My Top Five Dickens Novels

Hooray, this is the wrap-up I've longed to write for years, and it's taken almost a decade to get here! At last I've completed every single one of Charles Dickens' major completed novels. They're finally done and dusted, read and reviewed. That's a lot of plucky orphan kids, saintly young women, and London grime. For your edification and entertainment (and to save you the slog of reading them all) I'm about to reveal my Top 5. These are the novels which I not only might, but definitely will re-read.

Note: I'm not including novellas, short stories, or unfinished works. That's why A Christmas Carol, despite being everyone's sentimental favorite, is ineligible to make the list. 

My aim has been to present teasers rather than spoilers but tread carefully anyway. So counting backwards from my fifth favorite to very top pick, here they are!

5) Oliver Twist

There is far more to this story than a little workhouse boy daring to say, 'Please Sir, I want some more.' Nor is its central focus creepy old Fagin's abysmal factory that churns out young criminals. The fact that certain colorful aspects spring to our collective unconscious mind proves how brimful this classic is of iconic moments. But poor young Oliver has a dastardly, behind-the-scenes, older brother who we'd never hear of if we didn't do ourselves the favor of reading the book. The novel is a scathing indictment of the harsh Victorian society in which Dickens lived. If his era's version of charity looked cruel and soul crushing, he had an obligation to make that clear, but Dickens has also made it simultaneously delightful.

4) Great Expectations

Our hero, Pip, allows strokes of good fortune to mold him into a proper snob. That's why it's such an entertaining blast to share that pivotal moment when he discovers the *real* identity of his secret benefactor. It is definitely not the person he assumes it to be. I enjoy immersive bildungsroman tales, and this one takes its main character full circle to renewed humility. Lucky breaks may prove to be fortunate indeed, but not necessarily in the way they seem at first. It takes time and character development to draw out the nuances. And as an Aussie, I appreciate the offstage subtext that exiles to the Colony willing to work hard may have had more opportunity to change their lives than it first appeared. 

3) Little Dorrit  

This one makes my list because Dickens shows how sudden financial windfalls may shape any personality in detrimental ways. Even goody-goody title character, Amy, loses her mojo when her purpose to be a self-sacrificing drudge is taken away. It's quite chilling to see good fortune turn her snobbish father into a nervous wreck. We also have two characters I can't ever forget, Miss Wade and her follower, Tattycorum, who view the world through the lens of their own paranoia, which is far from accurate. Second guessing our impressions on others may give us a distorted pseudo-reality which nonetheless seems totally true to us. That revelation alone makes this one of my personal game-changing novels. It is such a psychologically immersive character study. 

2) Our Mutual Friend

Three male characters earn its high spot for me. Bradley Headstone is an insanely dangerous and jealous wacko, yet he's the school teacher! Young Fledgeby is so disgustingly foul and hypocritical for somebody who presents such an innocent and upstanding face. And Eugene Wrayburn is the sort of smart-aleck who elicits fist pumps from me whenever he opens his mouth. But when a smooth and confident smart-aleck decides to mess with a thwarted lunatic, he's playing with fire. Even Dickens' inevitable 'good girl' character earns my admiration easier than his usual blindly loyal, spiritless saints. Lizzie Hexam will not cave in to pressure to marry a man she doesn't love, and she rescues the man her heart chooses in a stunning way. Solid gold. 

1) A Tale of Two Cities  

I find this such an outstanding Number One. It is surely one of the best French Revolution novels ever written. By showing extreme partisanship from characters on both sides of the Channel, Dickens proves singlehandedly how human nature is the toxic ingredient that promotes war. It is still so relevant in the 21st century. As for the characters who are drawn into the chaos, I'll surely never come across another doppelganger story that ticks my boxes as much as this one focused on Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. As soon as I got to the part about Sydney's breathtaking sacrificial gesture, I knew instantly this must skyrocket to my all time favorite Dickens novel. It is thoroughly devastating, breathtakingly suspenseful, and also highly romantic.  

But wait, there's more!

Now, check out the following tables for some very revealing statistics. First off is the haphazard order in which I read the 14 completed major works and ticked them off over almost a decade. I've highlighted my Five Favorites in red.

