Dickensians! discussion

Have you read a sequel to one of Charles Dickens's stories, written by a different author? Or perhaps a novel which is a spin-off, whether a unique original work, or written as a pastiche?

If you have read a work which relies heavily on direct references to Dickens's characters, or plots, (rather than one which is merely "influenced by" him) please tell us about it here.

(Thanks to Elizabeth, for the idea behind creating this thread.)

I've read two spin-offs of A Christmas Carol. Neither has the depth or enjoyment that comes from Charles Dickens' work.

Jacob T. Marley - an interesting look at Marley's point of view of the Christmas Carol story. I thought this one had warmth and explores the idea of forgiveness and helping others.

Miss Marley: The Untold Story of Jacob Marley’s Sister - blah. Airy and without feeling or depth of any kind.


A book that relies heavily on Dickens is Mister Pip.
In this story, a teacher (the only white man on the island) teaches the island children during a time of war. He uses Great Expectations as the textbook to teach the children about worlds beyond their own and to open their imaginations.
I really enjoyed this gem of a book.

I saw a deal for a book that I couldn't resist on Amazon for my Kindle called The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry. It was the title that snagged me. It is termed a supernatural fantasy about the ability of the principal character, Charley, to bring fictional characters (one of whom is Uriah Heep from David Copperfield) into the real world and another unknown person with similar abilities who also brings book characters into the real world. Charley solicits the help of his brother Rob to help corral these errant characters who begin to cause problems in the real world. The focus is mainly on characters from Victorian literature, especially the works of Charles Dickens. We also meet characters from Arthur Conan Doyle’s writing as well as Lewis Carroll and Roald Dahl, but most heavily on Dickens' characters.
The relationship between the two brothers is also a focus of the book.

The book has received some very good reviews and is the debut fantasy novel of the author who is from New Zealand.

I was able to get the Kindle version for $2.99 (USD) from Amazon yesterday, but it unfortunately now seems to be $4.99. My library district has the book, so check your library or request it if not in your library. I hope to read it soon.

Review links: https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...

http://www.britishfantasysociety.org/...

Also, I just remembered:

Lost in a Good Book: Miss Haversham is a main character.
While I liked the first book in this series, I found that the story really takes off in this second book. Miss Haversham was a wonderful addition to this wacky, off-beat story.

This Christmas to change from my annual rereading of A Christmas Carol, I read Marley by Jon Clinch. It's a telling of the life of Jacob Marley, it ends when his life ends; we see the evolution of Ebenezer Scrooge, but I thought it did a couple of leap of logic there.

This is an interesting thread.

I would like to suggest Drood by Dan Simmons.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

I actually started reading it and I must admit it was pretty spooky. I believe Wilkie Collins was the opening narrator and the book seems to want to take you to a London underworld of crypts, graves, and ghosts.

I have to get to it again, as I really liked the opening chapter, but other reading got in the way.

Bionic Jean wrote: (Thanks to Elizabeth, for the idea behind creating this thread.)

Thanks for the credit, Jean, but the Idea was really yours :-) I just jolted your memory to start this thread!

Already some terrific suggestions received!

Elizabeth, the premise of The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep seems the opposite of the Thursday Next series. In Uriah Heep, characters are brought out of their books, while in Thursday Next, the novel's characters can sometimes enter into books.
Both premises are interesting to think about. Thanks for this title.

It’s a little weird, but I chose a book at random in my list today and it does in a way fit this category. I’m only on chapter two of The Afterlife of Holly Chase, but it’s a modern retelling of A Christmas Carol where a teenager becomes The Ghost of Christmas Past after failing at reforming after having the Scrooge experience. Can’t say yet if I’m going to like it or not, but for now it’s interesting.

Petra wrote: "Elizabeth, the premise of The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep seems the opposite of the Thursday Next series. In Uriah Heep, characters are brought out of their books, while in Thursday Next, the nov..."

Thanks, Petra - I haven't read any of Jasper Fford's books. Placing the Thursday Next series on my TBR - thank you! The Uriah book caught my eye because of reading David Copperfield, of course. The characters that spring from the books in Parry's book are supposed to be mostly from Victorian literature.

John wrote: "This is an interesting thread. I would like to suggest Drood by Dan Simmons. ..."

