What are you reading now?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... the sentence All rowed fast, but none so fast as stroke is attributed, unverifiably, to Ouida...

You could always ask her - using an Ouida Board.

[Bella Kemp]

For creepy - Our Mutual Friend
For comedy - Pickwick Papers

But. of you haven't read Middlemarch yet, I'd pause Dickens amnd treat yourself to that, instead. (In fact, for realistic portraits of women - rather than the simpering saints, doddering old dears, and hard-faced harridens that spoil Dickens' works, I'd put Eliot and Gaskell as a priority among the Victorian novelists.)

Yes! Stop everything and read Middlemarch. It is not only a novel of many deep and involving stories, but also touches on the pressing social issues of the day such as the Reform Bill and the coming of the railways - such things help give us perspective on our present situation. George Eliot's prose can sometimes be tricky to navigate and sometimes you may have to accept a compromise between what she meant and what you can actually understand, but press on and the reward will be great.

[johncorrigan]

Yes! Stop everything and read Middlemarch. It is not only a novel of many deep and involving stories, but also touches on the pressing social issues of the day such as the Reform Bill and the coming of the railways - such things help give us perspective on our present situation. George Eliot's prose can sometimes be tricky to navigate and sometimes you may have to accept a compromise between what she meant and what you can actually understand, but press on and the reward will be great.

There was a great bit in Neil MacGregor's recent series on BBC Radio 4 on how others see us. The first programme was about Singapore and very interesting it was. In it there was a very enthusiastic Singaporean woman who talked about the two greatest writers in the English language - Richmal Crompton and George Eliot - she said she didn't read Crompton nowadays, but Eliot was the most wonderful and she still read 'Middlemarch' occasionally. It's the nearest anyone got to persuading me to read it, I have to say...maybe one day! Probably more likely to go and read some more William if I think about it!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes! Stop everything and read Middlemarch. It is not only a novel of many deep and involving stories, but also touches on the pressing social issues of the day such as the Reform Bill and the coming of the railways - such things help give us perspective on our present situation. George Eliot's prose can sometimes be tricky to navigate and sometimes you may have to accept a compromise between what she meant and what you can actually understand, but press on and the reward will be great.

- and not forgetting the comedy: that moment when Mr Brooke goes out visiting his tenants, convinced that he's a pretty good landlord, only for one of them to point out all the repairs he's still not had done in spite of being repeatedly told about them. The shrinking of the man's self-appreciation is wonderful in itself - any other writer would have been proud of the scene left just like that. But Eliot adds the touch of positively Hogarthian genius by including the detail of the two men's dogs, who echo the antagonism and quailing of their masters.

If I am allowed but one novel when they cart me off to the home for the permanently bewildered (many years from now) it will be Middlemarch.

[Bella Kemp]

There was a great bit in Neil MacGregor's recent series on BBC Radio 4 on how others see us. The first programme was about Singapore and very interesting it was. In it there was a very enthusiastic Singaporean woman who talked about the two greatest writers in the English language - Richmal Crompton and George Eliot - she said she didn't read Crompton nowadays, but Eliot was the most wonderful and she still read 'Middlemarch' occasionally. It's the nearest anyone got to persuading me to read it, I have to say...maybe one day! Probably more likely to go and read some more William if I think about it!

I adored the William books when I was young - oh, the joy when one was given me for Christmas or a birthday! And I still occasionally treat myself to a read. Do try to find Martin Jarvis's Just William on Audible. And Juliet Stevenson has recorded Middlemarch. Life gives us many riches and we might as well enjoy them.

[DracoM]

Yes, 'Middlemarch' stands alone - IMO.
'William' only came alive for me on the radio!

[un barbu]

I agree that 'Middlemarch' is the great Victorian novel and will be re-reading it once I have finished 'Our Mutual Friend'. Some way lower down the slopes of Parnassus is 'Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour'. I have to confess a fondness for Surtees' world, which Kipling described as 'Dickens and horse-dung.'

