Gothic in Dickens

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Gothic in Dickens

1frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:26 am

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2frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:26 am

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3frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:27 am

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4frahealee
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5frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:27 am

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6frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:27 am

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7frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:29 am

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8alaudacorax
Déc 23, 2018, 4:46 am

>7 frahealee:

That's got to be the most character-defining performance in anything, ever - can't imagine there ever being a different iconic version of Long John Silver.

9frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:27 am

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10housefulofpaper
Déc 27, 2018, 7:12 pm

The big Gothic exhibition at the British Library in 2013 had some TV screens set up between the exhibits. These were showing iconic or representative scenes on a loop. One of them had a scene from the 2005 TV adaptation of Bleak House with Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock.

11frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:27 am

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12alaudacorax
Déc 29, 2018, 4:59 am

>11 frahealee:

But if you want 'bleak' go for Hard Times - finish that and, if you're not careful, you'll end up drinking alone in a darkened room, listening to old Leonard Cohen LPs ...

13frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:28 am

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14housefulofpaper
Août 18, 2019, 8:02 pm

>13 frahealee:

There's arguably a supernatural death too. Krook dies by spontaneous human combustion. Of course Dickens might have thought this was scientifically possible, and so not intended to introduce the supernatural into his story.

15alaudacorax
Août 19, 2019, 4:59 am

>13 frahealee:

I've just realised that Bleak House is, I'm pretty sure, yet another classic novel I've never read. There are so many gaps that I'm embarrassed to call myself well-read.

16frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:28 am

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17frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:29 am

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18alaudacorax
Modifié : Août 19, 2019, 7:39 am

>17 frahealee:

I don't know if this makes me a bit of an anomaly, but the idea of being thought an anomaly sort of warms my heart ...

ETA - and just after I pressed the save button I realised it had brought a smile to my face, too.

19frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:28 am

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20frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:28 am

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21frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:28 am

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22frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:29 am

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23pgmcc
Déc 17, 2019, 11:38 am

>22 frahealee:
I enjoyed Bleak House. The interactions of the characters entertained me.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a book I really liked. Despite its not being completed I had a wonderful time reading it. I also enjoyed reading the conjecture about how Dickens might have meant it to continue. Of course, I had my own views as to how it would have continued.

Hard Times is one I have yet to read.

24alaudacorax
Déc 18, 2019, 8:47 am

>22 frahealee:

Hmmm ... that's not how I remember Hard Times, but it's been decades. I'm clearly due for a re-read. Actually, you're reminding me that I've read comparatively few Dickens novels and, those I have, mostly decades ago. They're another lot that have too long been in my 'meaning to' bracket.

25frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:28 am

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26alaudacorax
Mai 26, 2020, 5:10 pm

>25 frahealee:

Learned something new today. I had no idea what a hope chest was and had to look it up online.

27alaudacorax
Mai 26, 2020, 5:13 pm

>26 alaudacorax:

They would seem to be the origin of all those old folk tales of brides disappearing without trace whilst playing hide and seek and their skeletons being found decades later in a self-locking chest in some remote part of the house, mansion, castle or whatever.

28frahealee
Modifié : Juin 22, 2022, 9:28 am

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29housefulofpaper
Modifié : Mai 27, 2020, 7:32 pm

There used to be a tiny bat - a pipistrelle I would suppose, that flew about hunting at dusk. I don't remember seeing it last summer. I would be very happy to see one again this summer.

The only vaguely exotic fauna we have is the red kites that have been successfully reintroduced to the UK.

Edited to add - Oops! I'm replying to a comment in the "editions of Dracula" thread.

30pgmcc
Mai 28, 2020, 5:28 am

>29 housefulofpaper: Mysterious and mischievous powers are afoot. Be watchful; you do not know what they will have you doing next.

31alaudacorax
Déc 29, 2023, 8:07 am

One of those infuriating little instances. I saw a ... reasonable ... documentary on Charles Dickens' supernatural tales last night and I was going to note it here. After it finished I either got distracted or fell asleep. And now I can't find it in the schedules and can't remember the title. Or which channel.

Anyway, the only thing I was going to mention was their assertion that Dickens always (my italics) left room for a psychological interpretation.

To be honest, most of his supernatural tales I've only read the once, so I can't really argue the point. I'm intrigued, though. The stories I'm most familiar with at the moment are 'The Signalman' and 'A Christmas Carol' and my first instinct with both is to say, "Nope ... there's a definite supernatural element." But then I sort of second-guess myself on 'A Christmas Carol', and now I'm feeling the need to read 'The Signalman' again, just to be sure.

32alaudacorax
Déc 29, 2023, 8:08 am

>31 alaudacorax:

Apologies: 'The Signal-Man'.

33elenchus
Modifié : Déc 30, 2023, 11:09 am

>31 alaudacorax:
>32 alaudacorax:

My knee-jerk response was along with yours: nope, definite supernatural element in "The Signal-Man". "Christmas Carol" definitely leaves open possibility Scrooge dreamt it all, though. Curious what you think upon re-reading either or both.

34housefulofpaper
Déc 30, 2023, 6:25 pm

>31 alaudacorax:
>32 alaudacorax:
>33 elenchus:

I gave this some thought, although I haven't read all of Dickens' fiction (far from it!) and a lot of what I have read was a long time ago. Isn't it the default position, in a ghost story, to leave the possiblity of a natural explanation open? The alternatives - an explicitly regligious story with a particular theological explanation, or a "technical" occult story (such as Wiliam Hope Hodgson's Carnacki stories, for example) are what came to my mind - are (I think) much rarer.

I did take down The Supernatural & English Fiction by Glen Cavaliero (a lucky charity shop find some years back) and he devotes several pages to Dickens. Unfortunately I'd forgotten his early chapters where he sets out his approach, combining post-modernist philosophy and theology. I don't feel up to reacquainting myself with those arguments right now - if I ever truly grasped them - but I can offer a couple of quotes: "Dickens's supreme achievement as a supernaturalist is his interiorization of the preternatural, through suggestive colouring and tone: in this respect he takes the Radcliffian school to its logical conclusion"..."Not the least remarkable aspect of Dickens's genius was his gift for making the Victorian world seem strange to itself by portraying the dehumanizing ugliness and cruelty of the commercialized mechanistic philosphy that dictated its economic life, with such vividness as to make of London itself a spectre fearful enough to haunt the human beings who had there homes there."