back to Nell and grandfather, but that's obviously imminent. And the story of the Brasses and their mysterious lodger (not to mention Dick Swiveller) has linked up with the main story in quite a satisfying way. Come to think of it, the plot of this story seems far less dependent on Amazing Coincidences than other Dickens stories. Of course that could change, but even in the matter of The Lodger's search for a Punch and Judy troupe: instead of bumping into the right pair of fellows, he searched long and hard and interviewed quite a few performers before he finally got the right ones.
In other news, yet another new word courtesy of Mr. D: ebullition. Which dictionary.com tells us goes like this:
ebullition:
eb-uh-lish-uhn
noun
a seething or overflowing, as of passion or feeling; outburst.
the state of being ebullient.
the act or process of boiling up.
a rushing forth of water, lava, etc., in a state of agitation.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/ebullition
And which is obviously related to ebullient.
Happened upon a pretty strange proofreading error early on in today's reading--primarily noteworthy in that I believe this is the first proofreading error I've spotted, and this is my 7th volume in this Dickens set.
"Having giving him this piece of moral advice for his trouble...." (11)
Just to be sure I wasn't missing something, I checked the Project Gutenberg version of the text, wherein I found
"Having given him this piece of moral advice for his trouble...."
So that's why you need human proofreaders. Careful ones. (Did I mention that I am available for a reasonable fee?)
Dickens also waxed philosophical in an interesting away on two counts. The first was how the rich become tied to their possessions rather than their people, while the poor, lacking possessions, are tied to their people. A generalization, to be sure, but one which rings true to me, and which perhaps explains why it so often seems that the poor find more happiness than the rich. Also the whole (camel, needle) thing.
As for the second, Kit is thinking about what a good time he had spending some of his salary taking his family to the theater and then out to eat...at which time "little Jacob [came to] know what oysters meant," thus explaining the mysterious phrase from my reading of a few days ago. The next day, however, he seems to be leaning towards melancholy, and Dickens observes that
"Such is the difference between yesterday and today. We are all going to the play, or coming home from it." (22)
I'm not completely sure what CD means here, but my guess is that it is in part a lamentation for the fact that we humans find it very hard to live in the moment, and that perhaps part of the difficulty is the fact that all of our moments are so fleeting. Existence is primarily focused on what is to come and what came and went, thus we vacillate between hope and expectation and disappointment and lack of fulfillment.
Well now, that's cheery, ennit?
Day 13 (DDRD 1,749) August 15, 2022
Read to page 60.
I'm starting to think that I should start a Dickens Word of the Day thing, since it seems to be a regular thing that he uses a word I'd not previously heard of. Today's word is conventicle.
So there's that.
And here's another little meta moment which I appreciated, as the narrator not only breaks the fourth wall, but steps through the felled bricks and sits down for a cup of tea:
"To tell how Kit then hustled into the box all sorts of things which could, by no remote contingency, be wanted, and how he left out everything likely to be of the smallest use; how a neighbour was persuaded to come and stop with the children, and how the children at first cried dismally, and then laughed heartily on being promised all kinds of impossible and unheard-of toys; how Kit’s mother wouldn’t leave off kissing them, and how Kit couldn’t make up his mind to be vexed with her for doing it; would take more time and room than you and I can spare. So, passing over all such matters, it is sufficient to say that within a few minutes after the two hours had expired, Kit and his mother arrived at the Notary’s door, where a post-chaise was already waiting."
And here's a bit of pure beauty (& Biblical allusion) which I loved dearly:
"She raised her eyes to the bright stars, looking down so mildly from the wide worlds of air, and, gazing on them, found new stars burst upon her view, and more beyond, and more beyond again, until the whole great expanse sparkled with shining spheres, rising higher and higher in immeasurable space, eternal in their numbers as in their changeless and incorruptible existence. She bent over the calm river, and saw them shining in the same majestic order as when the dove beheld them gleaming through the swollen waters, upon the mountain tops down far below, and dead mankind, a million fathoms deep." (41)
Isn't that just lovely...and chilling, too?
I had barely started my reading this morning when a strange but familiar sound emanated from the spine beneath my fingers, and when I looked, sure enough...
I know I've said it before, but maybe not lately, so let me just reiterate: Fucking Heron Books!
Day 14 (DDRD 1,750) August 16, 2022
Read to page 90. Pretty early on in today's reading we got intimations of Nell's approaching death, which seems inevitable, even though there are still some 300 pages in the novel.
There's a part in Today's Thirty (Chapter XLIV)wherein Nell and her grandfather are taken in by a laborer, who allows them to sleep in a pile of ashes while he works shoveling coal (I think) into a furnace. I really wanted more information about this scenario--what kind of place was this? A steel foundry? A Victorian power plant? And it made me wish that there was an annotated version of the book that I could consult. Looked, but didn't find anything that looked attractive...though I did find a very nice annotated version of "A Christmas Carol," and a nice two volume edition of annotated versions of several other Dickens novels which I am trying not to purchase. As for the "factory," though, I couldn't find any more detailed information about it online.
In other news, Nell says some prayers in this section, and I thought the commentary on that was interesting:
"And yet she lay down, with nothing between her and the sky; and, with no fear for herself, for she was past it now, put up a prayer for the poor old man. So very weak and spent, she felt, so very calm and unresisting, that she had no thought of any wants of her own, but prayed that God would raise up some friend for him. She tried to recall the way they had come, and to look in the direction where the fire by which they had slept last night was burning. She had forgotten to ask the name of the poor man, their friend, and when she had remembered him in her prayers, it seemed ungrateful not to turn one look towards the spot where he was watching."
