Victober 2025

[Madeleine]

Is anyone doing this?  I'm gong to read The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell.

[lunababymoonchild]

I’m in. Now to choose …………

[lunababymoonchild]

The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins. Victorian, Gothic and suitably spooky in the spookiest month

[KEV67]

Go on then. I had just finished Villette by Charlotte Bronte, which I did not go a bundle on. Nevertheless, I invested in a copy of The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens. I am not going to try and complete it by the end of October, because I am a slow reader, and I am working through three other books at present. 

[lunababymoonchild]

18 minutes ago, KEV67 said:

Go on then. I had just finished Villette by Charlotte Bronte, which I did not go a bundle on. Nevertheless, I invested in a copy of The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens. I am not going to try and complete it by the end of October, because I am a slow reader, and I am working through three other books at present. 

Welcome! I was nearly late for an appointment this afternoon because I was reading The Woman in White. That’ll teach me !

[lunababymoonchild]

The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins, completed. It was excellent!

[lunababymoonchild]

Also reading some Victorian poetry from The Penguin Book of Victorian Verse. I doubt I'll read every single poem but I'll give it a good try.

[KEV67]

On 10/18/2025 at 2:37 PM, lunababymoonchild said:

The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins, completed. It was excellent!

That was quick.

[KEV67]

I started reading The Old Curiosity Shop. It starts with a gentleman walking the streets of London at night. That's what Dickens used to do himself, wasn't it. I was wondering if it were televised who they would cast as Quilp. He's a malignant dwarf. Peter Dinklage comes to mind. I wonder if he can do 19th Century London accents. Another good thing is the chapters are short, which means I can get through one at bedtime.

[lunababymoonchild]

19 minutes ago, KEV67 said:

That was quick.

I was utterly captured and anxious to find out what happened next.

[Hayley]

On 10/20/2025 at 9:52 AM, KEV67 said:

I started reading The Old Curiosity Shop. It starts with a gentleman walking the streets of London at night. That's what Dickens used to do himself, wasn't it. I was wondering if it were televised who they would cast as Quilp. He's a malignant dwarf. Peter Dinklage comes to mind. I wonder if he can do 19th Century London accents. Another good thing is the chapters are short, which means I can get through one at bedtime.

Quilp is such a good villain, I absolutely despised him.

 

On 10/20/2025 at 10:08 AM, lunababymoonchild said:

I was utterly captured and anxious to find out what happened next.

I feel that way about all the Wilkie Collins books I've read so far! If you haven't read No Name yet, I highly recommend it.

 

 

I really want to jump in to this challenge for the end of the month now... maybe with a short story.

[lunababymoonchild]

34 minutes ago, Hayley said:

I feel that way about all the Wilkie Collins books I've read so far! If you haven't read No Name yet, I highly recommend it.

On the list

[KEV67]

I am only on Chapter 11. It will be December before I finish it. So far, so good. What a silly old fool the old man was! 

[KEV67]

I am quite enjoying The Curiosity Shop. I wonder wherher the old man was going senile. It strikes me Little Nell could get a job as a maidservant if she were not lumberee with the old man. I reckon his best chance was with the workhouse. It is not exactly a spoiler, but I have heard it does not work out very well fpr Little Nell. I reckon she was let down by people who should have looked after her better. Perhaps her grandfather was going senile, but her brother was very selfish.

[Hayley]

On 11/13/2025 at 7:10 PM, KEV67 said:

I am quite enjoying The Curiosity Shop. I wonder wherher the old man was going senile. It strikes me Little Nell could get a job as a maidservant if she were not lumberee with the old man. I reckon his best chance was with the workhouse. It is not exactly a spoiler, but I have heard it does not work out very well fpr Little Nell. I reckon she was let down by people who should have looked after her better. Perhaps her grandfather was going senile, but her brother was very selfish.

I can't wait to see what you think of the ending! Nell definitely would have had a lot more options if she had been willing to leave her grandfather.

[KEV67]

On 11/17/2025 at 3:50 PM, Hayley said:

I can't wait to see what you think of the ending! Nell definitely would have had a lot more options if she had been willing to leave her grandfather.

I am still only half way through. I get the feeling it is going to turn bad for Nell. Her grandfather has just gambled all their money. Just when things were looking up.

Edited November 24 by KEV67

[KEV67]

I was wondering the other day how many humourous books lasted the test of time. A lot of old comedies and comedians do not seem so funny any more. Maybe, I was not thinking very clearly at the time. True, most the Carry On films do not seem so funny as they did, and I find it hard to believe anyone ever laughed at the likes of music hall comedians such as Arthur Askey and Tommy Trinder. On the other hand, Larry Grayson was sort of music hall, and he was hilarious. Porridge and other 70s sitcoms still hold up. Book wise, Scoop and Lucky Jim are still very funny. It is a long way of getting around to the observation that Charles Dickens could be funny, and it still holds up. For example, in chapter 34 of The Old Curiosity Shop, Dick Swiveler has to agree terms with a new lodger in the room above his employers' office.

