Victorians! discussion

Welcome to our final group read for the year! I have chosen Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens and looking forward to having an engaging conversation with you all. This is my 10th Dickens novel and I'm getting back to reading Dickens after a while. So, I'm very excited.

Reading Schedule:

We will be reading the book for 10 weeks from 13th October to 21st December.

Week 1: Chapters 1-8: October 13th-19th
Week 2: Chapters 9-16: October 20th-26th
Week 3: Chapters 17-24: October 27th-November 2nd
Week 4: Chapters 25-32: November 3rd-9th
Week 5: Chapters 33-40: November 10th-16th
Week 6: Chapters 41-48: November 17th-23rd
Week 7: Chapters 49-56: November 24th-30th
Week 8: Chapters 57-64: December 1st-7th
Week 9: Chapters 65-72: December 8th-14th
Week 10: Chapters 73-82: December 15th-21st

Barnaby Rudge is the earliest of the two historical novels that Charles Dickens wrote. It is Dickens 5th published novel and first appeared in his short-lived weekly serial Master Humphrey's Clock from February to November 1841. The story is largely set during the Gordon (anti-Catholic) Riots of 1780,

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He was born in Portsmouth on 7th February 1812 to John Dickens, a naval clerk, and Elizabeth Dickens. Charles’s father, John Dickens had a poor head for finances and was extravagant, always living beyond their means. Because of this reason, the family remained poor. But despite their poverty, Charles’s early childhood was a happy one. With his father imprisoned in 1824 for debt, things turned upside down, and Charles at the age of twelve was sent for work in Warren’ Blacking factory to support family finances. After his father's release, he was able to continue his education for another three years.

Charles Dickens’s literary success began in 1836 with his serial publication of The Pickwick Papers . The success and the wide popularity of the story secured his place as a novelist. He wrote fifteen novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories, and non-fiction articles. His works enjoyed unparalleled popularity in his lifetime. And even today, his works are still widely read. Many consider Charles Dickens as the greatest novelist the Victorian era produced. Given the popularity his works have retained over time, this cannot be doubted.

A comprehensive biography can be found in the Victorian web
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/d...,
in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles..., and Biography https://www.biography.com/writer/char...

Free ebook can be found here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/917

Free audiobook versions can be found here: https://librivox.org/barnaby-rudge-by...
https://librivox.org/barnaby-rudge-by...
https://librivox.org/barnaby-rudge-ve...

Mil Nicholson is my “go to” recording artist when it comes to Dickens. She has been building a library of excellent volunteer recordings at Librivox over the years. To date there are 9 completed Dickens novels and they are really quite good. They can also be found on YouTube for those who prefer to listen there.

Thanks, Renee, for enlightening us. Much appreciated.

I just cut & pasted the schedule into my calendar. I’m so psyched about this read!

Glad to have you on board! :)

This will be a third read of Barnaby Rudge for me, and I’m looking forward to everyone’s critiques and sharing of ideas.

Wow, that's great, Nancy. Happy to have you on board. Looking forward to reading your thoughts.

I'm in!

Nancy wrote: "This will be a third read of Barnaby Rudge for me, and I’m looking forward to everyone’s critiques and sharing of ideas."

You’ve been making up for me! Barnaby Rudge and Martin Chuzzlewit are the two I have yet to read. By 2025, I’ll be down to just one unread Dickens. :D

Hi everyone, first time joining a group book read so looking forward to hearing your thoughts! Excited :)

The book is waiting for me to pick it up at the library, so I am ready for this group read. Will be the 7th Dickens novel for me (yeah, halfway mark!) and the first book I'll read with this group. Looking forward to it!

It’s so great to have some new faces joining the read!

Welcome to the group read Rosemarie, Daryl and Lindenblatt! I hope more will join us.

Renee wrote: "Nancy wrote: "This will be a third read of Barnaby Rudge for me, and I’m looking forward to everyone’s critiques and sharing of ideas."

You’ve been making up for me! Barnaby Rudge and..."

Martin Chuzzlewit is another I'm also interested in reading. Hope a member will be kind enough to nominate it for 2025. :)

Nice!

