One of the things I was taught in High School English, was that some of Dicken’s books (which are great, of course ^^) were originally serialized. As I recall, Great Expectations was one of them, and Tale of Two Cities wasn’t. Seeing as how he got paid by the page for Great Expectations, it was in his interest to stretch it out a little. Which may be why some of his works are seen as too longwinded or overly detailed.
I wonder if this ever comes up amongst serious Dicken’s fans, though; I’ve never heard anyone say, “Well his serialized stuff is great, but that other stuff is trash” or vice-versa.