Five Favorite Dickens

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[@toniprothero]

David Copperfield has long been my favorite. I have reread it several times over the course of my 70+ years! I enjoyed your enthusiasm for these wonderful books!

[@patriotpearl264]

I know this video is old, but I was doing a little research on Dickens and I just want to thank you for giving such a great review of these books without any spoilers. I've honestly never read any of his books and had only seen the Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist movies. Literally today, I watched the David Copperfield movie and I liked it so much, I wanted to read the book. That sent me on a hunt for the book, which led me to other Dickens books that I had never even heard of. Anyway, after learning more about him and his books, I think I would like to read them all too... So, I'm off to order my first Dickens' book, David Copperfield. Thanks again for the review. 📚

[@readerturnedwriter]

I'm so excited to read more by Dickens, I've read A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, A Christmas Carol, and half of David Copperfield and have loved everything by him so far!!

[@katiejlumsden]

This is so interesting! I'd definitely say Great Expectations is a coming of age story (also that one is first person too) too. I often think of it as similar to David Copperfield. Anyway, so glad you've been loving Dickens so much! It's really interesting to hear your thoughts, as we both love Dickens so much but I think enjoy slightly different elements in his work :)

[@LuminousLibro]

Ah yes, Great Expectations is one of my least favorites, so I've probably blocked most of it out of my memory. haha! As you say, part of the genius of Dickens is that his work appeals to so many people on different levels, so we can each love (or dislike) the same book for a multitude of different reasons. Happy Reading!

[@deblawrence8341]

Two of my favorites fall into the uncommon category: "The Pickwick Papers" and "Mystery of Edwin Drood". When I learned Mr. Pickwick was going to prison, I was SO upset ... but then realized, hey, it's Mr. Pickwick! He brings sunshine and a positive attitude wherever he goes. And don't forget his sidekick, old dependable Sam Weller. I loved his character so much! I haven't read "Martin Chuzzlewit" but want to run upstairs and begin doing so now ... except, as we know, "Our Mutual Friend" first. 😉 Thanks or another great video!

[@mikesnyder1788]

Same here about both "The Pickwick Papers" and "Mystery of Edwin Drood." The first was written very early in his career and the second right there at the end (literally). Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved "Little Dorrit," "Nicholas Nickleby," "Our mutual friend," and others but Dickens serves up something slightly different in these two "uncommon" books.

[@MothGirl007]

I totally agree with your number one choice - "David Copperfield" is pretty much a perfect book.

[@Rlduncan1]

Good for you!! 📚📚📚📚. Congratulations!!! Charles Dickens would be proud!! I cannot imagine a world 🌎 without books, especially now!😷😷. I think I’m going to go for that Dickens reading goal for 2021!!❤️❤️❤️

[@ROXCANADA2023]

Great expectations and David are my favourites, both great pieces of art, well I like all of them!!

[@patriciadeane7250]

Bleak House! Thank you for the video. I thoroughly enjoyed your enthusiasm regarding Dickens!

[@user-sf3fe4bh2q]

I have always been SO sorry that Dickens hadn't finished "The mystery of Edvin Drood"!

[@angelaluz405]

It's all about A Christmas Carol for me!

[@LuminousLibro]

So many people say that is their favorite, and with good reason. It's wonderful from start to finish! Happy Reading!

[@apollonia6656]

The donkey, the donkey ! The kites.😅

[@ArtBookshelfOdyssey]

KZbin recommended this older video of yours, but it sure knew what to recommend! I love Dickens and have read all of his novels. I can't be friends with people who find David Copperfield boring, LOL... I'm thinking of doing a Dickens novel ranking video here in the next week or two.

[@ufh2101]

LOVED watching this video! You have a wonderful style. Your passion for how enjoyable a good novel can be really comes through. I have to confess that I haven’t read through a good novel in a while, but you inspired me to get back to it. Thank you!

[@alexandergallo6934]

I also love David Copperfield! I think is my favorite Dicken's, but I read The Pickwick papers and I loved it too!.

[@chrisreed3385]

Nice list 😀 my personal top 5 would be - Bleak House, Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend, David Copperfield and Dombey and Son.

[@theassassinadvocate4501]

I need to read Dickens because of this video! Reading is not only my passion but my spouse as well! Haha 😅

[@judeking2174]

I love your passion for great literature and especially Dickens. Thanks for the insights!