Table 1: My mood-led, unsystematic reading of Dickens' major works

2017 The Pickwick Papers

2017 Great Expectations

2018 David Copperfield

2019 Our Mutual Friend

2020 Bleak House

2021 A Tale of Two Cities 

2021 Martin Chuzzlewit

2022 Dombey and Son

2023 Oliver Twist

2023 Little Dorrit

2024 Hard Times

2024 Nicholas Nickleby

2025 Barnaby Rudge

2026 The Old Curiosity Shop  

This indicates that my Top Five were spread across the board, as I'd expected. 2023 was an excellent Dickens year for me, yet in more recent years, I've found the quest a bit grinding, which shows. But it's only when I compare my reading list with the actual order in which they were written, that a revealing insight emerges. 

Table 2: Charles Dickens' Major Works - The Publication Order

1836 The Pickwick Papers

1837 Oliver Twist

1838 Nicholas Nickleby

1840 The Old Curiosity Shop

1841 Barnaby Rudge

1843 Martin Chuzzlewit

1846 Dombey and Son

1849 David Copperfield

1852 Bleak House

1854 Hard Times

1855 Little Dorrit

1859 A Tale of Two Cities

1860 Great Expectations

1864 Our Mutual Friend

Wow,  it appears I accidentally but undeniably favored Dickens' later works by far, with the exception of Oliver, which was evidently an outlier. On the strength of this I'm willing to believe I might've found the Mystery of Edwin Drood to be absolutely mind-blowing, if only he'd lived to finish it. This may be my unintentional statistical tribute to a man who was cut down in his creative prime. When Dickens died at the age of 58, I have no reason to believe he wasn't still on his upward trajectory.

Of course your Top Five and subsequent tables might look completely different from mine. To be honest, I'm steeling myself for a bit of friendly protest that neither David Copperfield nor Bleak House make my final cut as I know they are greatly loved by many.  Indeed, were I to extend my list, I'd place Davy in sixth place. I was surprised myself that when tally time came, I placed five others above it.

Do I have a wooden spoon award? Yes, it's probably a tie between Barnaby Rudge and Dombey & Son for least enjoyable. And for a title which pleasantly surprised me, Martin Chuzzlewit.  

Please do check out my entire What the Dickens page, where you'll find my thorough reviews of every single one, along with even more discussions. 

'The Penderwicks at Point Mouette' by Jeanne Birdsall

Summary: When summer comes around, it's off to the beach for Rosalind . . . and off to Maine with Aunt Claire for the rest of the Penderwick girls, as well as their old friend, Jeffrey.

You may like to start with my Book One and Book Two reviews. 

MY THOUGHTS:

 Hooray, at last Jeanne Birdsall has hit her stride with this third installment in the series!

Their father is away on his honeymoon, and Rosalind is visiting New Jersey with Anna, her best friend. With Aunt Claire in charge, the three younger sisters are off for a few weeks to a coastal peninsula town named Point Mouette. To their delight, Jeffrey is able to join them, for his mother and the deplorable Dexter are recent enough newlyweds to relish alone time.

Skye and Jane are stressed for different reasons. Skye has a serious case of nerves because she's now the OAP (Oldest Available Penderwick) for the duration, yet she's lost the list Rosalind wrote for her about Batty's needs. Meanwhile, Jane decides it's time to introduce a love element into her Sabrina Starr stories, but develops an unprecedented case of writer's block. And she falls head over heels for a boy named Dominic, who has that unfortunate combo of gorgeous physique and clueless immaturity shared by many lads his age. Yep, the contrast between practical, no-frills Skye and sentimental, dreamy Jane really works well this time. 

Little Batty (who I'm convinced is nowhere near as high-maintenance as her sisters think) makes a new friend and develops a talent for playing music, encouraged by Jeffrey who she still adores. She's breaking the myth that no Penderwick can possibly be a musician. 

As for Jeffrey, he has no idea that his world is about to be thoroughly shaken. The unexpected news he receives is equally huge for another character. This thread is the main reason for my high ranking. I could certainly see it coming, but predictability is sometimes a good thing if it makes us hold our breath to prepare for the shockwaves. It feels as if we readers are aware of a missile on its way, which isn't remotely on the characters' radars. 

