# Dickens - Recomend where I should start. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 20, 2005, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697 "2005-01-20T08:42:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/1 "2005-01-20T08:42:26Z")
It’s really more than a bit embarrassing that I have never read a Dickens novel from start to finish. So, I put it to my fellow Dopers, if you had to recommend one of his novels as the best place to start for the uninitiated, which would it be? ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/2 "2005-01-20T09:44:40Z")
**A Tale Of Two Cities** is probably a good place to start: beautifully written, and a fantastically memorable portrait of the French Revolution. It’s one of his shorter works, and has a relatively straightforward plot and not too many characters - not that these are bad things, but for the uninitiated, launching straight into **Nicholas Nickleby** may put you straight off: ATOTC is Dickens in “gripping yarn” mode. If you enjoy that, try **Great Expectations** next - again, not too long {not being serialised}, but more in the classically Dickensian mode of a complex {although not convoluted} plot and a host of unforgettable minor characters: it’s an excellent read. After that you’ll be ready for the long stuff, so on to **David Copperfield**. And after _that_, you’ll be ready to tackle anything he can throw at you. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/3 "2005-01-20T14:18:28Z")
I’ll echo that. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/4 "2005-01-20T14:25:47Z")
**A Christmas Carol**. Everyone knows the story and has seen it on screen a million times, but how many have read it? ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/5 "2005-01-20T14:42:01Z")
My advice is a bit different from **Case Sensitive** ’s, since, in general, I’ve not enjoyed Dickens’s short novels (especially **Tale of Two Cities** , which I found about as exciting as watching paint dry – it’s not as dull as **Hard Times** , but it’s close). To my mind, his best novel is **Bleak House** , which also has a marvellously evocative first chapter – reading that really gives you a _feel_ for London in the mid-19th century. So I’d suggest reading the beginning of that book, and, if it grabs you, continuing on. But that is quite a long novel, and would probably take some time to read. Or you could try **Great Expectations** , another wonderful novel, and one that’s substantially shorter. That’s also told in first-person, which makes it more immediate (and possibly easier for a 21st century reader to enter into the world). If you want to read bits of the beginnings of different novels, to see what suits your taste, [this site](http://www.online-literature.com/dickens/) (among others) seems to have all of his works available online. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/6 "2005-01-20T14:50:42Z")
My personal favorites are the depressing-as-hell _Little Dorritt_ and _The Old Curiosity Shop_, but I think I am unusal in my tastes—especially as I could not make it through the supposedly funny _The Pickwick Papers_, which everyone else seems to love. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/7 "2005-01-20T15:58:21Z")
I vote for _Great Expectations_, which has a reasonably tight plot (for Dickens, that is), characters who aren’t cloyingly saintly, and one of the most gripping opening sequences in English literature. As a bonus, it contains a hilarious description of the Worst-Ever Performance of _Hamlet_. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/8 "2005-01-20T16:51:54Z")
I have to say… and I have heard many English majors agree… his best novel was his last, **Our Mutual Friend**. It is a 900-page monster and some of the “society” chapters are positively disorienting, but… WOW! **David Copperfield** was my second favorite. The others need to be read several times before their full brilliance dawns upon one. In my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Goofie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b19c9b/32.png) [@Goofie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goofie)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/9 "2005-01-20T17:06:44Z")
I’ll add another vote for _Great Expectations_. Something else to consider – rumor has it that Masterpiece Theatre is picking up a long BBC serialized version of _Bleak House_ to be aired on PBS soon. I always love to see a dramatization of a book I’ve just read. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/10 "2005-01-20T17:24:45Z")
I’ll disagree with _A Tale of Too Cities_: it’s not the most representative/typical of Dickens’ novels, so it’s not the best place to start to see whether Dickens is your cup of tea. The first Dickens novel _I_ read was _Oliver Twist_, when we had to read it in Freshman (HS) English. I enjoyed it. It’s probably one of his easiest novels to read: relatively short and plot-driven. _David Copperfield_ and _Great Expectations_ are both decent choices. _Great Expectations_ is considered to be among Dickens’s best and it’s not too long; _Copperfield_ was IIRC Dickens’s own personal favorite. And yes, if you really want to start with something short, _A Christmas Carol_ is worth reading, and since you probably already know the plot, you can sit back and enjoy Dickens’s writing. And check out [The Friendly Charles Dickens](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140153829/qid=1106242307/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-7047162-5968064?v=glance&s=books). ---