[@asymptoticspatula]

Wow, your excitement is infectious! Thank you for this video. I am trying to decide where to start with Dickens, and I've watched/read numerous top 5 lists and they're all different! I guess I can start anywhere, more or less! I'll probably go for A Tale of Two Cities, since I already have it, and it seems to be on most (or all) of the top 5 lists. Thanks again!

[@LuminousLibro]

That's a great place to start! It's very slow in the beginning, like most Dickens books, but it gets so good in the middle and end. Happy reading!

[@kidmarine7329]

Awesome list. I love your passion. Rereading all Dickens over again.

[@mirnasheets3849]

I agree with this list, except for #4, where I would put A Christmas Carol. On David Copperfield, I agree with that, and with what you said about Mr. Micawber, him and Mr. Fezziwig are probably my favorite character in all of Dickens. (Great Expectations is probably my #3).

[@mateosanchez43]

I stumbled across your video looking for a new Dickens novel to read, for I recently finished David Copperfield and has become my favorite book. I have to say, throughout the video I started getting scared you weren’t going to mention it (and at the same time I was hoping that you wouldn’t). Love how passionately you talk about these books, thanks for the video!!

[@apollonia6656]

My number one CD is Great Expectations and always will be 🙂

[@luisdireito]

Are you sure you read all of Dickens? Great Expectations is also completely narrated in first person, and it's also a coming of age story. Pip is probably in his forties by the end of the book. :)

[@Scott3843]

Hooray! My favorite book of all time is your #1 Dickens choice! Kindred spirits.

[@throughtheenchantedportal6617]

My favorite Charles Dickens book is A Christmas Carol. In fact if I was able to pick a favorite book of all time that might be it. But I find that hard to narrow down to one LOL! The only other Dickens I’ve read are Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend. I enjoyed them and I’m looking forward to reading more by him in the future.

[@LuminousLibro]

Wonderful! I DO love Christmas Carol, but it doesn't make the top list. It's just so hard to choose and rank his books, b/c they are all incredible!

[@bobworden5197]

Great Expectations is coming of age. Lister to Martin Jarvis audiobook. I loaned my cassette copy to a friend at work, who said that she sat in the parking lot at work crying, listening to it. It brought me to tears too. Agreed about Inspector Bucket in Bleak House. My favorite Dickens Character. Iread the book in college and have listened to it 3 times. I agree that it is Dickens at the height of his powers. Old Curiosity Shop is uneven but especially after it gets going, is wonderful. Dick Swiveler is my 2nd favorite Dickens characters- autobiographical for CD as a teenager "wagabond". Samson and Sally Brass are not to be missed! Thanks for your videos. I have the same level of enthusiasm, Still have a few books to read before I have read them all. Also, if you like him, try John LeCarre books. A Most Wanted Man is the same level of quality as Dickens, but nobody but nobody beats CD for creating characters. All of LeCarre's books that I have read are good. I end up reading them twice to see the clues I missed the first time around. Have listened to many Dickens novels more than one. THANKS AGAIN!!! and CHEERS!

[@beverleyroberts1025]

Thank you, your reviews have been very helpful! I've just finished Dombey & Son, and I loved it! 😃

[@tricaurelie]

You had me really intrigued about Martin Chuzzlewit, I'm so into redemption arcs these days. Though I'm not a huge Dickens fan, I might give this one a try ^^ Thanks for the inspiring video.

[@LuminousLibro]

That's great! Please let me know how you like it. Happy Reading!

[@rachaelcollom987]

Nice vid, I really need to read more Dickens. Great expectations is coming of age.

[@patriciagracey6991]

Thanks for your inspirational video. My favorites are Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend. I agree with you about David Copperfield - it has such a rich variety of characters. Another coming of age novel would be Great Expectations?

[@Rigny_la_Belle]

I loved this video! I have actually only read a select few that were required in school-Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and then in AP English, David Copperfield. And let me tell you, my teacher was obsessed. She was constantly gushing over it and you could tell it was her lifelong favorite, and even named her pets after the characters. She was the sweetest old British English teacher! I definitely plan on reading more soon. ☺️

[@LuminousLibro]

Aw, how wonderful to have a teacher who is truly passionate about their subject! What an inspiration!

[@DanielFletcherFlute]

I’m just starting my Dickens-athon! I read David Copperfield first, and just finished it this past weekend! I really enjoyed it overall. I am now working on Dombey and Son, and I’m just flying through it! I absolutely love just about everything about it so far!