Even other events are more to my liking than before. Until now, I've considered Birdsall unskilled at writing simple, charming chapters. But this time, she's got it. Incidents such as playing music from a boat to basking seals, toasting marshmallows, and selling golf balls are great. Far more evocative than the melodramatic rescues, slapstick stage fright, and overdrawn thief-captures she's offered us in the first two novels.  

Shout out to Aunt Claire, who has no idea how much of a camp-mama she'll have to be, but still steps up, even with a crook ankle. Jeffrey is depicted at his most considerate and wistful best. And Jane, simply being herself, adds a dash of comic appeal. She brings zaniness to being a bookworm. I love this paragraph about her inner world, for example. 

'Until now, Jane's biggest crushes had been on boys in books, especially Peter Pevensie who became High King of Narnia. There'd been others - Tom Hammond from Leepike Ridge, Finn Taverner from Journey to the River Sea, and though he was so small, Spiller from the Borrowers books.' 

(Haha, I'm sure many girl readers would agree with Jane's choice of Spiller, but I'd argue that either Edmund or Eustace may be more appealing choices from the world of Narnia, since Peter is pretty perfect from the outset and needs minimal character development. I've always had a soft spot for boy characters with issues. If I could, I'd discuss the subject further with Jane.)

Bring on the fourth book in the Penderwick series, and hopefully the writing quality will stay at this level.

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'4.50 from Paddington' by Agatha Christie

This is a fun mystery to discuss. First will be my spoiler free review, and then beneath the red line I'll add my speculations about the secondary puzzle we're left with on the very final page. Proceed carefully with that though, as it reveals spoilers concerning the main mystery (namely, who wasn't the murderer).  

MY THOUGHTS: 

On her way home from Christmas shopping, Mrs Elspeth McGillycuddy witnesses a brutal murder from her train window. A man in a train adjacent to hers, with his back to the window, savagely strangles a woman who is facing him. And then both trains set off again, placing Mrs McGillycuddy in a helpless position. Fortunately she's off to visit her friend, Jane Marple, at St. Mary Mead, who will surely know what steps to take next.

Both ladies are shocked when the crime doesn't appear in the morning paper. Miss Marple figures that the body may have been dumped off the train overlooking one specific property, Rutherford Hall, home of the Crackenthorpe family. 

She is too limited in her ability to snoop around, so hires a trustworthy young Wonder Woman clone named Lucy Eyelesbarrow to be her cohort sleuth. Discovering the whereabouts of the body is their first tall order, and then they must figure her identity and that of her murderer. 

I found this mystery lots of fun. It turns out that the Crackenthorpe family, who know the lay of the land so well, are prime suspects. The building itself is an anachronism from the past plonked into modern suburbia, and the family comprises a bunch of mismatched members who rub each other up the wrong way. 

Miserly old Mr Crackenthorpe and his dutiful daugher, Emma, live on the property full time. Visiting over Christmas are the sons; Cedric, the bachelor artist; Harold, the pompous businessman; Alfred, the black sheep; and Bryan Eastley, the likeable widowed son-in-law. Would any of the Crackenthorpe guys really be dumb or daring enough to plant a body practically on their own back doorstep though?

Also home for Christmas holidays are two young schoolboys, Master Alexander Eastley, the only grandchild, along with his best buddy, James Stoddart-West. They consider themselves keen wannabe detectives, and are described as having 'suspiciously angelic faces.' 

At this stage, it's nice to see Miss Marple draw from the expertise of other members of the very youngest generation. Her nephew Raymond's son, David, works for the British Railway, and Griselda's boy, Leonard, now grown up, is good with maps. 

My main disappointment with this story is twofold. A pair of extra deaths toward the end seem redundant to the main plot. Even now, when I think of the big revelation, it strikes me as bizarre that the murderer would even bother, since their main purpose had been achieved. Miss Marple steps up in her role as unlikely nemesis to another despicable killer, but it would've been nice if she could've prevented these other senseless deaths. 

What's more, although we readers normally get breadcrumb trails of clues dispersed for us throughout Christie mysteries, this story is problematic. The key circumstance that fuels the murderer's motivation is completely hidden until the final scene. This makes it unfair, if not impossible, to expect us to hazard our own guesses. Red herrings are great, but only when they're balanced with something real.