**Author:** ![violacrane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c57346/32.png) [@violacrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/violacrane)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/11 "2005-01-20T19:27:25Z")
> [@G.B.H. Hornswoggler](#): > > To my mind, his best novel is **Bleak House** , which also has a marvellously evocative first chapter – reading that really gives you a _feel_ for London in the mid-19th century. So I’d suggest reading the beginning of that book, and, if it grabs you, continuing on. But that is quite a long novel, and would probably take some time to read. I second that. **Bleak House** was far from the first Dickens I read but was the first I actually enjoyed. I’ve since read and reread most of his books, the only tow i didlike now are the aforementioned **Hard Times** and \*\*Dombey and Son \*\* because Florence Dombey is such a wet goose. ---
**Author:** ![violacrane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c57346/32.png) [@violacrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/violacrane)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/12 "2005-01-20T19:30:29Z")
> [@violacrane](#): > > I second that. **Bleak House** was far from the first Dickens I read but was the first I actually enjoyed. I’ve since read and reread most of his books, the only \*\*tow i didlike \*\* now are the aforementioned **Hard Times** and \*\*Dombey and Son \*\* because Florence Dombey is such a wet goose. \*\*tow i didlike \*\* will this be the straw that makes me learn to preview? **Two I dislike** ---
**Author:** ![Verminary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/71e660/32.png) [@Verminary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Verminary)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/13 "2005-01-20T22:56:41Z")
If you find you have a taste for Dickens after you’ve downed a few, you may also want to consider a sort of companion book called [_What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist–The Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671882368/qid=1106261479/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-6354310-4608710?v=glance&s=books). Between this and **Thudlow Boink** ’s suggestion about _The Friendly Charles Dickens_, you should be all set. I was forced to read Dickens in high school, and I didn’t like it one bit. I suspect this was because I had no sense of historical context, so significant details failed to compute: why Miss Havisham would be getting married at 9 o’clock in the first place, for instance, or what debtor’s prison was all about. I certainly appreciate him on many more levels now that I’ve developed a healthy interest in history. ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/14 "2005-01-21T02:25:33Z")
I have a love/hate relationship with Dickens… I would recommend **Oliver Twist** to begin with. **David Copperfield** and **Great Expectations** are also good. I could not get into **The Pickwick Papers** , **Bleak House** or **A Tale of Two Cities**. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/15 "2005-01-21T02:53:28Z")
Read _Jane Eyre_, then read Jasper Fforde’s _The Eyre Affair_, then read Dickens’s _Great Expectations_, then read Fforde’s _Lost in a Good Book_. You’ll read two great classics of English literature, plus two enormously fun books chock full of references to same! It doesn’t get better than that. Or, well, I could stop pushing Brontë and Fforde and actually answer the OP and suggest you start with _Great Expectations_, which I think is the most accessible Dickens novel, as well as being, in my opinion, his best. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/16 "2005-01-21T03:25:59Z")
> [@Gulo gulo](#): > > I could not get into **The Pickwick Papers** Well, _Pickwick_ was his first novel, and he was still sorta finding his way. It doesn’t really get good until the entrance of Sam Weller, one or two hundred pages in. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/17 "2005-01-21T17:28:19Z")
Well, thanks all for the suggestions. It looks like **Great Expectations** seem to be the consensus choice so I will go and grab a copy today. And thank you for sharing! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dickens-recomend-where-i-should-start/285697/18 "2005-01-21T17:56:23Z")
I think it’s a shame that American school childrena re forced to read Dickens’ books featuring children (or characters who are children at the beginning of the book) because of some confused idea that books about kids are appropriate for kids. They develop a life-long loathing of Dickens that’s tough to break. I have a friend who’s a freshman English teacher and loathes teaching _Great Expectations_, although he has to, because the kids hate it. Hell, I had to read it in high school and hated it. Then I read it in college and realized how hilariously funny it is. So I thought I’d dig _David Copperfield_. Wrong answer. I do like it quite better now with the Jasper Fforde idea that David murdered Dear Little Dora in favor of Sweet Lucid Agnes. 😉 And while I love Eve, I’ve gotta warn you, books like _Little Dorrit_ and _The Olde Curiosity Shop_ didn’t age well, IMHO.