Discuss Dickens's Novellas, Short Stories, and Journalism

[Extollager]

Elsewhere there's a thread for discussing Dickens's 14 and a half novels:

Ranking the Novels of Dickens

Here, we have a place to discuss shorter works, of the length of A Christmas Carol or shorter. Off the top of my had, I would say these include

The Chimes
The Cricket on the Hearth
The Signal-Man
Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings
and more

and some journalism, some of it superlative, available in a couple of Penguin Classics -- Sketches by Boz (very early work) and Selected Journalism, including such rereadable peices as "Night Walks."

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Some of my favorites in his short fiction:

A Christmas Carol (of everything Dickens wrote I may love this the best)
The Haunted Man (one of his Christmas stories, and perhaps his most under-rated work)
The frame story in Doctor Marigold (humorous and touching)
Captain Murderer (allegedly a re-telling of a story his nursemaid used to tell him, although it reads more like a send-up of a certain kind of fairy tale)
A Madman's Manuscript (chilling)
The Story of Richard Doubledick (I think I mentioned in the other thread that I have a taste for well-done melodrama and impassioned speeches)

and as Jo mentioned in the novel thread and I concurred, a children's story, The Magic Fishbone.

Of his non-fiction/journalism:

Sketches by Boz (witty, insightful portrait of Victorian London and the everyday lives of ordinary people -- if I was writing steampunk or gaslight fantasy I'd use this as a reference)
Pictures from Italy (an entertaining travel book written with Dickens's remarkable eye for detail, and seasoned with his wit)

 

[Extollager]

And there's also Dickens's American Notes, but I haven't read it, and my understanding is that Fanny Trollope's Domestic Manners of the Americans is a better read. That one was the only nonfiction book we tackled in the eleven years of the campus-community reading group I used to host, and it was a success.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I didn't like his American Notes as much as the two books I mentioned above. He visited a number of prisons and mental institutions, which didn't interest me much. And I seem to remember that Mrs. Dickens was unwell much of the time and he didn't come across as sympathetic. His (famously) scathing remarks about American society were more entertaining, if somewhat prejudiced.

 

[GOLLUM]

I agree with Teresa. American Notes I found quite interesting but it is probably the weakest of his travelogues. I also have a copy of his travel notes in France, which makes great reading. Of course Teresa is better placed than I am in knowing exactly how biased some of his views might be...it has been a while since I read this.

Having said that I found American Notes more entertaining after viewing Miriam Margoyles' highly entertaining series American Notes. I recommend this DVD to anyone interested in Dickens...I should also add that it is much a focus on Miriam as it is on Dickens in the series but I like her delivery style and find her to be a very entertaining guide.

Here is a short blurb on it:
Join actress and Dickens enthusiast Miriam Margolyes on a 10-part journey that follows the route of Charles Dickens' tour of the United States and Canada in 1842. It was this trip upon which he based his travel book, American Notes - a comic, critical record of the country's morals, flaws and fashions. From the White House to West Point, Miriam presents the Dickensian view on money, manners, slavery, corruption, greed, politics and religion. Witty and sometimes surprising, Dickens in America offers a fascinating insight into mid-nineteenth century North American life and how much - and how little - has changed in the years since the great author's tour.

 

[Extollager]

Pictures from Italy was illustrated by my favorite artist, Samuel Palmer. I don't think there are more than just a few pictures. I should find out more.

 

[Bick]

I read The Signal-Man tonight. Pretty good. The evocation of the gloomy cutting is nicely done.