I’m in, this is my penultimate Dickens novel. Like Renee, I’ll just have Martin Chuzzlewit left in 2025 (although I also need to reread Hard Times as it was 50 years ago and I’ve forgotten everything!)

Lol. I think of Hard Times as the forgettable one.

Renee wrote: "Lol. I think of Hard Times as the forgettable one."

Haha, glad it’s not just me!

Glad to have you, too, Pamela!

Renee wrote: "Lol. I think of Hard Times as the forgettable one."

I think of Hard Times as the first one. If you are a little intimidated by Dickens, this is a nice short book to try him out. Worked for me 😊

Just found this group...and have started Barnaby Rudge in the group
NTLTRC. I've finished a few chapters...but will put my reading on hold until the kick-off here on Oct 13.
Read to join with the rest of this group!

Lindenblatt wrote: "Renee wrote: "Lol. I think of Hard Times as the forgettable one."

I think of Hard Times as the first one. If you are a little intimidated by Dickens, this is a nice short book to try him out. Work..."

Hard Times was my introduction to Dickens as well. I agree with Lindenblatt. It’s a good introduction to Dickens.

Nancy wrote: "Just found this group...and have started Barnaby Rudge in the group
NTLTRC. I've finished a few chapters...but will put my reading on hold until the kick-off here on Oct 13.
Read to join with the r..."

Glad to hear that Nancy.

This will be second read-through of Barnaby Rudge, but my first time reading it with a group. I’m a huge fan of Boz, and have read all his novels. I normally read his Christmas Books this time of year, which I hope to do in parallel to this reading. I have spent the past ten (ish) years collecting the Oxford Illustrated Dickens collection via AbeBooks, ThriftBooks, & McKay’s Used Books. I purchased my last one in the spring just past. I’m sincerely looking forward to gaining more insights & observations on this lesser known Dickens novel from my fellow bibliophiles.
I find I now have little tolerance reading modern fiction after having immersed myself in the 19th century classics for so long. 🤨

This will be my penultimate Dickens novel, too. After I read Barnaby Rudge, I will just have Nicholas Nickleby left to read (unless you count the Mystery of Edwin Drood-I am not sure how I feel about reading an unfinished novel-although I do like Kafka, whose novels were never finished).

Jim wrote: "This will be my penultimate Dickens novel, too. After I read Barnaby Rudge, I will just have Nicholas Nickleby left to read (unless you count the Mystery of Edwin Drood-I am not sure how I feel abo..."

I have the same feeling like you about The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Jim. I'm uncomfortable in reading unfinished novels although I enjoyed Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell which was also unfinished at the time of author's death.

Hello all! I am going to attempt this read along also. I’m a novice Dickens reader, having only read Great Expectations and a couple of short stories. I’m a bit intimidated by the length of most of his books, which is why I thought a read along might be just the ticket for me to get past my fear of books over 600 pages.

Lots of experienced Dickens readers here! Hope I can keep up!

Glad to have you with us, Beda. It's a common problem with many readers to be intimidated by the length in a novel. All I could say that, if the novel is interesting, the page number scarcely matter. And Dickens makes his novels interesting with a multitude of characters and settings. Reading Victorian literature can be daunting, especially Dickens as he loved to be verbose. But we are reading in small chunks so you'll be just fine. The discussion thread for the first segment is posted. Please don't hesitate to share your thoughts because you feel you're less experienced. We'd love to hear all different POVs.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is very dramatic-it's worth reading just for that.

If anyone reading Barnaby Rudge wants a potted account of the Gordon Riots without going into all the detail, there is a synopsis of what happened on the Victorian Web here.

https://victorianweb.org/history/riot...

Thanks for sharing the information, Trev.

Trev wrote: "If anyone reading Barnaby Rudge wants a potted account of the Gordon Riots without going into all the detail, there is a synopsis of what happened on the Victorian Web here.

https://v..."

Thanks Trev, interesting to find that Lord Gordon wasn’t charged for playing a huge part in starting the riots 🤨

Daryl wrote: "Trev wrote: "If anyone reading Barnaby Rudge wants a potted account of the Gordon Riots without going into all the detail, there is a synopsis of what happened on the Victorian Web her..."

The privilege of the class, Daryl! 😀