I'm hoping to read Drood some time. Also Jack Dawkins by Charlton Daines based on the Artful Dodger in Oliver Twist and Tom-All-Alone's by Lynn Shepherd which is based on Bleak House.

Has anyone read either of these latter two?

Have you read a spin-off from Charles Dickens which you'd like to share with us?

How about a prequel or sequel to our next big read of Little Dorrit?

This was one of the daily specials today with BookBub:

A Tale of Two Murders by Heather Redmond.
It features a "young Charles Dickens".

I haven't heard of this murder series. Has anyone read any of the books?

It sounds intriguing Petra, and has mixed reviews. Thanks! I too would love to hear from anyone who has read this book.

I've just started reading Coronation Summer, a book by Angela Thirkell, an author I really enjoy who wrote lots of comic novels from the 1930s onwards. She is mainly known for her Barsetshire series, set in Trollope's invented county, but she was clearly a big admirer of Dickens too. This story isn't one of the series but a historical novel set before and after Queen Victoria's Coronation.

I hadn't realised this before starting, but this book is so far absolutely full of references to Dickens. The comic heroine, Fanny, is a huge fan who constantly refers to "Our dear Boz". We are told this character went to school at Miss Twinkleton's Academy in Cloisterham, which is a school in Edwin Drood.

I've just looked at Angela Thirkell's website and I see she was a devoted member of the Dickens Fellowship, so she must have had a lot of fun putting in all these references. I'd have to say though that so far it is not as funny as her Barsetshire books.

She's just a name to me! Could you suggest a good first read, Judy? Perhaps this one? I do like Anthony Trollope too, just not quite as much :)

I didn't think Coronation Summer was all that good, in the end, I'm afraid - it has an awful lot of period details such as endless discussion of minor Victorian novels. I felt as if she needed to get in all her research! I did enjoy the Dickens references though.

Her Barsetshire novels, set in the 1930s onwards, are much funnier - they are not really like Trollope (I really like him too!), she just pinches some names from his books. I really liked the second and third books in the series, Wild Strawberries and August Folly - the first one, High Rising, took a while to get going, but the second half was very funny. I don't know whether to suggest that or Wild Strawberries!

That's helpful - thanks Judy :)

Yes, it's annoying when partway through a book (fiction or nonfiction) you begin to suspect that the author has felt the need to put in every scrap of their research :(

A kids version of Oliver Twist is in the Wishbone Clasics Series-Oliver Twist. It gives a good idea of the story while cutting some that may be considered not PC, ie Fagan is never The Jew and Nancy is the girlfriend. It is still decent, and a good way to get kids introduced to Dickens!

That sounds great Jenny! As I remember, some of the later editions did change the references to Fagin as "the Jew", just calling him Fagin. Charles Dickens regretted the portrait in later years, and as an apology for such stereotyping, his final completed novel has a positive character, Mr Riah, who is Jewish.

Do feel free to link it if you can :)

The whole series is really good Jean, but there are no other Dickens works for some reason.
The TV series is what really got me started on clasics, and when my mom and I found the books at the school booksale knew they would be worthwhile!

That's a shame, but I guess it's his most popular story retold for children.

Yes, I suppose so. At least the writing style is the same, they pretty much take it verbatim and just cut some things, and add in comments by Wishbone to explain or just to comment. It waa enough to get me interested at least!

It sounds much better than usual - but I can only find one Wishbone Classic on Goodreads :(

I added a link in my first comment about it- did I do it wrong?

No, that's absolutely correct Jenny! I'll edit the database as the one I linked to is wrong.

The GR rules are that if you don't know who adapted something, you have to use the editor or publisher as the main "author" (ie. not Charles Dickens in this case). But when you do know their name then that is the author (Charles Dickens can be added as an additional author.

You have found the correct series, with various authors all named. Thank you! (I'm merging the incorrect author entry with these.)

Bionic Jean wrote: "That sounds great Jenny! As I remember, some of the later editions did change the references to Fagin as "the Jew", just calling him Fagin. Charles Dickens regretted the portrait in..."

I remember reading that Dickens made these changes himself in the last edition he supervised - I think this is in an introduction to one edition. But I believe some editors later changed them all back to restore the original text.

