Dombey and Son is every bit as wonderful as I remembered and little Paul Dombey, the old fashioned boy, remains one of my favourite characters ever. Great Expectations was better than I had imagined and Oliver Twist and Tale of Two Cities are classics. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism.

Dickens named the character Fagin after Bob Fagin, a fellow employee that young Charles Dickens met when he worked at a blacking factory. I do like Dickens, but less for his actual tales, which I admit languish along the way more often than not, than for his humor, detail, and caring for humanity. The parts don't line up, the plots misalign or disappear, then reappear when you've forgotten what came earlier. However, we only recommend products or services we use personally and/or that we believe will add value to our readers. MEMOIRS OF JOSEPH GRIMALDI by Thomas Egerton Wilks, which Dickens edited in his early career - first time in digital print.

Started 3 Jan 2012 with American Notes for General Circulation (listed this separately by mistake) finished on 9 Feb 2012 see separate listing for review. His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.

Dickens zeroes in on both personal motives and the intoxication of mob behavior, when normal inhibitions become absorbed by exhilarating mayhem.Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius.