I have a minor confession: I have never read Charles Dickens. I may have started A Tale of Two Cities but I don’t think I finished it. Scratch that, I know I didn’t finish it.
Many of Dickens’ major novels were written for publishers who paid by the word. The man wasn’t stupid. He wrote A Lot of words. He also wrote across class boundaries, giving readers a window into the lives of those they might not otherwise encounter.
We live in a world shaped by his works and ideas. Movies, characters, what makes up some of the foundations of modern Christmas, a lot of that has to do with Dickens’ works.
But I haven’t read the original source material.
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If someone wanted to remedy a hole like this in their literary education, where to start?
One nice thing about the classics, they are everywhere.
- Books by Dickens, Charles – Project Gutenberg
- Tips and Tools to Make Reading Charles Dickens More Enjoyable: Dickens also wrote shorts, including sketches of life at the time.
- Discovering Dickens – A Community Reading Project: As a bonus, this site contains a lot of detailed notes on the anachronistic elements in the stories covered. If you’ve ever wanted to know what a copper-stick, jack-towel, plaister or tarwater was, they’ve got you covered. Check out the notes for Great Expectations.
- Where To Start Reading Charles Dickens
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J.R. Johnson 
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