Charles Dickens on Pussy

"If I could choose, I would choose Pussy from all the pretty girls in the world." 

😃

From The Mystery of Edwin Drood 

That cat Dickens is a bad mother--

Shut yo mouth!

I'm just talkin' 'bout Dickens!

DDR: The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Day 1 (DDRD 2,129) August 30, 2023

I was so relieved to have finished the dreadful Our Mutual Friend and so anxious to get to The Final Dickens of My Dickens Project that I started The Mystery of Edwin Drood on the same day. Whilst sitting in the waiting room at Honda World.

And? Well, we start with a bunch of folks passed out on a bed in an opium den, so that's different, ennit? 

And then there's this:

“I’d Pussy you, young man, if I was Pussy, as you call her,” Mrs. Tope blushingly retorts, after being saluted. “Your uncle’s too much wrapt up in you, that’s where it is. He makes so much of you, that it’s my opinion you think you’ve only to call your Pussys by the dozen, to make ’em come.” (10 - 11)

😮

And just a bit later:

"If I could choose, I would choose Pussy from all the pretty girls in the world." (13)

😃

Well, hell, who wouldn't? No doubt it would kill you, but what a way to go, right?

And here's one not about Pussy:

"The cramped monotony of my existence grinds me away by the grain." (14)

Yep, same here, Jack.

Read to page 40. Spine fell off. 259 pages to go. So it looks like in about a week My Dickens Project will be ending. 😭 Though I do have an idea for a coda. 😊

Day 2 (DDRD 2,130) August 31, 2023

Read to page 80. This definitely feels more like Dickens than Our Mutual Friend did.

Dickens used the phrase "much of a muchness" (page 41), and I wondered if that was a reference to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. So I Googled. Possibly: Carroll's book was published in 1865, Dickens' in 1870. But possibly not: "...'much of a muchness' first appeared...in the play The Provok'd Husband, 1728, which was a collaboration between John Vanbrugh and Colley Cibber:

Man: I hope.., you and your good Woman agree still.

J. Moody: Ay! ay! much of a Muchness."

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/251550.html#google_vignette

Day 3 (DDRD 2,131) September 1, 2023

Read to page 140. Yes, this text is MUCH more lively than Our Mutual Friend. It's filled with delightful little bits, such as this:

“Indeed, sir! Yes; I knew that Pussy was looking out for me.”

“Do you keep a cat down there?” asked Mr. Grewgious.

Edwin coloured a little as he explained: “I call Rosa Pussy.”

“O, really,” said Mr. Grewgious, smoothing down his head; “that’s very affable.”

Edwin glanced at his face, uncertain whether or no he seriously objected to the appellation. But Edwin might as well have glanced at the face of a clock.

“A pet name, sir,” he explained again.

“Umps,” said Mr. Grewgious, with a nod. But with such an extraordinary compromise between an unqualified assent and a qualified dissent, that his visitor was much disconcerted.

“Did PRosa—” Edwin began by way of recovering himself.

“PRosa?” repeated Mr. Grewgious.

“I was going to say Pussy, and changed my mind;—did she tell you anything about the Landlesses?”

“No,” said Mr. Grewgious. “What is the Landlesses? An estate? A villa? A farm?”

“A brother and sister. The sister is at the Nuns’ House, and has become a great friend of P—”

“PRosa’s,” Mr. Grewgious struck in, with a fixed face.

“She is a strikingly handsome girl, sir, and I thought she might have been described to you, or presented to you perhaps?”

“Neither,” said Mr. Grewgious. 

🤣 Oh, that Dickens. And btw, sorry about hitting you with another Pussy passage, but the Prosa thing just couldn't be got at any other way.

And you know what? Due to over-reading, it looks like I only have five days--or less!--to go here. And I'm starting to feel disappointed about that. Oh, John Irving, if it's not too late, please read Our Mutual Friend  now and have The Mystery of Edwin Drood for your last Dickens meal.

Day 4 (DDRD 2,132) September 2, 2023

Read to page 200. Hmpf...how'd THAT happen? So less than a 100 pages to go now, and given how the first four days of this book have gone, that might be as little as two more days. (!) Very exciting!!

I've read that the last page Dickens wrote...on the day before he died...started with "A brilliant morning shines on the old city..." and ended with "...and then falls to with an appetite."

