What Dickens Taught Me

Did you know that Charles Dicken’s birthday is in February?

I've been reading LITTLE DORRIT lately. It's one of those books that's taking me awhile, because I read a little bit and then put it aside to read something else. But I will finish it at some point!

I've been thinking about Dickens (who after Austen, is my favorite classic author) and what he’s taught me as a writer.

What I love about Dickens:

    
1. Dialogue: Dickens is a master at making each character sound unique. You can determine who a character is just by the way they speak. 

See if you can guess who said these lines:

A.  “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”

B.  “I’m a very umble person.”

C.  “Barkis is willin’”

D.  “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”

E.  “Please, sir, I want some more.”
(Answers to be posted tomorrow.)

      2. Character traits/tags: Along with dialogue, Dickens gives all his characters a physical attribute, mannerism,   dialogue tic, or repeated word or image. In LITTLE DORRIT, Mrs. General is often spoken of as a varnish, which is fitting for her character. To read more about using traits/tags in your work, see JimBrutcher’s blog (2/10/05).

  3. Names: Dicken’s character’s names can sometimes be a little bit over the top, but they are descriptive of the characters, just like the names in J.K. Rowling’s work. 

     4. Plotting: Dicken’s plots are masterful, the way he weaves in some many different plot strands into a unified whole. You never meet a character once in Dickens. That character will come back at a different time in a different way.

Alas, I do have a few Dickens pet-peeves (gasp!):

1.  Sometimes he takes the character tag thing too far. I’ve read several scenes in LITTLE DORRIT where the characters are not named, but they are only referred to the as the “traveler” or the “little lady” and we are supposed to guess who the characters are by traits alone. This only leaves a reader (like me!) confused.

  2. Like most Victorian novelists, the “show don’t tell” rule is not adhered to. This reminds me how modern fiction trusts the reader a bit more.

3.  Although most of Dicken’s minor women characters are interesting (Nancy, Betsy Trotwood, Maggie, Peggoty), I am not impressed with his lead women characters. He seems to glorify women who aren’t assertive or have a mind of their own (i.e. Little Dorrit, Agnes from DAVID COPPERFIELD). Granted, he is a product of his times, but as a female reader, I am not happy with his lack of strong women characters.

If you like Dickens’ style, but want to read something modern:

I really enjoyed THE GREAT TROUBLE: A MYSTERY OF LONDON, THE GREAT BLUE DEATH, AND A BOY NAMED EEL (Deborah Hopkinson). Eel seems to be a character who’d be best friends with Oliver Twist. He has spunk, charisma, and a lot of heart. Hopkinson’s style and the way that unconnected characters ended up connecting in the end reminded me a lot of Dickens.   (There is some gruesomeness in describing the Blue Death, so not for squeamish readers.) 

THE TRAITOR’S GATE by Avi is also told in the Dicken’s style. I loved how Avi emulated Dicken-style language and plotting in this. This involves John Huffman whose father has just been sentenced to Whitecross Street Prison. This was based on Dicken’s early life.

Masterpiece's DAVID COPPERFIELD with young Daniel Radcliffe

If you haven’t read Dickens before, and are looking somewhere to start, OLIVER TWIST and DAVID COPPERFIELD are good starting points. Caveat: TWIST has a very violent scene at the end that might be too intense for sensitive readers, and COPPERFIELD is very long (it took my son and husband three months to read it!), but it isn’t as dark as some of his other novels.

Happy Birthday, Dickens!

Thank you for the legacy you’ve left to English literature.