[@LuminousLibro]

Awesome! I'm so glad that you are enjoying it. Happy Reading!

[@robynfindley7623]

Congratulations for reading all of dickens that is one of my goals i have yet to achieve. Congrats.

[@Maryjane022]

I'm currently reading dombey and son but I already read Christmas carol before and I enjoyed reading that one. 😊

[@jorgelopez-pr6dr]

I liked Oliver Twist better than David Copperfield, Bill Sikes is my favorite Dickens villain. Don't you believe that there is character developments in Great Expectations? Martin Chuzlewitt stirred a controversy due to the portrayal of American customs. I love A Tale of Two Cities, although it is melodramatic sometimes, relying on casualty. Bleak House is jarring critique to the British legal system, for which Dickens hadn't kind words (I am a lawyer). In fact, changes in several legislations in England towards the poor and children workers were in part result to the public outcry caused by Dickens's novels.

[@danasmith7286]

i'm so happy to see someone else Love Martin Chuzzlewit. Its in my top 5 as well.

[@judygoddard3869]

Yes, totally agree about David Copperfield!! Like you I read all the novels, and like you I ranked them. I also put it at number one (Great Expectations was number two). For me, it is THE novel. People like Virginia Woolf and Nabokov and Henry James may be superior artists, but none of them has the warmth and humanity of Dickens, and none can create such memorable characters. David Copperfield contains more memorable characters than any other novel ever written. It’s like all of life is packed into that book - the whole range of human experience and human character.

[@themole2024]

Totally agree. Love Copperfield too! I believe that Dickens loved it most because David Copperfield is the man that Dickens aspired to be. Of course, he came up a little short as no one can really equal the goodness of David. I have read David Copperfield 3 times and get more from it each time. The characters are amazing. Peggoty, David, Steerforth, Mr. Dick, Aunt Betsy, Mr. Micawber (oh my, what a gift to literature) Heap, Barkis is willin.... haha. great.... And on and on. Fabulous.

[@leonardmare8368]

I am currently reading David Copperfield and am really enjoying it. It is excellent!

[@LuminousLibro]

Hooray! It's my favorite for a reason. Happy Reading!

[@rujahpoetess9166]

Next, I would read one from these 5.. Hahahaha, the way you react to books.... You just resemble me! I'm also a high school English teacher- from srilanka 🇱🇰... This is the exact way and expression I give to my students whenever I talk about the books I read 😁 Love you!❤️ Will ask them to subscribe you and watch your videos.

[@etschmitz]

I think it’s true that the first Dickens novel one reads (one’s “way in” to his canon) quite often remains top favorite. Mine is/was “Bleak House”, followed closely by “Our Mutual Friend”, the second one I read. Neither “A Tale of Two Cities” nor “Dombey & Son” caught my affection very much - though Dombey is warming for me the more I think about it. Reading “Little Dorrit” and really enjoying it.

[@connorshirs]

David Copperfield is my favorite too 😊

[@toniprothero]

Nicholas Nickelby is also a coming of age story.

[@vilstef6988]

Uriah Heap, vile villain by Dickens and pretty good Prog band in the 1970s!

[@keithvittozzi6696]

Great video. Never read David Copperfield. That will be next on my list to read.

[@LuminousLibro]

Hooray! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

[@anilthapa5631]

I've just started reading david co, it's difficult to get some nuanced passages but it's ok. Although it's slow paced but it's interesting all the same. I hope Charles won't disappoint me.😊

[@sandyhausler5290]

I fully agree with your choice of David Copperfield, but I think you might have missed reading Great Expectations, which also is told in first person, which should have been number two on your list. BTW, my favorite villain in David Copperfield is Mr. Murdstone. So evil. But Uriah Heep is a good choice two.

[@pnutbutrncrackers]

Thoroughly enjoyed this video. I already valued your literary opinions, but to get to hear your very favorites from one of the greatest novelists ever, after you had read every one, that's prized stuff! So Little Dorrit didn't crack honorable mention, huh? I loved the BBC series of it with Claire Foy (2008) as well as the masterly Bleak House (2005). You?

[@LuminousLibro]

Thank you! I haven't watched the BBC series of Little Dorrit, but I have it on my list of "must watch soon" TV. Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

[@patriciagracey6991]

Yes, I loved the book and the TV series. I'm currently re-watching it on the iPlayer. It's brilliant.