I've looked about quite a bit, and have found about half of that last "page" in Dickens handwriting at   https://www.charlesdickenspage.com/drood-last-page.html:

Dunno why they didn't include the rest of that "page"--which reads 

Mr Datchery looks again, to convince himself. Yes, again! As ugly and withered as one of the fantastic carvings on the under brackets of the stall seats, as malignant as the Evil One, as hard as the big brass eagle holding the sacred books upon his wings (and, according to the sculptor's representation of his ferocious attributes, not at all converted by them), she hugs herself in her lean arms, and then shakes both fists at the leader of the Choir.

And at that moment, outside the grated door of the Choir, having eluded the vigilance of Mr Tope by shifty resources in which he is an adept, Deputy peeps, sharp-eyed, through the bars, and stares astounded from the threatener to the threatened.

The service comes to an end, and the servitors disperse to breakfast. Mr Datchery accosts his last new acquaintance outside, when the Choir (as much in a hurry to get their bedgowns off, as they were but now to get them on) have scuffled away.

'Well, mistress. Good morning. You have seen him?'

'I'VE seen him, deary; I'VE seen him!'

'And you know him?'

'Know him! Better far than all the Reverend Parsons put together know him.'

Mrs Tope's care has spread a very neat, clean breakfast ready for her lodger. Before sitting down to it, he opens his corner- cupboard door; takes his bit of chalk from its shelf; adds one thick line to the score, extending from the top of the cupboard door to the bottom; and then falls to with an appetite (Edwin Drood, p. 277-278).

Day 5 (DDRD 2,133) September 3, 2023

Read to page 270. So...looks like tomorrow is it, then. Have to admit that I'm not ready for My Dickens Project to end just yet, so I may have to do something about that.

Meanwhile, there's this:

"He was simply and staunchly true to his duty alike in the large case and in the small. So all true souls ever are. So every true soul ever was, ever is, and ever will be. There is nothing little to the really great in spirit." 

Day 6 (DDRD 2,134) September 4, 2023

Read to page 299...and 🐷 a be, a be, a be, a be...That's All, Folks!

And now I'm wondering if I should take up with one of the "continuations" of this novel. There are several that I know of: Drood by Dan Simmons; The Mystery of Edwin Drood Completed by David Madden; John Jasper's Secret: Sequel to Charles Dickens' Mystery of Edwin Drood, which is credited to Henry Morford and, mysteriously, Charles Dickens, Jr. and Wilkie Collins--what can that mean?; and The D Case, Or The Truth About The Mystery Of Edwin Drood by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini.   Oh, there's also A Great Mystery Solved: Being a Sequel to "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" Gillian Vase...which is three volumes long (!).

Or I could just ease on down the road, 'cause I just finished reading The Complete Works of Charles Dickens!!!

DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day

A History of Philosophy Volumes I - XI

History of Civilization in England Volumes I - III

Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volumes I - III

Civilization and Capitalism, 16th - 18th Century Volumes I - III

The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip IIl Volumes I - III

This Happened In My Presence: Moriscos, Old Christians, and the Spanish Inquisition in the Town of Deza, 1569-1611

The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates

Peat and Peat Cutting

+

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
(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
(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
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages

(29) Master Humprhey's Clock 4 days, 145 pages
(30) Martin Chuzzlewit 32 days, 1,045 pages
(31) American Notes 10 days, 324 pages
(32) Pictures From Italy 7 days, 211 pages
(33) Christmas Stories Volume I 10 days, 456 pages
(34) Christmas Stories Volume II 15 days, 472 pages

(35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages

(36) The Annotated Christmas Carol  7 days, 380 pages

(37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages

(38) Sketches by Boz 22 days, 834 pages

2nd 1K Total: 26,834 pages (to SBBII) = 28.76 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 40,273 pages, 20.83 Average Pages Per Day

(39) David Copperfield 21 days, 1,092 pages

(40) The Uncommercial Traveller 12 days, 440 pages

(41) A Child's History of England 10 days, 491 pages

(42) Reprinted Pieces 14 days, 368 pages

(43) Miscellaneous Papers Volume I 18 days, 542 pages

        + 25 pages Bleak Hose and 9 pages Miscellaneous Papers II = 2,000 days' worth.

2nd 1K Total: 29,801pages = 29.8 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 43,250 pages, 21.625 Average Pages Per Day

(44) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(45) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages

494 - 9 = 485 + 1098 - 25 = 1073 = 1,558 pages towards 3K...in 37 days, for a daily rate of 42+ pages (!).

