The Friendly Dickens
by Norrie Epstein
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Book Summary Information
Author: Norrie EpsteinEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-11-01
ISBN: 0670839434
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Viking Adult
Book Reviews of The Friendly Dickens
Book Review: Great, but only one problem
Summary: 4 Stars
I liked this book a lot, and I read passages of it constantly now, since I am a large fan of Dickens. This book is easy to read and to navigate. I enjoy especially the parts like "Twistania" which show some of what people have done and said in response to the books. The one problem I had was with the sections which said that Great Expectations was a novel about mastrubation and homosexuality. Yes, perhaps there is much homoerotic behavior in it, but that doesn't mean that the people in the novel want to have sex with eachother. I find the idea of the deathbed scene with Magwitch and Pip being embaressing because the characters were holding hands is ridiculous. The man was dying, for crissake! I think people really need to ease up and see that most of the same sex relationships in this novel are ones of frienship (Herbert and Pip) or father-son relationship (Pip and Joe, Pip and Magwitch). However, this was the only part of the book that bothered me, I otherwise think this book is great for any Dickensan.
Summary of The Friendly Dickens
You might have read him in class, but the Victorians read Charles Dickens like we watch Melrose Place, and The Friendly Dickens will show you why. It is the ultimate pop reference to the Dickensian world of shrouded sex and ostentatious death, a book that will have you running in delight to dust off your Dickens. Norrie Epstein--whose The Friendly Shakespeare was called by The New York Times "spirited, informative and provocative"--opens up Dickens's life and times in all its squalor and glory, including his rise to greatness and occasional lapses from grace. She considers his works, major and minor, in decided lively fashion, not just reading, but reading between the lines: * Was Oliver Twist's Fagin a pederast? * What made A Christmas Carol's Tiny Tim so darn tiny? * How many of Dickens's child characters met an untimely end? (Hint: plenty.) Full of humor, skepticism, and expert opinions, with eye- catching illustrations, plenty of quotes, and sidebars on nearly every page, you will quickly become a Dickens authority--even if you've never read a word.Authors Books
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