Nell's prayers are not for herself, but for those she loves and for those who have done her a kindness. I think about how easy it is for me to default my prayer setting to when I need something or when I am frightened about something. I've tried to steer away from that these days, because, yes, unlikely as it might seem, I have become a praying man. Every night. And on my knees. I don't think it's the desperation of an old man who is becoming to fear death...although it could be. I think it's just the realization that I don't know what Truth and Reality are, and it feels good to me to address thanks to GOD at the end of the day, and ask for protection for those I love and to remember those who have died. If that makes me a sap, then so be it. I don't really care. I just know that I feel better when I do it, and that when I forget (which is rarely) I feel that I've missed something of importance.
End of sermon.
Day 15 (DDRD 1,751) August 17, 2022
Read to page 120.
And the Dickens word of the day is...jorum. Which, according to https://www.dictionary.com/browse/jorum, goes like this:
[ jawr-uhm, johr- ]
💼 Post-College Level
noun
1 a large bowl or container for holding drink.
2 the contents of such a container:
a jorum of punch.
3 a great quantity.
So there you have it. There were some other words that could have made the cut today, too, so I'm definitely starting to think that a Dickens Word of the Day would be a thing to do. Not by me, but by somebody else who has a love for words and Dickens.
Day 16 (DDRD 1,752) August 18, 2022
Read to page 150.
Forgot to mention that the first Mega Coincidence happened the other day. Nell and her grandfather "just happen" to bump into the schoolmaster who helped them because they are both walking down the same road. I guess I shouldn't be too critical about such things, since improbably coincidences happen to me on a regular basis, but still...this one strains credibility more than a bit. And, as usual, a little bit of extra writing could have made it much more believable.
Another Nell Is Going To Die foreshadowing: On page 140 Nell says, "A quiet, happy place - a place to live and learn to die in!"
That's not normal.
Day 17 (DDRD 1,753) August 19, 2022
Read to page 181 196.
Here's a thing from page 165:
‘There is nothing,’ cried her friend, ‘no, nothing innocent or good, that dies, and is forgotten. Let us hold to that faith, or none. An infant, a prattling child, dying in its cradle, will live again in the better thoughts of those who loved it, and will play its part, through them, in the redeeming actions of the world, though its body be burnt to ashes or drowned in the deepest sea. There is not an angel added to the Host of Heaven but does its blessed work on earth in those that loved it here. Forgotten! oh, if the good deeds of human creatures could be traced to their source, how beautiful would even death appear; for how much charity, mercy, and purified affection, would be seen to have their growth in dusty graves!’
Day 18 (DDRD 1,754) August 20, 2022
Read to page 230.
Speaking of the unfortunately named Dick Swiveller, he doesn't seem to be the bad guy I thought he was. His treatment of the little servant --feeding her, giving her beer, and playing cards with her--seems to have been motivated by nothing other than pity for her wretched plight. I have the feeling he and she are going to play an important part in the vindication of Kit in the upcoming chapters.
Meanwhile...I felt compelled to do an accounting of my 36 volumes of THE CENTENNIAL DICKENS and found, much to my puzzlement, that I have only 35 volumes in hand...and that I have two copies of Sketches by Boz Volume I, which means that two of the volumes are presently unaccounted for. This is what comes of being so amazingly disorganized. And so The Search begins....
Day 19 (DDRD 1,755) August 21, 2022
Read to page 265 (end of Chapter LXV). And you know what that means. Less than 100 pages to go in this volume!
"Did they believe that a man like Brass could reside in a place like Beavis Marks, and not be a virtuous and most upright character?" (247)
"Did they believe that a man like Trump could reside in a place like Mar-a-Lago, and not be a virtuous and most upright character?"
Day 20 (DDRD 1,756) August 22, 2022
Read to page 300. And I'm injured--after a fall in the rain on a muddy trail in the woods--so there's a good chance that I'll be stretched out on the sofa for a few hours today, and may well have another go at this book. I'm quite interested to see how things go for Quilp and Nell & her grandfather. And the Marchioness, as well, who is quite an interesting minor character.
This bit from page 286--
‘To be short with you, then, it leads me to this. If the truth has come out, as it plainly has in a manner that there’s no standing up against—and a very sublime and grand thing is Truth, gentlemen, in its way, though like other sublime and grand things, such as thunder-storms and that, we’re not always over and above glad to see it—I had better turn upon this man than let this man turn upon me. It’s clear to me that I am done for. Therefore, if anybody is to split, I had better be the person and have the advantage of it. Sarah, my dear, comparatively speaking you’re safe. I relate these circumstances for my own profit.’
--also reminds me of Mr. Trump. Sooner or later if you treat people like shit they will come back at you, I think. I hope. Thus did Michael Cohen. Thus did (in a way) Bill Barr. So who's next?
Later...
Read to page 341. So (1) the damaged leg on the sofa schtick did indeed put me over the top for pages read daily and (2) I should have no trouble at all finishing up tomorrow, as there are only 22 pages remaining.
And as for what Oscar Wilde said about the death of Nell...well fuck him. I found it moving. And I've read a bit about how difficult it was for Dickens to write this passage, and how it evoked the memory of his daughter who had died at a young age. So Mr. Wilde, there's no art to being a heartless son of a bitch. All it takes is a lack of humanity.
BTW, Dickens uses the phrase "beguile[d] the time" four times in this book. Which made me curious, so I went back and checked. He uses it five times in The Pickwick Papers, once in Oliver Twist, and once in Nicholas Nickleby.
Day 21 (DDRD 1,757) August 23, 2022
Read to page 363, The End.
Not much action in the last three chapters--a summing up and a summarization of All That Happened After, which I don't think Dickens has done before.
On to Barnaby Rudge now.
DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read
DDR Day 1001 to Day 2000:
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages
(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
2nd 1K Total: 20,487; Grand Total: 33,936 . Average Pages Per Day:
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