(46) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages

(47) Little Dorrit 29 days, 1,606 pages

(48) A Tale of Two Cities 9 days, 460 pages

(49) Great Expectations 16 days, 580 pages

(50) Our Mutual Friend 29 days, 1,057 pages

(51) The Mystery of Edwin Drood 6 days, 314 pages FTR vis-a-vis Dickens: 18,671 pages in 468 days

Abandoned Umbrellas I Have Known

I saw an abandoned umbrella in Belfast when I was visiting my son there in 2010. And I remember thinking, "I should take a picture of that." I don't know why. It just seemed like something that ought to have its picture taken. And a moment later, I thought, "That would make an interesting photo book: abandoned umbrellas." Well, interesting to me. I can't imagine that anyone else would be all that into it, actually. So I let the thought die away. Until one day while I was visiting the aforementioned son in Rutland, Vermont (he gets around) and I saw an abandoned umbrella...and I took a picture of it.

Then a little while later, after I'd returned to Louisville, I saw this abandoned (and abused) umbrella in front of the library at the University of Louisville:

And just today I saw this one in downtown Louisville in front of the Hall of Justice:

And with three pictures, I thought...hey, we are well on our way to putting that book together. So I thought I'd go ahead and start to get to it.

Later...

Oh. It's been awhile, but today I saw this at the Peggy Baker ballfield in Crestwood (Kentucky):

And it revived within me my long forgotten dream of a book dedicated to Abandoned Umbrellas. So we're off, you know.

Eastern High School, Louisville Kentucky

Happy Birthday, Terry McGinnis

Terry McGinnis 

(born on August 18, 2023)

DDR: Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

So it looks like I decided to stick to chronological order and leave The Mystery of Edwin Drood for my final Dickens tome. Could go wrong...and probably will, since the book was unfinished...but that's the way it is. 

So let's go.

Day 1 (DDRD 2,101) August 2, 2023

Read to page 10.

Here's a bit of Dickens perfection in the opening paragraph of Chapter II:

"Mr and Mrs Veneering were bran-new people in a bran-new house in a bran-new quarter of London. Everything about the Veneerings was spick and span new. All their furniture was new, all their friends were new, all their servants were new, their plate was new, their carriage was new, their harness was new, their horses were new, their pictures were new, they themselves were new, they were as newly married as was lawfully compatible with their having a bran-new baby, and if they had set up a great-grandfather, he would have come home in matting from the Pantechnicon, without a scratch upon him, French polished to the crown of his head."

Day 2 (DDRD 2,102) August 3, 2023

Read to page 40. All uphill, sorry to say.

UPDATE: Read to page 55. Still uphill.

Day 3 (DDRD 2,103) August 4, 2023

Read to page 90.

"And herein, he ranged with that very numerous class of impostors, who are quite as determined to keep up appearances to themselves, as to their neighbors." (66)

Ah, finally, with the introduction of Simon Wegg and Noddy Boffin, the gears engage.

Day 4 (DDRD 2,104) August 5, 2023

Read to page 120. Y'know, Dickens occasionally does some really gross stuff. Like the bit with the bird (& etc.) at the taxidermist's shop. Bleeeeh.

Day 5 (DDRD 2,105) August 6, 2023

Read to page 150. A hard 30 today. Need to g3t back to Simon and Noddy.

Day 6 (DDRD 2,106) August 7, 2023

Read to page 210. 

A "beer engine" mentioned on page 205. As this was the name of A bar in Danville, Kentucky, I stopped to look up the term.

And https://www.dummies.com/article/home-auto-hobbies/food-drink/beverages/beer/dispensing-real-ale-178785/ had this:

So there you have it: beer engine, not just a cool name for a bar.

Day 7 (DDRD 2,107) August 8, 2023

Read to page 240. Which means tomorrow I hit the halfway point of the first half of this book. Woo-hoo.

Day 8 (DDRD 2,108) August 9, 2023

Read to page 270.

Day 9 (DDRD 2,109) August 10, 2023

Read to page 302. 340. I sure hope Volume II picks things up a bit.

Day 10 (DDRD 2,110) August 11, 2023

Read to page 371. Kind of ready for this to be over...and I've still got almost 700 pages to go. 😞

Day 11 (DDRD 2,111) August 12, 2023

Read to page 400.

As I sat down to read this morning, I felt a ミGreat Sighミ emerging from my soul. I have loved most of Dickens' books...but Our Mutual Friend has been a chore, and you'd think that by the time you hit the 400th page of a book that would no longer be true...unless the book was, indeed, a chore.