[Nick Armstrong]

... yes, I think I prefer Trollope (and early Thackeray) to Dickens.

If asked for Dickens recommendations I wd go along with Our Mutual Friend, Bleak House, Dombey and Son, Little Dorrit. His journalism is well worth reading.

Those four would be my choices too, as the next stage for someone who’s read Expectations, Copperfield & Twist

I remember thinking, after my two readings of Bleak House over the years, that it is possibly the greatest of all.

This year however marks my arrival in the world of Trollope. Utter joy.

I’d read The Warden when a youth and not ‘got’ it... But then listened earlier this year on 4extra to the wonderful dramatisation of the final Barset novel with Maggie Steed magnificent as Mrs Baxter (nla, alas - hope others for the series appear in the schedules in due course).

It made me think: I have to read this stuff.... and I’ve revelled in the first two books of the series so far this year. Perfection.

I am now reading Les Rougon-Macquart in order. I've reached L'œuvre so don't stop me now!

So am I.

I read three when living in France in the early ‘80s and loved them - indeed Le docteur Pascal is one of the few books (possibly the only book) I’ve turned back to page 1 immediately on finishing, to read again.

Having used eBay, alibris etc. to find all the series in the same attractive late 70s/early 80s “Livre de Poche” edition, I’m gradually making my way through (although Mr Trollope has currently barred the way somewhat).

.... And Middlemarch... One of my oldest friends (and an occasional contributor here) gave me a lovely edition of it as a retirement present. Haven’t got round to it yet but I will (especially after reading this thread).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

'Dickens and horse-dung.'

Useful for Rose Maylie in Oliver Twist - or, indeed

https://www.styleroses.co.uk/buy-plants/charles-dickens-bush-rose

[un barbu]

Useful for Rose Maylie in Oliver Twist - or, indeed
https://www.styleroses.co.uk/buy-pla...kens-bush-rose

Indeed. The Kipling quotation is pretty accurate ( from a short story called 'My Son's Wife' if memory serves). Surtees is very good on what his characters are wearing, too: Lord Scamperdale and his crony, Jack Spraggon, are discovered after dinner (beefsteak and batter pudding) 'dressed in full suits of flaming large-checked red-and-yellow tartans, the tartan of that noble clan the 'Stunners' with black-and-white Shetland hose and red slippers.' Next up for a re-read after 'Middlemarch', I think (putting yet another bash at finishing 'The Man Without Qualities' on pause.)

[Stanfordian]

Hunter Davies - 'Happy Old Me - How to Live Long and Really, Really Enjoy It'

A joy to read!

[HighlandDougie]

And Juliet Stevenson has recorded Middlemarch.

If I don't get expelled from the forum for admitting to listening to audiobooks (they make the daily routine on the elliptical trainer bearable; ditto long flights), Juliet Stevenson reading "Middlemarch" is one of the greatest pleasures I have experienced in a very long time (along with Anton Lesser reading Dickens).

[un barbu]

If I don't get expelled from the forum for admitting to listening to audiobooks.

They are a joy. I was given 'Ulysses' read by John Lee for my 70th this year and it is a great delight.

[Maclintick]

They are a joy. I was given 'Ulysses' read by John Lee for my 70th this year and it is a great delight.

They are indeed a joy. One of my "Desert Island" selections would be Wordsworth's "Prelude" read by Ian McKellen on Radio 4 some years ago, which I obtained from a friend's off-air recording. Of books recently read, I'd thoroughly recommend John Bew's magisterial account of the life and times of the 20th century's greatest British PM & statesman, Clement Attlee, "Citizen Clem".

[Nick Armstrong]

They are indeed a joy.

Anton Lesser reading Paradise Lost is pretty special

I’m also a fan of Michael Jayston reading the unabridged Le Carré novels. (He of course played Peter Guillam in the BBC dramatisations, and he definitely yet subtly channels Alec Guinness when reading Smiley’s lines...)