Details such as these prevent me giving it five stars. 

But overall, an enjoyable read with a varied and interesting cast. Lucy and the two young boys specifically, are great. 

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The bottom line: To Avoid Spoilers, read no further!

We readers are tantalized with another mystery on the very final page which doesn't get revealed. It seems to be a teasing challenge from Miss Marple to Dermott Craddock, and also from Agatha Christie to us readers. It made me groan. How are we supposed to know? I certainly don't have Miss Marple's nous. The question is who does Lucy Eyelesbarrow marry? I can't claim to have a stand-out favorite from the possibilities set before us.

Here they are.

1) Cedric Crackenthorpe.

He follows Lucy out to the pigsty, which seems to make her starry-eyed about the location from then on (ugh) and he's the only brother who doesn't make his interest in her clear throughout the story by throwing propositions at her feet like a panting dog. But Cedric's rough edges are almost razor sharp. He's a slob with no finesse whatsoever, and tends to get himself totally smashed. Worse than all this in my opinion, he doesn't seem to care about his two younger brothers being murdered. No matter how annoying they might have been, surely nostalgia for their shared childhood ought to stir him a little. I find it in very bad taste that it doesn't. 

2) Bryan Eastley.

He's pleasant and obliging, and Lucy is sympathetic to his forlorn, little-boy-lost persona. Bryan, once a fighter pilot in the war, seems to have completely lost his mojo now. Much as Lucy would make young Alexander an excellent stepmother, she is genuinely surprised when the boy starts some non-subtle matchmaking on his dad's behalf. Bryan reminds me of Ashley Wilkes from Gone with the Wind. He's just such another turtle on his back. I don't think Lucy seriously considers him. 

3) Inspector Dermot Craddock.

Some readers suggested this possibility that would've gone straight under my radar. They do have grounds for their suggestion. Craddock is the person who poses the question and Miss Marple twinkles at him when she makes her ambiguous reply. She has an undeniable soft spot for this godson of her great friend, Sir Henry Clithering. And at once stage, Lucy cheekily tells him, 'You seem almost human today.'

Yet Craddock appears in a subsequent Marple mystery, The Mirror Cracked from Side to Side, without a wife. I take that as a pretty sound indicator that, charming as it seems, this theory is way off the mark.

(Sigh) If it comes down to a choice between the brothers-in-law, I'd have to favor Bryan. But I tend to think the brilliant, productive, and accomplished Lucy ought to aim higher than both these blokes. Either one of them might prove to be deadweight around her ankles.

What do you think?  

Do check out my entire Agatha Christie, Queen of Crime page. 

'The Old Curiosity Shop' by Charles Dickens

Summary: Little Nell Trent lives in the quiet gloom of the old curiosity shop with her ailing grandfather, for whom she cares with selfless devotion. But when they are unable to pay their debts to the stunted, lecherous and demonic money-lender Daniel Quilp, the shop is seized and they are forced to flee, thrown into a shadowy world in which there seems to be no safe haven. Dickens's portrayal of the innocent, tragic Nell made The Old Curiosity Shop an instant bestseller that captured the hearts of the nation, even as it was criticised for its sentimentality by figures such as Oscar Wilde. Yet alongside the story's pathos are some of Dickens's greatest comic and grotesque creations: the ne'er-do-well Dick Swiveller, the mannish lawyer Sally Brass, the half-starved 'Marchioness' and the lustful, loathsome Quilp himself.

MY THOUGHTS:

Yay, with this volume under my belt, I've now read my way through all of Dickens' major completed works. I hadn't been looking forward to this book, but in many ways, it wasn't so bad, although it took several weeks to read. 

It's essentially a tale about a young teen and her deadweight grandfather trying to flee a heartless pursuer and live a peaceful life of beggary on their own terms. Daniel Quilp, the evil and misshapen, money-lending dwarf is determined to take his pound of flesh from the old man who owes him so much money. Quilp also has his predatory eye on Little Nell as a potential future wife to replace his current missus, who he's almost bullied the spirit out of. ('Such blue veins and such translucent skin,' Quilp gloats over Little Nell. Ugh!) 

