The little white attic

1/ When I picked up Cecilia , having enjoyed Evelina , I wondered, is this a masterpiece unjustly neglected? Why is Frances Burney not widel...

Yesterday, coincidentally on the anniversary of Dickens’s death (9/6), I was finishing Dombey and Son . That took a while! But now I have fi...

I almost quit on Dombey and Son , around page 425 or so. It is a transitional novel (according to my friend Himadri, the Dickens expert): Fl...

1/ Dickens’s novels are always full of interesting images and unusual similes.  “Spitfire seemed to be in the main a good-natured little bod...

1/ Now that I’ve finished reading David Copperfield after about 6 weeks (though I did take a break and spent a few days reading The Sorrows...

One of the best things about Dickens is his imagery, especially the way he uses imagery for characterisation. Sometimes it’s just an amusing...

There’s a tenderness to David Copperfield that makes it feel quite different from some other Dickens novels I have read ( Little Dorrit , B...

Perhaps I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I can’t help thinking that chapter 18 of David Copperfield stands out as rather unusual.  ...

1/ Why am I in the 19th century again? You ask. Am I not supposed to be in the 18th century? I took just one book with me to Leeds, is my an...

What’s up with me and lists these days? I don’t know. Getting listless, I guess. But once in a while, I think it’s good to look at some list...

Hello friends, fans, and foes, I have just returned from Berlin. Joseph Andrews and Parson Adams were my companions on the work trip. Let’s ...

1/ My first blog post about Pamela , I know, wasn’t very enthusiastic. Around page 100 is when the novel becomes more interesting: Samuel Ri...

Aren’t you amazed at the range of characters in Shakespeare? I mean not just a range in backgrounds, identities, personalities, viewpoints, ...