[JeremyZ]

I just finished reading this last night. It was a bit more work to read than modern stuff, but I feel like I'm a little more worldly because of it. Run-on sentences are the main thing.

Here's my favorite quote from the book, which gives a good example of Dickens' writing style:

"Mr. Lorry looked at Jerry in considerable doubt and mistrust. That honest tradesman's manner of receiving the look, did not inspire confidence; he changed the leg on which he rested, as often as if he had fifty of those limbs, and were trying them all; he examined his finger-nails with a very questionable closeness of attention; and whenever Mr. Lorry's eye caught his, he was taken with that peculiar kind of short cough requiring the hollow of a hand before it, which is seldom, if ever, known to be an infirmity attendant on perfect openness of character."
(bookmark Loc. 6236)

(That paragraph was only two sentences!)

The ending was fantastic. It is one of those books in which things only come together fully at the end.

I'm glad I read it, I will never forget it.

For now, I need something a bit less challenging, and have started my first Agatha Christie novel, last month's Book Club book. I'll surely return to Dickens later though.

Oh, one last comment: I was VERY glad to have instant dictionary access in this book. The British archaic words had me lost at times.