"Why, you see,' said Dick, 'my name's not Brass, and -'

'Who said it was? My name's not Brass. What then?'

'The name of the master of the house is,' said Dick.

'I'm glad of it,' returned the single gentleman; 'it's a good name for a lawyer. Coachman, you may go. So may you, sir.'

 

[KEV67]

One thing I've been wondering is that Kit's mother is a widow with two small children. She cannot work. Kit cannot earn enough to keep them all on his own. How does she get by? Does she get parish relief? 

[Hayley]

On 11/24/2025 at 10:57 AM, KEV67 said:

Charles Dickens could be funny, and it still holds up. For example, in chapter 34 of The Old Curiosity Shop, Dick Swiveler has to agree terms with a new lodger in the room above his employers' office.

I completely agree. Also the fact that he created intentionally funny names... like Dick Swiveller...

 

 

On 12/2/2025 at 1:47 PM, KEV67 said:

One thing I've been wondering is that Kit's mother is a widow with two small children. She cannot work. Kit cannot earn enough to keep them all on his own. How does she get by? Does she get parish relief? 

It's been a few years since I read it, but I thought she did laundry? It wouldn't be that unusual for a single woman to do that from home at the time. 

[KEV67]

I am still only about half way through. I know it ends badly for Nell, so I thought I would read a bit of the introduction. It makes out Nell's character was based on Dickens' sister-in-law, Mary Hogarth, who died aged 17, sweet and pure and lovely. Dickens' weird lovelife kept leaking into his novels, if you believe his biographers. Dickens used to have a blind spot with writing pretty, young women, but he got better at them as he got older. 

Apart from Nell, the introduction reminded me that the plot with Nell's brother seemed to go nowhere. Nell's brother was plotting with Dick Swivener with the aim of Swivener marrying Nell so that they could get control of the old man's money. Then the next time we meet Dick, Quilp is introducing him to Sampson Brass and telling him to take him on as an apprentice. I wondered why Quilp did this, because it seems like he was performing  friendly act. Why did Quilp help Dick Swivener out. I also now realise who the half-starved marchioness is. I saw her name on the blurb on the back of the book, but I had read half the book and she had not been introduced yet. It is unusual in novels to introduce major characters late on. I reckon I do know who she is, but Dick Swivener has not given her her nickname yet.

.

[KEV67]

The introduction said the reading public who were surprised by Nell's fate must not have been paying close attention, because clues and allusions were being steadily dropped. I am not sure I would have twigged it. I would have been worried about the schoolboy who died, because what was the point of those two chapters otherwise? I think there is a big hjnt in chapter 44.

'But before they had reached the corner of the lane, the man came running after them, and pressing hee hand, left something in it - two old, battered, smoke-encrusted penny pieces. Who knows but they shone as brightly in the eyes of angels as golden gifts that have been chronicled on tombs?'

Not much mistaking that.

[KEV67]

Dickens is foreshadowing Nell's death a bit thick. I am looking forward to getting back to Dick Swivener.

[KEV67]

I have been enjoying the section with Dick Swiveller, the Marchioness, and Kit's trial. I have been wondering whether this part of the plot is plausible. I would have thought that notwithstanding any extra information that came to light, once Kit had been found guilty that was it. I seem to remember it was very difficult to get a retrial or a verdict reversed. There was a programme called Rough Justice that used to bring attention to miscarriages of justice. One would think it would be even more difficult to get a verdict set aside in the Victorian era. Even if you could get a retrial, it would be the Marchioness' word against a solicitor's. I think Charles Dickens was an articled clerk, so one would have thought he would know. Dickens was not particularly keen on lawyers. He criticised them in The Pickwick Papers, Bleak House, David Copperfield, Great Expectations and, now, The Old Curiosity Shop.

[KEV67]

About three more chapters to go. Poor Nell is going to join the angels. Looks like she has consumption. Tuberculosis is an odd diesease. Would she have succumbed to it if she had not been forced to leave home and roam around the country? TB is an infectious diesease, but nobody seems to worry about being in her company. Mayve it is one of those dieseases that everyone is exposed to. 

I don't think much of the ending. I am not convinced Sampson Brass would have broken down like that. The first reason is that there is no real evidence against him, just the word of a servant girl. The second reason is whether he refeives immunity from prosecution he would be a ruined man if he confessed. I doubt those lawyer friends of Kit could have offered immunity from prosecution. I also doubt they could have got Kit's guilty verdict overturned.

The other thing I did not like was the massive coincidende of one of the lawyers' brothers living in the quiet country village the other side of Birmingham where Nell and her grandfather fetched up. I wondered how they would track her down. If the single gentleman had hired some sort of detective I might have believed it. 

[KEV67]

I liked some things about the book. I liked the Quilp, Swiveller and the Marchioness characters. I think Dickens was still refining his trade, because his later books were better. The humour was good. With the exception of Dick Swiveller, the fun characters were evil and the good characters were boring.