‘ON THE death of Charles Dickens in 1870 the Times lamented, “The loss of such a man is an event which makes ordinary expressions of regret seem cold and conventional”. It was the prodigious popularity of his work that went furthest to explaining the effect his death had on book-reading Britain and beyond. To mark today’s 200th anniversary of his birth, we have tried to discover which novel sold best during Dickens’s life.’ -The Economist This is interesting. I had to read A Tale of Two Cities in high school, by which I mean, “I read about a fourth of A Tale of Two Cities in high school,” but I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of Master Humphrey’s Clock. And I couldn’t even tell you what Dombey and Son is about. But I do highly recommend Bleak House, even if you don’t like Dickens. I plowed through it last summer (it’s about 1000 pages) and it’s now one of my favorite books of all time - really great characters (I’m looking at you, Mr Bucket), a story I find quite moving, and (not insignificantly) a very good BBC adaptation, starring Anna Maxwell-Martin, Gillian Anderson, and Wedge Freaking Antilles. Ahem. I mean, Denis Lawson.

‘ON THE death of Charles Dickens in 1870 the Times lamented, “The loss of such a man is an event which makes ordinary expressions of regret seem cold and conventional”. It was the prodigious popularity of his work that went furthest to explaining the effect his death had on book-reading Britain and beyond. To mark today’s 200th anniversary of his birth, we have tried to discover which novel sold best during Dickens’s life.’ -The Economist

This is interesting. I had to read A Tale of Two Cities in high school, by which I mean, “I read about a fourth of A Tale of Two Cities in high school,” but I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of Master Humphrey’s Clock. And I couldn’t even tell you what Dombey and Son is about.

But I do highly recommend Bleak House, even if you don’t like Dickens. I plowed through it last summer (it’s about 1000 pages) and it’s now one of my favorite books of all time - really great characters (I’m looking at you, Mr Bucket), a story I find quite moving, and (not insignificantly) a very good BBC adaptation, starring Anna Maxwell-Martin, Gillian Anderson, and Wedge Freaking Antilles.

Ahem. I mean, Denis Lawson.


  1. buggre-alle reblogged this from atharluna
  2. atharluna reblogged this from reasonablysunny and added:
    it makes me happy to see it’s sold the most :).
  3. reasonablysunny posted this