Where I Fall in Love with Little Nell Like Everybody Else

The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There was a time when I didn't like Charles Dickens at all and didn't plan on trying to like him.

• Too long. I didn't have that kind of time. I only had time for my favorite authors, and not all of them.
• I am not a fan of stories about terrible things happening in a dreadful world. When does that get fun?

Now that I have more free time, I'm willing to use some of it to read books that I'm kinda curious about. And I find i *do* like Charles Dickens.

Okay, I still don't like the long stretches of horrible things happening to sympathetic characters, matched by long stretches of terrible people getting away with stuff. That takes some energy to read through. And even in the end, there's some of that sadness that I don't approve of...

But there is a payoff (here and in other Dickens novels). The unfair, cruel, sad things happen, yes; but some characters succeed despite it all, and the bad guys get pretty pummeled. (Forgive the spoilers--but if you've read ANY Dickens, you already know this.) I seldom get emotional when reading, but twice it's been with this author: Tale of Two Cities and this one. That's why I give The Old Curiosity Shop 4 stars; I don't love all of it, but damned if he didn't make me care for fictitious characters again and grieve their end. That's some astonishing magic.

He justifies his authorial cruelty with an argument I actually found pretty compelling:

Oh! it is hard to take to heart the lesson that such deaths will teach, but let no man reject it, for it is one that all must learn, and is a mighty, universal Truth. When Death strikes down the innocent and young, for every fragile form from which he lets the panting spirit free, a hundred virtues rise, in shapes of mercy, charity, and love, to walk the world, and bless it. Of every tear that sorrowing mortals shed on such green graves, some good is born, some gentler nature comes. In the Destroyer’s steps there spring up bright creations that defy his power, and his dark path becomes a way of light to Heaven.

I surely felt the coming of that gentler nature; I witnessed those bright creations springing up to defy the Destroyer's power. There's a profound sweetness in the novel's conclusion--call it melodramatic if you must, but don't dismiss it only for that--a sweetness that must be like-minded human spirits coming into contact, if only for a moment. That doesn't happen every day. That's worth something.

And then he finishes with some good characters triumphing, living and loving joyfully, their enemies brought low. The grieving, then the celebration. It works.

On top of all this, I got to read it in a vintage edition given to me as a gift by my family. That's the only way to read classics, IMO. That old book smell is a powerful argument for engaging with a book you're uncertain about, and the touch of a loved one makes it even better.

I'll pass over the novel's flaws and say only that, on the balance, it was well worth the time I spent on it. You might think so, too.

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