Now, now... Don't get too excited. I'm not going to explain the mystery of how Geoff snatched such an amazingly wonderful bride. ;) I'm actually going to talk about, um, Dickens. (And an uncomfortable hush descends upon us, broken only by the sounds of the shuffling feet of those close enough to the door to make a break...)
It may be my imagination, but Dickens just doesn't seem to be anyone's favorite topic. I get it. I really do. Dickens is overly dramatic, his stories filled with a ridiculous number of outlandish coincidences. Honestly, the number of crossed and recrossed paths and chance meetings in A Tale of Two Cities is a bit of a stretch for the imagination. Many of his characters seem more like caricatures than characters, having one trait exaggerated about all others to a degree lesser authors might not dare attempt. From spectral old Miss Havisham to angelic Lucie Manette, with eccentric Mr. Jarndyce in the middle, Dickens creates characters who, frankly, are a bit nauseating in the purity of their wretchedness, perfection, and -forgive my lack of eloquence - weirdness.
And then there is Dickens's writing style. His books can be really hard to get into. It took me two tries to get past the first few pages of Bleak House and there are pages in A Tale of Two Cities describing Monseigneur in the City, London streets, and swelling floods of raging French peasants that I trudged through, vaguely comprehending what I read. His sentences, even in more interesting passages, are often so complex, poetic, and long as to justify a reread.
But I like Dickens. Some of his characters are predictable in their dominant traits, but there are characters worthy of admiration for the growth and changes they undergo and for the sacrifices they make. Who doesn't cry over Sydney Carton, after all? (If you don't know who he is, go check out A Tale of Two Cities. Even if you have to skip the chapters on Monseigneur in the City, and I wouldn't blame you if you did, it's well worth reading!) I love characters who come to life on the page, and all of Dickens's characters, even the slightly ridiculous, have life written into them. These people, though exaggerated, seem real. They speak, act, think like real people. Sometimes like crazy real people, but real people nonetheless. And truth be told, real people can be as ridiculous as Dickens's characters...
As can the plots of real life. Dickens's plots are twisted and tangled, with coincidences galore. Through it all is a thread of purpose, as events and meetings seem to lead to a predetermined end. Life is the same - crazy and confused, with apparently random meetings and chance events, but through it all, the hand of God guides, directs, and orchestrates. Life is not so random as we might think, nor Dickens's plot as unrealistic.
So I can forgive Dickens for creating bizarre characters and unlikely plots. Real people and real life are no less bizarre, no less unlikely. Besides, when you get through all the shifty London streets and floods of French peasants, Dickens writes intriguing tales.
I like Dickens for the reasons above, but mainly because he isn't easy to read. In a world of lol and fwiw, imho, we ought to read Dickens and the like more often. We ought to force ourselves to concentrate on what we are reading, even if to do so requires that we pick up books that will do the forcing for us. Dickens will teach you a bit about social conditions and revolutions. More importantly, he'll force you to think about what he's saying. Not just the deeper implications of his words, and there are important deeper implications, but what the words themselves actually mean in the order in which he has strung them together. You will likely come across sentences the meaning of which will be no clearer after you've read them than before. Read them again. Pay attention to the word order, the punctuation, the imagery. It's a gift from Dickens, this struggle to unlock the meaning of what might at first look like words picked out of a hat. It isn't necessarily easy, but it is worth it. You'll leave a Dickens novel with a slightly better grasp of the English language. And that's not Dickens's only gift to his readers... At the end of a Dickens novel, if you are at all like me, you will feel you have accomplished a great feat. That feeling will be superseded by one of the greatest gift an author can bestow, sorrow at having to leave your richly bizarre new friends and their strange and beautiful world.
No comments:
Post a Comment