So I looked up some reviews on the novel. Most of them were very favorable, some even contending that this was the reader's Favorite Dickens Novel. Which made me feel pretty bad. Clearly I was missing something, right? But then on Goodreads, I read a review by one Stephen Moss which begins:

"To be blunt – this is the worst book I have ever read. And I don’t mean just by Dickens – I mean by any author. To put that opinion into context, I should add that I genuinely enjoyed reading Great Expectations, David Copperfield and Oliver Twist. If ‘Our Mutual Friend’ had been written by a less well-known author, I am certain it would have been lost without trace by now, and consigned to the giant dust mound of forgotten literature. Why is it so bad? ‘Ponderous’ is a good one-word summary.

"The plot is rambling and does not justify 800 pages, delivered at a pace best described as ‘glacial’. For example, at the start of Chapter 1 of Book the Third, more than half a page and over 230 words are used to say ‘it was foggy’."

Ah...thank you, Mr. Moss. At least I'm not completely alone in my disdain for this book. And actually there were another dozen or so reviews of like ilk, but nobody said it better than Stephen Moss. 

So with that said...of course I'll finish this book. I'll even continue to plug away at 30 (or more) pages per day. But I will just take it as it is, and stop thinking, "I must be missing something." 

Sometimes you just need a little tea and sympathy.

Day 12 (DDRD 2,112) August 13, 2023

Read to page 430...so <100 pages to go. Finally.

Day 13 (DDRD 2,113) August 14, 2023

Read to page 461. I feel great pity for John Irving, Desmond (even though he's a fictitious character), and anyone else who saved this book for their Deathbed Reading as their Last Dickens. What a sad note to go out in.

Day 14 (DDRD 2,114) August 15, 2023

Read to page 492.

It's not just uphill...it's pitons and crampons time. Tomorrow I'll finish Volume I. Please, Lord, let Volume II be better.

Day 15 (DDRD 2,115) August 16, 2023

Read to page 522...The End. And what a long, boring trip it's been.  Looking at 503 pages of Volume II with trepidation. Please...PLEASE!...be better than Volume I.

P.S. Just had a look at the Table of Contents for Volume II.

CHAPTER I: Lodgers in Queer Street

How is that NOT a hit musical?

CHAPTER XIII: Give a Dog a Bad Name, and hang him (sic)

CHAPTER XV: Mr. Webb prepares A Grindstone for Mr. Boffin's Nose

So some hope, I think, of Better Pages ahead.

Day 16 (DDRD 2,116) August 17, 2023

Read to page 30.

Mr. Fledgeby to Mr. Lammle:

"But whatever you do, Lammle, don’t—don’t—don’t, I beg of you—ever fall into the hands of Pubsey and Co. in the next room, for they are grinders. Regular flayers and grinders, my dear Lammle,’ repeated Fledgeby with a peculiar relish, ‘and they’ll skin you by the inch, from the nape of your neck to the sole of your foot, and grind every inch of your skin to tooth-powder."

And in case you're wondering...

"What Is A Shrub?

In terms of drinks, a shrub is a non-alcoholic syrup made of a combination of concentrated fruits, aromatics, sugar, and vinegar. This sweet, yet acidic mixer is traditionally enjoyed as a component of a mixed drink with soda water."

https://content.kegworks.com/blog/what-the-heck-is-a-shrub-2

But, sorry to say, the book is not "picking up."

Day 17 (DDRD 2,117) August 18, 2023

Read to page 60. Some hopeful signs in today's thirty...such as the guy who only buys books about the lives of misers. Definitely not an uphill day. Not downhill, either, but here's hoping.

Day 18 (DDRD 2,118) August 19, 2023

Read to page 90.

Day 19 (DDRD 2,119) August 20, 2023

Read to page 120. Uphill we go. 380 pages to go.

Day 20 (DDRD 2,120) August 21, 2023

Read to page 150. 183.

"No one is useless in this world...who lightens the burden of it for any one else." Rokesmith to Bella (135)

So there's that.

Day 21 (DDRD 2,121) August 22, 2023

Read to page 200. Yeah, a mere 17 pages. Partly because I'd done 63 pages Monday, partly because I felt a great need to get high, and I can't read whilst in an altered state. But I'll be back in the saddle tomorrow, and you know that for sure.

Day 22 (DDRD 2,122) August 23, 2023

Read to page 240. Really tried to push to make it to the halfway point (page 251.5), but it was just...SOOOO...boring. Maybe have another go at it later. Meanwhile, there's this:

Public Domain

"...let it be fully understood that I shall not neglect bringing the grindstone to bear, nor yet bringing Dusty Boffin's nose to it. His nose once brought to it, shall be held to it by these hands, Mr. Venus, till the sparks flies out in showers." (203)

Well, that ought to do it.