[@blackcatseye22]

I need to read some Dickens.

[@mysticmouse7261]

I absolutely despise Dickens. In the end I tried to get through Bleak House and failed. Cruel and unusual punishment.

[@mariaclaracipriani7859]

Great expectations.

[@jackiesliterarycorner]

Reading David Copperfield and so far, after having read Great Expectations, which by the way I think that could be considered a coming of age, and I do prefer David Copperfield. I'm trying to determine what I should read next. I'm tempted to choose Bleak House because I got this new edition with a cover I love, but I have also thought about The Pickwick Papers and Dombey and Son.

[@LuminousLibro]

You can't go wrong with any of those! Pickwick is light-hearted and fun. Dombey and Son is dramatic and sad and beautiful. Bleak House is mysterious and sweet and has one of the most beloved characters in ALL of Dickens: the remarkable Mr. Bucket. Happy Reading!

[@jackiesliterarycorner]

@@LuminousLibro well, wish me luck on deciding.

[@JHS447]

Great expectations?

[@Read2live]

Regarding The Tale of Two Cities --That ending killed me. Even up to the very last second, I hoped for a change in the ending. Up to the very last second, I was expecting some kind of deus ex machina to save the day. Dickens, however, had other plans, and he broke my heart. I'll need to reread the works I have read of Dickens if I want to rank my favorites, so I don't have a specific order, but I do love The Tale of Two Cities. David Copperfield I read it many years ago when I was in middle school, and I remember loving it, but I don't remember much else. I certainly I need to read it again to see if I'll feel the same. I'm currently reading with a book club his last unfinished book The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I just started it, and 2 chapters in although it 's too bizarre and confusing so far, I enjoy it because the characters keep me curious and interested to keep reading.

[@nuckygulliver9607]

the ending of The Tale of Two Cities was spoiled for me by the paragraph write up on the back of the book. I appreciated the story and ending but I knew it was happening. They don't completely explain it on the back but once you start reading it you know exactly what he's going to do and see the set up as it happens. It spud be like watching the Sixth Sense knowing ending before hand. So much of the plot was a set up for it.. You would be watching it more analytically. What a terrible publishing company, but at least they included the original illustrations.

[@rickonnye2001]

Have you read Mapp and Lucia?

[@LuminousLibro]

No, I have never heard of it.

[@malcolmubesio8523]

Isn’t Great Expectations in first person?

[@LuminousLibro]

Ah, might be. It's been years since I've read that one, and it's one of my least favorites of Dickens' books. Probably blocked most of it out of my memory. haha!

[@uglyvegan7945]

Yes. And much of Bleak House, as well. Also a very small part of The Old Curiosity Shop, but that doesn't really count.

[@stevnroil8503]

Sis where is A Christmas Carol one of the greatest book of dickens?

[@user-ys6zp7uo1m]

هل من الممكن أن تكون هناك ترجمة للعربية؟ من فضلك!

[@LuminousLibro]

Sorry, I don't speak or read or write any Arabic languages.

[@anatolyyurkin6635]

Наш общий друг из-за Сайласа Вегга Крошка Доррит из-за падения дома Холодный дом Пиквик Элвин Друд

[@dreamer7770]

Am I first? :D

[@LuminousLibro]

Apparently yes. What's your favorite Dickens novel?

[@dreamer7770]

@@LuminousLibro Unfortunately, I'm not well acquainted with Mr Dickens. I've only read Oliver Twist, so my answer would be unfairly prejudiced towards that. But I am interested in reading Our Mutual Friend and A Tale of Two Cities before the year is out, so in a few months, who knows?

[@SunriseFireberry]

BH is my #1. 5 unfav Dickens? U didn't put GE in top 5 + honorable. That's the one that gets force-fed to 15 year old 2edary students. Maybe you were 1 of them.

[@LuminousLibro]

No, I was homeschooled and got to read whatever I wanted. Probably my least fave Dickens are Barnaby Rudge, Hard Times, and Great Expectations. I just never enjoyed it, and couldn't understand why some people loved it.

[@hyacinthh6900]

I'm one of those that really enjoyed Great Expectations. Was my first CD.

[@jeffreykaufmann2867]

I find David Copperfield Boring. Dombey and Son , Little Dorrit and Great Expectations are my favorites. But I haven't read Bleak House yet .

[@hyacinthh6900]

At the moment, reading Dombey and son. It is fantastic!!!