STUMP » Articles » New Book Project: A Dickens Novel Each Month » 1 January 2019, 09:59

As mentioned in my War and Peace post, I have a new book project for this year – and that’s going to be covering a Dickens novel each month, in chronological order of publication.

Now, Dickens had 15 novels, and I plan on only doing 12. Which will I exclude?

1. Edwin Drood – because Dickens didn’t finish it
2. Great Expectations – because this book, and Tale of Two Cities, are the best-known Dickens novels already, and I have some things I want to say about Tale of Two Cities. Great Expectations was also the first Dickens novel I ever read, as a kid, and it put me off Dickens for about a decade.
3. Oliver Twist – I detest this sadistic book.

I have read all of Dickens’ completed novels at least once, and other than Oliver Twist, I’ve read all of them multiple times (at least 5 times each in the past 20 years, I’m guessing).

I would like to explain why I enjoy Dickens so much and encourage others to read him. Or at least watch one of the many excellent miniseries based on these books.

So January 2019 will be Pickwick Papers – I plan one Dickens post per week!

TWELVE DAYS OF DICKENS

Before I start, here is what I wrote about Dickens before, on my livejournal. One year, I decided to write 12 posts about various aspects of Dickens.

• First Day of Dickens: Death of the Rag and Bottle Man
• Second Day of Dickens: the most entertaining villain — Quilp
• Third Day of Dickens — My Favorite Novel: Our Mutual Friend
• Fourth Day of Dickens: GK Chesterton on Dickens A Christmas Carol
• Fifth Day of Dickens: His First Christmas Carol
• Sixth Day of Dickens: Most Terrifying Villain – a Respectable Headmaster
• Seventh Day of Dickens: The Character I Most Identify With
• Eighth Day of Dickens: Societal Impact of His Novels
• Ninth Day of Dickens: His Fine Sense of the Grotesque
• Tenth day of Dickens: Dickens and Jews
• Eleventh Day of Dickens: The Dignity of Labor
• Twelfth Day of Dickens: Business Fraud

Finally, a video from 2018 I did about Dickens:

One of my resolutions is to get more sleep and to rest more. So yes, I’m going to be reusing content to make things easier on me.

via GIPHY

Happy New Year!