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Title: The Old Curiosity Shop
Series: ———-
Author: Charles Dickens
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 632
Format: Digital Edition
Synopsis: |
Little Nell’s Grandfather runs a Curiosity Shop and everyone, including her older brother and a money lending dwarf, think he is rich as Croessus. Unfortunately, he’s also a secret gambler and ends up spending every penny they have on gaming, trying to win big so Nell can live in luxury for the rest of her life.
The help, a young man by the name of Kit, is dismissed, the brother plots to marry Nell to his friend because he is still convinced the Grandfather is rich (just miserly) and the dwarf causes trouble because of his evil nature.
Nell and Grandfather take to the road and meet various characters, some good, some bad and are saved from privation and death by working at a little church in some tiny town. The Grandfather’s younger brother returns from faraway parts, very well off and begins searching for his brother and Grand-niece.
The dwarf plots rot and ruin for everyone and Kit finds a kindly couple to work for and settles down pretty well. Everyone caroms off of each other and does the thing called life and at the end Nell dies, Kit marries happily, Nell’s brother is killed in France by bad company and the dwarf drowns and his poor wife finally marries happily.
My Thoughts: |
This felt like Dickens used Nell as the white ball in a game of billiards. It is the focus of each player but what it does is defined by how it interacts with all the other billiards. Nobody cares about the white ball very much. In the same way Nell ‘s importance to this story was more how she drove interactions with the other characters.
I liked all the various stories. They were great Dickens’ stories but the ties that bound everything together felt a bit weak. I almost wished that there had been more of the Marchioness (another young girl who ends up marrying and helping reform another side character) and not so much Nell. Nell was not a strong person and as such didn’t have the personality to drive this story forward.
Don’t get me wrong, this was still a good, fun, interesting story. But it didn’t have quite that “pop” that I found in some of my other reads by Dickens. Could also be that coming after the Pickwick Papers didn’t do this any favors for me either.
Overall, I enjoyed this but didn’t find much to say about it and nothing made me sit up and go “Awesomesauce”. Definitely on the lower end of the Dickens Ladder.
★★★★☆
I must confess I haven’t read a ton of Dickens since having to in high school. I like his more fantastical stuff, which I haven’t found a ton of.
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I really like his writing, so I’ve been eating up these re-reads.
What fantastical stuff are you referring to? Beyond A Christmas Carol, I’m not aware of anything supernatural…
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He also did one with some goblins: https://pcbushi.wordpress.com/2016/12/27/a-different-dickens-christmas-story/
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Yeah, that was within the context of the Pickwick Papers themselves, so I never considered it standing on its own.
Makes you wonder what he “could” have written if so inclined…
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I haven’t read this one, but your description of Nell is interesting. I can completely understand what you mean about her role in the story without having read it.
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I am really glad you got my intent. As I was writing it out I knew exactly what I meant but wasn’t sure how it would appear to others. Mission Accomplished!
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[…] Bookstooge […]
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That makes sense about it not having the same “pop” as other Dickens- still an okay Dickens is still a great book by most author’s standards 😉 And I do want to read this of course!
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Exactly. Even an “ok” Dickens book beats most of a “good” book today 😀
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Yeah, this isn’t my favourite Dickens either. Perfect description of Nell’s role there – I salute you. 😀
Not a terribly interesting fact: I grew up about a mile away from the churchyard where Little Nell’s fake gravestone stands. I live in a very odd country.
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A fake gravestone? Man, just when I think that England has done all, I hear something like that.
😀
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Are you going through Dickens stories that you never read before or will you also revisit some of your favourites during this “run”? 😮
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I am re-reading everything of his (well, except for his histories and travelogues). A reminder that good quality writing still exists 🙂
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I’ve never read Dickens… I should rectify that some time…
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Give yourself plenty of time and be prepared for lots of descriptive writing of the scenery and people and everything. Dickens is very verbose. Masterful, but still verbose…
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