Christmas Time and Oliver Twist

Two things that I really love about holidays are having lots of time to read and seeing movies in the daytime when they are cheaper.

This week I realized a lot of things about living by myself. For instance, my house is silent quite often; therefore, I can read. However, my mom loves to watch TV, and she has surround sound and the TV sounds so good, but I can't hear the TV and concentrate on what I am reading. She and I have argued quite often this week about her turning the TV down some. After compromise on both of our parts, she was able to watch and listen to her TV shows, and I was able to finish and read Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens which is a novel that is a protest of the Poor Law of 1834 which dictated that all public charity must be channeled through workhouses. (SparkNotes)

Charles Dickens is a master storyteller. Two years ago I read A Tale of Two Cities with my ninth graders, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. After reading A Tale of Two Cities, I needed more Charles Dickens so I read Great Expectations which is one of my all time favorite books.

Oliver Twist, just like A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations, has lots of characters. However, Dickens knows how to write about ALL of his characters in a way that makes them memorable.

There is one character, Nancy, who is a thief, drinks a lot, and is also a prostitute. Nancy risks her life and eventually gets killed in order to help Oliver. Nancy shows that a person can do some really bad things, yet be quite a noble person. Nancy, is a character, because of her tragic ending, who will be remembered for a long time. I was so sure that because she decided to help Oliver, that she would be saved, but that was not the case.

On the other hand, there are characters like Fagin, Sikes, and Monks who are evil to the core and show no signs of having any good in them at all. I was sort of hoping that Dickens would redeem those characters, but he didn't; they remained evil.

I found poor little Oliver's story to be sad yet engaging. There were times when I felt like I just could not read anymore about Oliver's bad fortune, but eventually, Oliver's story became brighter and quite intriguing. Oliver's life started off wrong, but it ended brightly.

Oliver Twist was written in 1838, and it is still a wonderful story. I am a true Charles Dickens fan, and I look forward to reading David Copperfield, Our Mutual Friends, Bleak House, and many more novels by Charles Dickens.

I know that Charles Dickens' name is associated with school books, and many people may think that school books are boring, but I can assure you that most school books are not boring and there are many good reasons why we are still reading them in schools today.

Read, Read, Read....

Charles Dickens born in 1812

I wonder what my readers are doing over this Holiday Break!

I got to go, off to the movies.......

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Two winters ago, I decided that I needed to treat myself to a quick weekend getaway. I made reservations at a hotel in downtown Philadelphia and pretended that I was far away from home. Well, I do have friends in Philadelphia, and they met me for brunch at a swanky restaurant in downtown Philadelphia.

Omoiye and Jennifer

Some kind of way we got on the topic of books, and Omoiye, the one on the left in the picture, asked me if I had ever read The Count of Monte Cristo, and she also stated that the author was Black. She forgot to mention that the book is over 900 pages. Not that I don't read extremely long books, but damn!!!

You know me, I instantly downloaded The Count of Monte Cristo, and I started reading it this past August, around 2 years after it was recommended. I really should have started reading it at the beginning of the summer when I had a lot of free, but sometimes we just don't plan things correctly.

Alexandre Dumas' (1802-1870) grandfather was from a noble French family, and his grandmother was a Dominican slave. So, this made his father French and Dominican, and his mother was French soooo, I guess that we can say, if we stretch it, that Dumas was Black. I kind of feel that Omiyoe tricked me, but Omoiye is a trickster! (She's going to deny that she is a trickster, but she is.)

Alexandre Dumas

The Count of Monte Cristo is captivating from the very first page. Edmond Dantes is wrongfully sent to prison, and the entire story is the story of Dante avenging his imprisonment. This novel has a lot of characters, and there are many different stories told about the people whom Edmond takes revenge upon. I would say that this is a mystery novel and Dumas gives clues along the way that makes the reader want to continue to read all 900 plus pages. The writing style of this novel is very similar to the writing of Charles Dickens in Great Expectations; they both tell stories within stories and cleverly puts all of the details together and leaves the reader with a very satisfying feeling.

If you want to work on your cognitive ability and be entertained for quite a long time, I highly recommend The Count of Monte Cristo. 

Thanks Omoiye for the recommendation.

Have a wild and crazy Friday!!!!!