Day 23 (DDRD 2,123) August 24, 2023

Read to page 270. 😖😖😖 280. Why. Is. This. Book. So. Hard. To. Read. ? There's just no life in it at all.

Day 24 (DDRD 2,124) August 25, 2023

Read to page 310. 192 pages to go. 

Day 25 (DDRD 2,125) August 26, 2023

Read to page 340. 162 pages to go. Which should be five days. I think I can, I think I can....

(But oh how I wish that I could just sit down and plow through these last pages and Be Done With This.)

So the idea that some people think Our Mutual Friend is one of Dickens' best books continues to nip at my medulla oblongata. It helped that the fellow from goodreads felt the same way that I did, but it apparently wasn't enough to make me feel secure in my dislike of the novel.

So I went looking again. And this time I can up on Henry James. Specifically, The Nation, 21 December 1865 (which you can find in full at https://omf.ucsc.edu/publication/reviews/henry-james.html).

Mr. James's review starts with this: "Our Mutual Friend is, to our perception, the poorest of Mr. Dickens's works. And it is poor with the poverty not of momentary embarrassment, but of permanent exhaustion. It is wanting in inspiration."

He later goes on to say that the book is "lifeless, forced, mechanical. It is the letter of his old humor without the spirit. It is hardly too much to say that every character here put before us is a mere bundle of eccentricities, animated by no principle of nature whatever."

And then he ends by referring to the novel as "infinitely depressing and unprofitable."

Well. That pretty much sums it up for me to this point...and I doubt very much that anything will happen in the final 162 pages to change my mind.

So thank you, Mr. James, for giving me at least a bit of confidence in the idea that I am not totally full of shit.

Public Domain

Day 26 (DDRD 2,126) August 27, 2023

Read to page 370. 😴 132 to go.

Day 27 (DDRD 2,127) August 28, 2023

Read to page 446. Big Waiting day. (NOT because the book suddenly became thrilling.) 56 pages to go.

Day 28 (DDRD 2,128) August 29, 2023

Read to page 478. So a mere 24 pages to go. And today's reading actually ended on A somewhat interesting note, so you KNOW what I'm thinking, right? I don't know if I have it in me or not, but after dinner we'll see what happens.

Day 29 (DDRD 2,129) August 30, 2023

Last night: I got stoned and I missed it.

But this morning I read to page 502, aka The End. I can't even tell you how relieved I am to be shed of this one. But I'm going to write a letter to John Irving, because he deserves to spend the last days of his life reading a better book than this one.

On to The Mystery of Edwin Drood...my last Dickens!

DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day

A History of Philosophy Volumes I - XI

History of Civilization in England Volumes I - III

Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volumes I - III

Civilization and Capitalism, 16th - 18th Century Volumes I - III

The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip IIl Volumes I - III

This Happened In My Presence: Moriscos, Old Christians, and the Spanish Inquisition in the Town of Deza, 1569-1611

The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates

Peat and Peat Cutting

+

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
(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
(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
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages

(29) Master Humprhey's Clock 4 days, 145 pages
(30) Martin Chuzzlewit 32 days, 1,045 pages
(31) American Notes 10 days, 324 pages
(32) Pictures From Italy 7 days, 211 pages
(33) Christmas Stories Volume I 10 days, 456 pages
(34) Christmas Stories Volume II 15 days, 472 pages

(35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages

(36) The Annotated Christmas Carol  7 days, 380 pages

(37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages

(38) Sketches by Boz 22 days, 834 pages

2nd 1K Total: 26,834 pages (to SBBII) = 28.76 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 40,273 pages, 20.83 Average Pages Per Day

(39) David Copperfield 21 days, 1,092 pages

(40) The Uncommercial Traveller 12 days, 440 pages

(41) A Child's History of England 10 days, 491 pages

(42) Reprinted Pieces 14 days, 368 pages

(43) Miscellaneous Papers Volume I 18 days, 542 pages

        + 25 pages Bleak Hose and 9 pages Miscellaneous Papers II = 2,000 days' worth.

2nd 1K Total: 29,801pages = 29.8 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 43,250 pages, 21.625 Average Pages Per Day

(44) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(45) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages

494 - 9 = 485 + 1098 - 25 = 1073 = 1,558 pages towards 3K...in 37 days, for a daily rate of 42+ pages (!).

(46) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages

(47) Little Dorrit 29 days, 1,606 pages

(48) A Tale of Two Cities 9 days, 460 pages

(49) Great Expectations 16 days, 580 pages

(50) Our Mutual Friend 29 days, 1,057