Tag Archives: Charles Dickens

Bunyan and Others and Me: Vicarious Bookshelf Friendship and a Jazz Hands Theory of Reading

Posted on March 22, 2022 by Brenton Dickieson

I have been quite open about the fact that I have had some difficulty finding true sympathy with John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. I even went so far as to admit that the text at one time had been for … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged A Pilgrim's Regress, Auerbach, C.S. Lewis, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Dante, Enid Blyton, George MacDonald, Harold Bloom, Huckleberry Finn, Jane Eyre, John Bunyan, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, literary friendship, Little Women, Louisa May Alcott., Mark Twain, Middlemarch, Milton, mimesis, Prince Edward Island, Spenser, The Allegory of Love, The Land of Far-Beyond, The Pilgrim's Progress | 9 Comments

Ann Radcliffe’s Absolutely Essential “The Mysteries of Udolpho” (1794) and the Books I’d Rather Read

Posted on March 23, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho: A Romance Interspersed With Some Pieces of Poetry (1794) has been one of those books that I have been wanting to read for some time—wanting to read in one way, but hesitant in another. … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged Ann Radcliffe, Becoming Jane, Bleak House, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, feminism, Jane Austen, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, mary shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Michael Lewis, Northanger Abbey, Pamela, Samuel Richardson, Stephen King, Susanna Clarke, The Brothers Karamazov, The Green Mile, The Monk, The Mysteries of Udolpho | 18 Comments

The Gift (and Curse) of Asher Lev

Posted on October 28, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok My rating: 5 of 5 stars The Gift of Asher Lev is a lovely, evocative book. It is my first time reading the sequel to My Name is Asher Lev, which I … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged art, Chaim Potok, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Fyodor Dostoevsky, holocaust, Jane Austen, Judaism, My Name is Asher Lev, New York City, Shoah, The Gift of Asher Lev, Theology of Culture, vocation | 19 Comments

Harold Bloom and “The Western Canon”: A Note on His Death

Posted on October 18, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

I received news this week that Harold Bloom has died. Bloom (1930-2019) was an avid reader, a rapid writer, and a penetrating critic whose essays and books on literature are breathtaking in scope and exemplary in their attention to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Original Research, Reviews, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged books, C.S. Lewis, canon, Charles Dickens, Charles Williams, Dante, fantasy, feminism, Harold Bloom, J.R.R. Tolkien, Leo Tolstoy, literary criticism, literary history, Milton, mimesis, Reading, Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, The Western Canon, Ursula K. LeGuin | 18 Comments

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the UK’s Favourite Book

Posted on August 9, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

According to a OnePoll survey of 2,000 UK adults, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is Britain’s most popular book. It is an intriguing find, but not inconsistent with other surveys and with research by people like Stephanie Derrick (see … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged Anne of Green Gables, Arthur Conan Doyle, C.S. Lewis, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Bronte, Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Life of Pi, lion the witch and the wardrobe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Stephen King, The Da Vinci Code, The Handmaid's Tale, The Hobbit, The Lion, The Lord of the Rings | 38 Comments

Harold Bloom’s Canon: The Essential List

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

On Monday I introduced Harold Bloom‘s 1994 bestseller, The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages. I decided to create a “canonical list” in today’s blog for those who are inclined to try to soak in this great radition. Taking … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged canon, Charles Dickens, Chaucer, Dante, Goethe, Harold Bloom, Jane Austen, John Milton, Leo Tolstoy, Reading, Shakespeare, The Western Canon, Virginia Woolf, writing | 33 Comments

Harold Bloom’s “The Western Canon”

Posted on July 11, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages was a sensation when it appeared in 1994. Harold Bloom, a curmudgeonly anti-academic ivy league scholar, fills this challenging read with fresh insights on every page. He … Continue reading →

A Gospel Too Simple for the Learned: Tough Jo in Bleak House

Posted on February 3, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

This is my first time reading Charles Dickens’ Bleak House. As it is featured in Gary Colledge’s God and Charles Dickens and Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon, I thought I should come at last to this very long book. If you have ever … Continue reading →

Posted in Memorable Quotes, Reflections | Tagged Bleak House, C.S. Lewis, Charles Dickens, fiction, Harold Bloom, literature, Milton, The Great Divorce | 19 Comments

Tolkien’s Dickensian Dreams

Posted on July 3, 2015 by Brenton Dickieson

Originally posted on A Tolkienist's Perspective:
Dickens’ short story that inspired a Tolkien chapter This is somewhat a Tolkien paper I had written a while back, with the expressed intention to publish it one day. When that day never seemed to…

Posted in Reflections | Tagged Bilbo, Charles Dickens, Fellowship of the Ring, intertextuality, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Pickwick Papers, Tolkien | 5 Comments

10 Great Quotations for International Literacy Day

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

Some Inspiration for International Literacy Day! Interesting Literature Today is International Literacy Day! What better time, then, to celebrate some of the wisest, wittiest, pithiest, silliest, and most profound things that writers have ever said about literature and reading? The … Continue reading →