Yes, that's what I've read too. It's such a difficult decision, whether to stick with the early or the later choice by the author.

I'm currently listening to Lost in a Good Book. It's full of literary references and mentions multiple books.
In Chapter 2, there's a reference to David Copperfield. In Thursday Next's world, literary works change and there are debates on which version is the original one. This chapter references a debate over an aspect of Dora's role in the novel.

It does sound good Petra :)

Did you start with the first one of the series, The Eyre Affair, as I just couldn't get on with it at all :(

I did, Jean. I've previously read the first two of the series, then stopped. Now I'm rereading these two to bring the story back to me before continuing.
I remember that I liked the second book more than the first. As I've just restarted it, I can't say yet whether this still holds true.

It sounds as though I should try them again some time. Maybe I was in the wrong mood!

They are quirky story lines, with all the literary references, the time travel aspect (Thursday's dad), the weird chronology.......but it works. It's just a quirky world to live in.

Thanks Petra. It does sound like the kind of story I would like.

I completely forgot- The series Manga Classics has an adaptation of Great Expectations! The art is very cute and detailed, however they do change the plot quite a bit in others, so I would approach it with caution in that regard.

That's an unusual format! Worth trying - thanks for the mention (and warning) Jenny.

For any fan of Dickens, I cannot recommend highly enough Fingersmith. It takes place in a Dickens-like setting with even Nancy and Bill Sikes on the periphery. The story involves some thieves/pickpockets (Fingersmiths) who hatch a plot to swindle some money out of a wealthy young heiress. This novel is very inventive and has surprising twists and turns. Well written.

Mark wrote: "For any fan of Dickens, I cannot recommend highly enough Fingersmith ..."

It's one I've wondered about reading, thanks, Mark!

It might also make a good side read to Oliver Twist, depending on when we do have that as a group read, and whether we have already read up about workhouses (which would probably be slightly more on topic).

Thanks for recommending Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. I recently read her Tipping the Velvet which captures late Victorian London.

With another GR group, I listened to the audiobook Mr. Dickens and His Carol. Fan fiction at the time was filled with vampires, sea monsters, and ghosts. I found the novel pleasant company as I colored. I think if I were to reread--or re-listen--that I would have a different and better understanding of the book. The ghost was to Dickens similar to what Marley's ghost was to Scrooge. Both ghosts were doing their best to encourage the humans to live well and happily.

I enjoyed reading The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry. It actually had Uriah Heep from David Copperfield. Along with other fictional characters including Sherlock Homes. And it had Charles Dickens himself. And a delightful character named Millie Radcliffe-Dix that the author made up. It is a magical, fantasy adventure with two brothers at the heart of it, who are trying to get along. It was a fun story and a pleasure to read.

Those two sound interesting and fun! Thanks Cynda and Debra.

I suspect this time of year may be a good time to publish a spin-off novel of something by Charles Dickens, so maybe there will be a new one - or two - soon.

I have bought Tim Cratchit's Christmas Carol: The Sequel to the Celebrated Dickens Classicwhich is supposed to be a sequel to A Christmas Carol. If I can find time to read it after reading Christmas Carol, I will.

Mister Pip has been mentioned earlier in this thread and is wonderful!
A couple of Australian novels worth mentioning :
Wanting by Richard Flanagan where Dickens is part of the story.
Jack Maggs by Peter Carey is a retelling of great expectations from Magwitch’s POV.

I've read Mister Pip, but not the other two. Thanks Janelle; they sound great! I've added them to my to-read list :)

I have added Mister Pip to my to-read list. But, I am going to read Great Expectations first.

Bionic Jean wrote: "I've read Mister Pip, but not the other two. Thanks Janelle; they sound great! I've added them to my to-read list :)"

I hope you enjoy them , Jean. They’re both great writers :)

I know of Peter Carey, but not Richard Flanagan.

Three times a year I participate in 24-hour readathon where I find opportunity to read shorter works, including graphic novels. I am adding to my list A Christmas Carol: The Night That Changed the Life of Eliza Scrooge written and illustrated by Rod Espinosa. Looking forward.

Charles Dickens is often highlighted around the end of the year, when the rest of the world (i.e. not fanatical Dickens-readers) seem to wake up to him!

Has anyone comes across a spin-off or sequel to his works recently?