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Originally Posted by darryl
@Bookpossum. Full marks for trying to get some discussion going. Everything you say about the various themes is true. But personally I think that they have been so done to death that I am totally bored with most of them. Their relevance must surely lie in what lessons they have for today. And the themes in this book seem to have only marginal relevance. They are useful as a reminder of how much progress we have made, as well as a warning of what can happen again, and indeed continues to happen in much of our modern world.
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I think the concept of a Victorian novel written from a 20th/21st century perspective is quite intriguing and has much to recommend it. Victorian novels are great reads in themselves and illuminating about the human condition. I cannot agree that the great themes relating to the human condition have been, or can be, done to death. Whether or not they're done successfully is a different matter.
The modern perspective is important because a novel that was just a pastiche wouldn't work, in part because of what we bring to it and in part because it would be impossible for the author successfully to immerse himself in the Victorian era to the entire exclusion of our own. The 19th century setting is important, though, and two reasons in particular occur to me. Part of it is the plottiness which requires length and which modern novels of the high-concept variety don't lend themselves to. And part of it, frankly, is the lack of technology. Railroads, steamships and a reliable post are about the extent of it; even the telegram is pushing things a bit. It's akin to writing golden age mysteries in the age of cellphones. No classic plot would stand up to that.
I have mixed feelings about "lessons" from literature. Mostly I just want a good story. Part of that is accuracy and insight into the human condition which can enrich one's understanding, but once I'm supposed to be learning something my eyes glaze over. Didacticism is to be avoided at all costs.