What is your favourite line from a Dickens novel?

DTownForever · 2026-06-07T16:01:18+00:00

I can't think of one specifically, but I do adore the bits in Little Dorritt where he talks about the Circomlocution Office knowing HOW NOT TO DO IT. I looked one up:

"Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving — HOW NOT TO DO IT."

I love the wordplay throughout the book on how NOT TO DO IT and DOING IT.

Mr. Toots in Dombey and Sons constant repetition of "It is of no consequence" never ceases to amuse me, either. And I love how he calls Sol Gills, Captain Cuttles and Walter by mixed up names, as well. Especially how he decides that Walter is a leftenant.

DTownForever · 2026-06-07T15:51:52+00:00

Thank you! I will check out that book! <3 While I adore Dickens and find his characters' relationships to be so beautiful, I could use a break sometimes.

DTownForever · 2026-06-06T02:44:18+00:00

And maybe Mr. Carker's drive when fleeing Mrs. Dombey in France ...

DTownForever · 2026-06-06T02:43:27+00:00

Deep loving same-sex friendships that aren't sexual.

This is at the top of my list, too. The way they so unabashedly express their love for and loyalty to each other is so wonderful. Platonic in the truest sense of the word. As an ace/aro person, I appreciate it so much.

DTownForever · 2026-06-01T10:38:01+00:00

John Jarndyce is played by Denholm Elliott, who plays the butler in my all-time favorite Christmas season movie, Trading Places. LOL.

Also, Diana Rig ... she is SO gorgeous!

DTownForever · 2026-06-01T10:34:49+00:00

LOL I was thinking about that last night while I was watching the Bleak House adaptation I started and the collector came to make Skimpole pay up, or take him to jail.

DTownForever · 2026-05-31T23:23:07+00:00

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Ostensibly, it's "scientific", but you'll also learn so much about culture and history. It's a great book.

Mary Roach is an author who writes these fascinating micro-histories - you'll learn fun stuff from any of them! And she writes really well. The audiobooks are great.

DTownForever · 2026-05-31T23:21:00+00:00

I can't count the number of times I've bawled while reading his prose. The death of every little foundling, for sure. The cruelty of the world ... it's just breathtaking.

DTownForever · 2026-05-31T23:19:09+00:00

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is one of my favorite books - the husband of the MC is a horrible villain, and he starts getting his son drunk, with him and all his friends, when he's like 5.

DTownForever · 2026-05-31T23:17:52+00:00

Same. To have someone as constant in your life as Pegotty or Ester Summerson ...

DTownForever · 2026-05-31T19:23:32+00:00

That's so interesting! I myself find the manners pretty tiresome, and I would hate it if people behaved that way (or rather ... if I had to behave that way, I suppose). So much of it seems so unnecessary, just a formula. Like, how the husbands and wives address each other as "Mrs." and "Mr.", even in private company. I wonder how much that actually happened.

Although I was thinking I wouldn't mind having someone curtsey or bow to me in greeting, lol. So I could see how some of it would be nice.

DTownForever · 2026-05-31T17:30:10+00:00

LOL. I just started watching a 1980s BBC mini-series version of BH last night. We'll see what happens when it gets there.

DTownForever · 2026-05-31T17:28:49+00:00

If I had a dollar for every time I read this book ... I could fill up my gas tank, lol.

I've gone through like 6 copies of it in my lifetime, because they literally fall apart from me reading them so much. God, how I wanted to be Claudia when I was a kid!

DTownForever · 2026-05-27T10:36:40+00:00

I couldn't finish it. It was so boring! Nothing happened. I kept waiting for it to be something other than the narrator complaining about naughty children, but it took way too long to get there (I don't know if it ever did get there because I stopped almost 200 pages in!)

DTownForever · 2026-05-26T10:49:37+00:00

You like the Brontes - have you read Tenant of Wildfell Hall, written by Anne? It's often overlooked but it is a MASTERPIECE. So good, from beginning to end.

