March 2012
18 posts
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“Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts...”
– Mr. Gradgrind in Our Mutual Friend
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“I was filled with sadness for a man who had been dead 142 years, but for the...”
– Our Reading Lives: Death, Here is Thy Sting (via bookriot)
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February 2012
110 posts
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Pawnbrokers' efforts to shed Dickensian image... →
“It is a low, dirty-looking, dusty shop, the door of which stands always doubtfully, a little way open: half inviting, half repelling the hesitating visitor.” That was how Charles Dickens depicted a pawnbroker’s shop in Drury Lane circa 1835.
Today the industry is keen to shed its tawdry image as tough economic conditions fuel its growth: stores are springing up on high...
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The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens, edited by... →
Callow’s spirited salute to Dickens misses the darker depths revealed in the great man’s letters
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“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station...”
– David Copperfield (1850), Charles Dickens (via famousfirstlines)
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Likeness of a Jew →
A dispute between novelist Alan Hollinghurst and author Daniel Mendelsohn revives a history of sensitivity to British stereotypes about Jews
In Charles Dickens’ early success, Oliver Twist, Fagin the Jew is introduced from the start as a version of the Devil, with his “matted red hair,” a “toasting fork in his hand,” and a “villainous-looking and repulsive face.” He leads adolescent boys down...
