The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Title: The Old Curiosity Shop

Author: Charles Dickens

Pages: 555

Finished: December 20, 2017

First Sentence: Although I am an old man, night is generally my time for walking.

Summary: Nell and her grandfather run away from the evil Quilp after the grandfather squanders away a significant amount of money gambling. Many people help them. Many others try to find them. Quilp is evil for no discernible reason. People die. Others have happy endings. Standard Dickens.

Thoughts: I fear the tone of my "summary" may give away what I think. Back in college I decided I was going to read all of Dickens. The first few I read were fun. This one... I almost put it down. Up to the point where Nell and her grandfather leave town, it was incredibly slow. I can't tell why Quilp is as evil as he is, but perhaps that's just the beauty of Dickens. People are people in all sorts of ways without explanation. Normally I'm happy to figure out the satire and social commentary Dickens is making, but this book was such a slog that I pretty much ended up paying attention to major plot points and skimming the descriptions solely meant to raise word count. I also felt bad for Nell being saddled with an addict at a time when women really couldn't do a whole lot. Her life was absolutely lost.

This is my final book for the Back to the Classics Challenge.