Dickens 2012

April 20, 2013 by Drew

(ed. note – this is a much belated post… by nearly four whole months and at least two whole books. promise to be better about it next year and so on.) DICKENS 2012 editions: Penguin Clothbound Hardcover A Tale of Two Cities – 3.5 out of 5, 1/12-1/22 Hard Times – 4 out of 5, 4/9-4/13 Great Expectations – 4 out of 5, 7/13-7/22 Oliver Twist – 3.5 out of 5, 9/17-9/25 Bleak House – 4.5 out of 5, 11/22-12/8 […]

Categories: Features, The Ten Year Catch-Up • Tags: charles dickens, Coralie Bickford-Smith, Dickens 2012, Fiction, Literature, The Ten Year Catch-Up, Year One

2012 – The RB Lit Review

December 31, 2012 by Drew

Why hello, faithful reader. I hope you’ve had a lovely year. I know that my 2012 was tumultuous at best – but it also was one of the better years of reading I’ve had in quite a while. More books and better books – how can you go wrong? Plus, after a few test runs, I’m happy to announce that we’ll be expanding our programming officially: more columns about cover art, more Questions & Answers, and 2013 will bring the […]

Categories: News/Updates • Tags: 2012, Business, Dickens 2012, happy new year!, stats, year in review

A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings

December 25, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: A collection of Dickens’ most well-known Christmas tales, including the piece d’resistance - A Christmas Carol. Two novellas as well as several short stories and essays, all about the holiday season and the spirit of generosity that suffuses this time of year. The Review: And so we come to the end of the year – the end of the admittedly ambitious (for me, anyway) attempt to read the “Great Works of Charles Dickens” (as proscribed by Penguin and their […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings, Dickens 2012, Essays, Fiction, Holiday, Literature, Short Stories, The Haunted Man and The Ghost's Bargain

Bleak House

December 8, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: The story of Esther Summerson, a young orphan girl who grows up by a stroke of fortune into the titular house – a house beset by an epic law case, Jarndyce & Jarndyce. Her benefactor, the young wards of the case, and several figures of London life (ranging from the highest-born to the dregs of the slums) play a part in the story of this case and of the impact it would have on both house and […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Bleak House, charles dickens, Dickens 2012, Fiction, Literature, London

Oliver Twist

September 25, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: Poor orphan Oliver Twist is subjected to the most cruel of lives, growing up in a workhouse in Victorian England. After a twist of fate sends him to London, he falls in with a group of thieves and ne’er-do-wells led by the Jew Fagin and Bill Sikes. His life then sends him back and forth between respectability and these vagabonds until, in the end, all comes together quite nicely. The Review: I think I’m actually most ashamed to […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: charles dickens, Classics, Dickens 2012, Fiction, Literature, Oliver Twist

Great Expectations

July 22, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: Young Philip Pirrip, known as Pip, has a chance encounter with an escaped convict as a young boy and thus his life of luck begins. Having fallen into several circumstances through virtue of said luck, he finds himself a young man in London with ‘great expectations’ bestowed upon him by an unknown benefactor. Thinking it to be the strange old lady Miss Havisham, he prepares to be wed to her ward – but when the true identity of […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: charles dickens, Coralie Bickford-Smith, Dickens 2012, Fiction, Great Expectations, Literature

Hard Times

April 15, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: In a small industrial English town, the utilitarian teachings and beliefs of Mssrs. Gradgrind and Bounderby are put to the test by young Louisa Bounderby (nee Gradgrind) and her brother Tom. Coketown is not much but a sooty industrial hamlet but it’s still populated by the classic Dickensian characters one expects to see in London – and hits home with a message much harsher than one might usually be accustomed to. The Review: So in Penguin collecting “The […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: charles dickens, Coralie Bickford-Smith, Dickens 2012, Fiction, Hard Times, Literature

A Tale of Two Cities

January 22, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: In the years leading up to the French Revolution, an old man named Manette is reunited with his estranged daughter many moons after having been imprisoned and forgotten about. He, with his daughter, returns to England under the auspices of a man named Lorry. As the daughter grows into a beautiful young woman, she meets and marries an dashing French emigre named Darnay. As it turns out, Darnay is more than an emigre: he’s an aristocrat. When […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: A Tale of Two Cities, charles dickens, Dickens 2012, Fiction, Historical, Literature

Two Challenges – and an invitation

January 12, 2012 by Drew

Hello, folks! A proper Happy New Year to all of you – a bit belated, I admit. Anyway, for those of you who are literary prognosticators, you’ll know that yesterday was a big day: The Morning News dropped the 2012 Tournament of Books bracket. I’m proud to say that I accurately predicted half of the bracket this year, which is personally very exciting – but even more exciting, I’m pretty sure I want to read at least 12 of this […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Challenges, charles dickens, Dickens 2012, Invitation, Read-Along, The Morning News, The Tournament of Books 2012

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

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