From 0 to 4 Dickens novels! There was an INSANE amount of typos in this edition. Like every few pages. I really enjoyed these stories. I loved how totally melodramatic and soap opera-y they were. Also Hard times had a very similar plot line to the Wilmington massacre-set book I read recently. the dissolute rich squandering all their money then stealing and pinning it on the poor & oppressed. but of course they are found out and punished in the end. Super fun to read, all of them. AND THE NAMES. Pumblechook?? jeez louise. so good.

Of course we read this one in our group awhile ago, but I just found a great article for those of you who were with us back then, or have read it before. Thought you might enjoy!

Dickens vs. Darwin
A Question of Worldview

December 28, 2009

Two of the most famous books in the Western canon turned 150 years old in 2009—On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

But these anniversaries were celebrated in vastly different ways. While Darwin’s book was honored around the globe with films and websites and much more, relatively few people took notice that Dickens’s book had reached the same milestone.

Why the difference? My colleague Gina Dalfonzo, in an article on BreakPoint Online, suggests that one reason might be “the difference in worldview.” Gina points out that Origin of Species is built on Darwin’s materialistic principles, while A Tale of Two Cities takes a more traditional and biblical view of things.

It’s easy to see how our educational and media elite would gravitate toward the work that more faithfully reflects their own views, even if they don’t fully realize why they’re doing it.

Both authors lived at a time when Western culture was transitioning from faith in God to faith in humanity and its progress. Darwin went along with the change, embracing materialism and seeing his own scientific studies in its light.

But Dickens resisted. His faith has been called “simple”—he was not openly interested in complex theological questions, and he did not always adhere to church doctrine. But he maintained his belief in a loving Creator to the end of his life.

Isn’t it interesting that it was Darwin who was swept up in some of the uglier trends of his day? Dr. Benjamin Wiker has recently pointed out Darwin’s interest in the theories of Thomas Malthus, who thought that the “surplus population”—the weak and the unfit—were holding humanity back. The influence of this belief can be seen in Origin of Species and in Darwin’s other works.

Personally, Darwin believed in helping the poor and sick, but his personal life did not fit with his actual ideas. His theory boiled down to “might makes right,” and that meant survival was the highest ethical good.

On the other hand, Dickens parodied Malthus in his works, and showed the moral bankruptcy of his theories. In A Tale of Two Cities, a novel about the French Revolution, Dickens shows a struggle for power between two families, a struggle that turns into a cycle of violence and revenge. Madame Defarge, a central figure in the cycle, has no mercy for her victims once she gets them in her power; in fact, you might call her a fully Darwinian figure.

In the end, the cycle of violence can only be broken, and Madame Defarge disarmed, by another character’s self-sacrifice—the kind of act that would have no place in a Darwinian view of the world. But in Dickens’ biblically influenced view, this act of love and selflessness signifies the highest good of which humanity is capable.

Both Darwin and Dickens were optimistic men, but in fundamentally different ways. Darwin’s vision of future perfection would be merely a race of physically and mentally strong beings. Dickens’ hope was for a fundamentally moral society where the sick and weak were cared for, not pushed out of the way.

As the 150th anniversary year comes to an end for these two books, it’s a good time to compare how these radically different worldviews worked out in practice. All you’ve got to do is look at the evidence of the last 150 years for a clear answer to which one was true.

While my husband was donning his paramedic uniform on Dec 23rd evening, I cued up Bugs Bunny's adaptation of Charles Dickens's Christmas Carol on our big screen so we could watch it together before he headed off for his nightshift. As we watched this short youtube cartoon together, I realized that I had never actually "read" this classic. Soon after I kissed my husband off to work, I logged on to amazon and downloaded Dickens's classic story on my iPad's kindle (for free) and started reading it immediately. As I was reading it's preface, "I HAVE endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it. Their faithful Friend and Servant, C. D. December, 1843", I realized that I actually had Dickens's book sitting on the shelf of one my home libraries. It didn't take me long to find it and cuddle with it beside the crackling logs in our fireplace.
The next morning, I welcomed my loving husband home from a quiet nightshift (thank you God) with a warm embrace, and we watched some of the 1984 film adaptation (from youtube) together. We managed to watch up to the Ghost of Christmas Present before my husband needed to rest from his nightshift. I was hooked on the story and "endeavoured" to read on from my book for a little while longer before guilt captured me (Christmas presents and prep needed my attention)
Well, after a busy and jolly holiday season, I finally managed to finish reading the story. I hope that my husband and I can find time to finish watching the 1984 movie together today.
What did I think of the story? Charles Dickens's writing is old english, and he did manage to raise the "Ghost of an Idea" which is that one can find happiness when one is kind to others.

My favorite author of all time. I've read all of his work.

I like anything by Charles Dickens. I think he has a wonderfully witty descriptive voice. My all time favorite is A Christmas Carol which I try to reread every Christmas to put me in the mood.

No need to review this book. It is an icon of western culture. In my family, it was read aloud every year the week before Christmas until I left home.

It was probably the single most formative book in my life.

The most significant piece of the book....in my memory comes
at the end of the 3rd Stave

"The chimes were ringing the three quarters past eleven at the moment.
"Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask," said Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirit's robe, "but I see something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a claw?"
"It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it," was the Spirit's sorrowful reply. "Look here."

From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children, wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment.

"O Man! look here! Look, look, down here!" exclaimed the Ghost.

They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds....

Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.

"Spirit! are they yours?" Scrooge could say no more.
"They are Man's" said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "This boy is IGNORANCE. This girl is WANT. Beware of them both, and all their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.

"Have they no refuge or resource?" Cried Scrooge. "Are there no prisons?" said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. "Are there no workshouses?"

The spirit then disappears and Scrooge is left to the last spirit.

This image of ignorance and want have shaped my belief system. They have made me less ready to blame individuals for their circumstances and ready to look at ways we can all help each other in this life. This scene foreshadows the writing on Scrooges tombstone -- can it be erased?

Dickens resoundingly says yes. It is not too late for Scrooge. It is not too late for humankind-- we can erase that which will lead to our Doom.