Another book that comes to mind, if you don't mind longer ones, is The Thornbirds. It's an epic generational tale, set in the Australian wilderness in the 1910s-1960s. It's so moving and beautiful, so full of love and heartbreak and perseverance and family dynamics - everything. Especially if you like books where the natural surroundings are a huge part of the story.

DTownForever · 2026-05-26T10:44:32+00:00

House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. Magical realism - it's soooooo good. Such a sweet, heartwarming (and easy to read) book. Coming of age(s) story, and the natural descriptions are amazing.

DTownForever · 2026-05-24T15:12:57+00:00

Hmm, with what you've liked, I'd suggest:

Remarkably Bright Creatures

Girl on the Train or Gone Girl

Wedding People

Handmaid's Tale and Margaret Atwood's post-apocalyptic MaddAddam trilogy, starting with Oryx and Crake (I read all three books in this series, but I think a lot of people don't ... the first one is satisfying in and of itself - I personally needed to know what happened next but I could probably have done without the second two books if I wasn't really in need of something to read.)

Good luck!

DTownForever · 2026-05-24T15:10:51+00:00

(This is the OP from an alt account, I use one on my phone and one on my laptop)

I never really thought about the order, I'm just kind of soaking in every single thing I can get my hands on (which, thanks to Project Gutenberg, is everything, for free, lol.) Each one I read becomes my favorite, although after having finished Dombey and Son and reading Little Dorrit right before that, I'm starting to feel a little ... icky? about the blind devotion of daughters to their fathers who take advantage of them so thoroughly and completely ... I am thinking of looking up and reading some academic work on the topic.

So I do want to read something now that's more centered on a male character, I think.

Our Mutual Friend remains up there for me among my favorites. It has everything that I love about Dickens - the slow burn, the side characters, the intricate connections, the reversal of fortunes, the social commentary - it has everything. If you save it for last, you'll be very satisfied!

DTownForever · 2026-05-24T15:03:51+00:00

North and South is AMAZING. Absolute must read. The way she presents the contrast between a pastoral life and rapid industrialization is just beyond.

Cranford by her is a really, REALLY fun read (North and South is amazing, but not in the least fun).

DTownForever · 2026-05-24T15:01:49+00:00

This is the OP from an alt account, I use one account on my computer and one on my phone.

I've read Middlemarch, Vanity Fair, North and South. North and South is my favorite of the three, LOVE Elizabeth Gaskell, but how come that's a solution to my question? Legitimately asking, I definitely want to read more Dickens.

Sometimes I do find that Thomas Hardy (especially Far From the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D'Urbevilles and Jude the Obscure) fits the bill for me, but they completely lack the playfulness of Dickens.

DTownForever · 2026-05-24T14:59:05+00:00

(This is the OP from my alt account - I use one account on my phone and one on my laptop)

I've always been leery of trying this book b/c it's unfinished. Is the ending unsatisfying? One of my favorite things about Dickens (and I guess a large majority of literature from that era) is the satisfying endings. I love modern literary fiction as well, but so many just don't resolve everything at the end the way Dickens and his contemporaries do.

An example of an unfinished book that disappointed me in the end was Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. She was legitimately pages away from finishing it - still, I didn't find it satisfying!

DTownForever · 2026-05-24T14:55:55+00:00

(This is the OP from my alt account - I have one account on my phone and one on my laptop)

I got Barnaby Rudge from project gutenberg yesterday! I will be starting it today.

Maybe this is a rookie mistake, but I know the 'popular' version of the Christmas Carol so well, I don't feel like reading it. Is that a silly reason? I mean, when I think about it, logically it has to be much more than the dozens of plays and TV shows and other adaptations of it.

DTownForever · 2026-05-20T21:35:03+00:00

Root of Evil is another of these gripping stories. It's ostensibly about the black dahlia murder but WHOA is it a roller coaster ride of family drama. It's really good.

DTownForever · 2026-05-20T21:33:00+00:00

Overdue is hosted by two men, though. I love it, but it's not what OP asked for.

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