These escapees are one of the most feeble duos I've come across in classic literature. With the intention to secure Nell's future, old Grandpa gambles away all that Quilp loans him. He's lost his knick-knack business, the titular old curiosity shop. And the long-suffering Little Nell is too pure-hearted to ever admit to herself that her grandfather is a total loser. She's referred to by the narrator over and over as 'the child' even though she's fourteen years old. Wide-eyed and idealistic, Nell expects homelessness to deliver them both a happy, pastoral lifestyle. However, the harshness of the Victorian era and her grandfather's degeneracy are insurmountable obstacles, even minus the Quilp factor.  

Little Nell is one-dimensional and overly sweet, but I do feel for her. She's in a horrific situation. Not only is she forced to be the 'grown-up' in their fugitive existence, but her grandfather's pathetic, addictive nature every so often morphs into a malevolent force. If it's a question of which character destroys Nell's life the most, I'd say it's undoubtedly her grandfather and not Daniel Quilp. Dickens treats him far too sympathetically. This old man is not a mere victim of circumstance, he's an incorrigible agent of his own downfall who drags his granddaughter down with him. 

Also searching for them is the wastrel grandson. Nell's older brother, Frederick, thinks their grandfather is wealthier than he lets on and wants his share of the booty. (I find it hard to fathom how old Grandpa, with his persistent delusions about his card-playing savvy, has the nerve to consider Fred a more hopeless case than himself. Perhaps I've answered my own question. He's seriously clueless.) Frederick aims to marry Nell off to an easy-going friend of his, Dick Swiveller, who ends up being one of the novel's heroes. And Dick's eventual romance with another character is a very cool, Victorian version of workplace camaraderie, based on generosity, grown deeper.

Another story savior is Nell's friend, Christopher (Kit) Nubbles. Although he never manages to save Little Nell, this boy rescues the novel itself from being a total slog. At first I thought he was destined to be a character such as the simple-minded Barnaby Rudge, or Sloppy from Our Mutual Friend. Not so. Kit is hardworking and brimming with initiative, a credit and major support to his widowed mother. I appreciate how he always manages to cheer himself up by doing something nice for his mother and little brothers, rather than taking his bad moods out on them. It's unfortunate for them that Grandfather and Little Nell, each oblivious in their own way, don't perceive Kit to be a fine catch from the outset. Instead grandpop is quick to believe bad of him, and always treats him with a touch of condescension. (Again, what gives him the right?)

At first the title seems misleading, since Nell and her grandfather reside in their shop only during the very early stage of the story. However, I think Dickens intends a double meaning. The eccentric and noteworthy people who cross paths with the two wanderers turn rural Britain itself into a 'curiosity shop' of sorts. These include the generous Mrs Jarley and her traveling waxworks exhibition, a poor old village school teacher whose prize pupil dies, and Mr Slum, a poet who sells his creations. I also enjoy cameos such as the elderly widow who has spent decades visiting the grave of her twenty-three year old husband, and now considers him fondly as a sort of grandson.   

 Just recently, several old buildings from my past have been demolished to make way for new infrastructure. This helps me appreciate the ending, many years future to the events in the story, when Kit tells his own kids that the original curiosity shop was 'thereabouts' because the street alterations made its exact site confusing. The passage of time is a theme that occurs throughout the story. 

So there's my unembellished run-down. I didn't set out to make this sound melodramatic or overly sentimental. If it gives you that impression, that's pure Dickens. But apparently those sensation-seeking Victorians couldn't get enough of it. It was the only British novel that came close to equalling the same retail furore as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Crowds lined up on the release day of the final installment, avid to find out whether Little Nell was going to live or die. (No prizes for guessing the right answer. There have been two centuries of spoilers. And as the phrase goes, 'Only the good...') 

To me, the brightest spot of the story is that my favorite boys, Dick and Kit, each end up married to far more suitable spouses than the saintly and saccharine Little Nell would have made either of them. 

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If you would like to read more of my reviews, on any Dickens major novel, along with reflection pieces and further commentary, please visit my What the Dickens page. 

And here is my wrap-up page in which I reveal my Top Five. .