It is not uncommon to hear a contemporary novel described as “Dickensian.” But what does that mean exactly? Most of the time the book is nothing like Dickens but it is long and wordy with lots of characters so automatically gets labeled “Dickensian” as if that defines a Dickens novel. Or maybe there are a few quirky characters, after all I’ve yet to read a Dickens novel that lacked an eccentric or quirky character. But there are plenty of books with quirky characters and they are nothing at all like Dickens.
I am currently reading David Copperfield on my kindle and have reached the 53% mark. A couple weeks ago Tom at Wuthering Expectations had a multi-day discussion of Great Expectations noting so many wonderful details of the book.
And so I have been thinking more carefully while reading David Copperfield, paying more attention to the details. And I have decided that while Dickens tells a great story, the fun of it all, what is “Dickensian,” is in the details.
When we first meet Miss Murdstone we instantly know quite a lot about her just from a few marvelous details:
When she paid the coachman she took her money out of a hard steel purse, and she kept the purse in a very jail of a bag which hung upon her arm by a heavy chain, and shut up like a bite. I had never, at that time, seen such a metallic lady altogether as Miss Murdstone was.
Don’t go to Miss Murdstone looking for comfort or sympathy!
Dickens uses detail for humor too. David is giving his first dinner for his friend Steerforth and two of Steerforth’s friends. Much alcohol has been drunk and David, only about 18, has far too much:
Somebody was leaning out of my bedroom window, refreshing his forehead against the cool stone of the parapet, and feeling the air upon his face. It was myself. I was addressing myself as ‘Copperfield’, and saying, ‘Why did you try to smoke? You might have known you couldn’t do it.’ Now, somebody was unsteadily contemplating his features in the looking-glass. That was I too. I was very pale in the looking-glass; my eyes had a vacant appearance; and my hair—only my hair, nothing else—looked drunk.
Only his hair looked drunk! I giggled over that one for quite some time.
But what keeps popping into my head since I read it most often is the description of a lady who was at a dinner party given by David’s boss. Dickens describes her as someone who could be Hamlet’s aunt. Whenever he refers to her she has no name but Hamlet’s aunt. And then comes this gem:
To mend the matter, Hamlet’s aunt had the family failing of indulging in soliloquy, and held forth in a desultory manner, by herself, on every topic that was introduced. These were few enough, to be sure; but as we always fell back upon Blood, she had as wide a field for abstract speculation as her nephew himself.
The “family failing of indulging in soliloquy.” Who else but Dickens could come up with a description like that? It’s a brilliant off-hand description almost thrown away and easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention.
Yes, I’m pretty sure that what is “Dickensian” about Dickens is in the details.
Weeds 
Yep! a sure master of words. This professor doesn’t particularly care for long explanations unless it is on a topic of interest; not always the case with Dickens. Punchy quick and to the point dadblameit; okay, even if it’s not the prose of Dickens okay?
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Professor, Dickens does sometimes go on too long, but for the most part, definitely a master of words.
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Man, those are good – “shut up like a bite.”
This is why I do not do so many reviews as such. I want to get to the good stuff, and this is the good stuff.
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The glory is in the detail! These are brilliant nuggets but I wonder if Dicken’s original readers were able to savour it when reading these novels in serial form. David Copperfield is one of those novels you think you have read when you actually haven’t – such is its fame. You have made me want to look up my copy.
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Ian, I imagine Dickens’ original readers were able to savor the details even in serial form. I can imagine them being read aloud and then reread alone while waiting for the next installment. Plenty of opportunity to linger on the details. At least that’s what I would do if I were among the original readers!
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Tom, And those are just a few of them! There’s generally some wonderful detail ever few pages. “Shut up like a bite” is genius. This is definitely the good stuff because the story itself isn’t especially complex of interesting, but the details are another matter.
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I think, especially where characters are concerned, the detail is there because Dickens is such a visual writer. I don’t think it is any coincidence that his books read well aloud on the stage, for example, because he has seen every detail of his people and their situations in his mind’s eye as he’s been writing. If you ever have to play one his characters in an adaptation there is no problem bringing them to life because all the information you need is already there.
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Alex, Dickens loved performing and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he always had that in mind as he wrote. He definitely knew how to make a character seem real and bring a scene to life. Uriah Heep gives me the willies every time he shows up!
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I still have my copy from high school, mid-sixties. I fell in love with Dickens way back then. Back in the day, his work was required reading for each and every year and I think I have read most of his novels, although there are still some left to savor. Thanks to you, I feel the urge. He is, after all, such a “thumping good read.”
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Grad, I fell in love with Dickens in high school too. We read Great Expectations. Dickens is indeed a thumping good read. Did you get iced in with the winter storm? Perhaps you could read some Dickens by candlelight 🙂
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My very favorite Dickens is Bleak House, but there are such wonderful character descriptions in all of his books!
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jenclair, Bleak House is so very good! But Great Expectations remains first in my heart, maybe because it was the first Dickens novel I fell in love with.
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I read a review of Donna Tartt’s new novel and the reviewer called it Dickensian and then went on to explain why…now I don’t remember where I read it, but if I find it I will send it to you! I think you would appreciate the explanation! 🙂 I want to read A Tale of Two Cities this year….sometime….
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Maybe you read it here. Or maybe at a review linked therein.
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Thanks Tom! I thought I remembered you saying something about what is Dickensian not long ago but for the life of me I could not remember the context!
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Danielle, thanks! Tale of Two Cities is marvelous, a very different Dickens experience.
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Good question, Stefanie. I like your answer. For me Dickensian does mean long with multiple characters, usually including quirky ones. There has to be humour, particularly some satire, and social critique. And gorgeous detailed descriptions.
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whisperinggums, thanks! And yes, most definitely, satire and social critiques. It’s really a combination of things, isn’t it?
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It sure is which I guess can make us feel disappointed if something is described as Dickensian and then when we read it we find it nothing like our definition.
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Exactly! If a new book is labeled Dickensian I pretty much disregard the label. But then I pretty much scoff when books are labeled with things like, “if you love Jane Austen, you’ll love Jane Doe too!” It has marketing ploy written all over it. Gah, when did I get so cynical?
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Such a wonderful posting, I LOVE these allusions from David Copperfield, they truly do show Dickens’s genius with words, and in fact, illuminate his own Dickensian style!
See? That is how crazy it is….. that term. One could even use it in reference to Dickens, and it would yet make sense… sort of ring true. I could see some literary scholars in some dimly lit room discussing things, and one of them declaring, “Yes, indeed. If one reads closely, one does find something very Dickensian about Bleak House!”
The last book I finished was Tipping The Velvet, by Sarah Waters. And Fiona Pitt-Kelthy of The Daily Telegraph said of it that the book proves Waters to be “a kind of feminist Dickens.”
But again — what does that mean? That she wrote a book framed in Victorian England? Because really — Tipping The Velvet is almost maybe the opposite of anything that Dickens would have ever written.
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Cipriano, LOL, yes, I could totally see some scholar saying there was something very Dickensian about Bleak House! I’ve read Tipping the Velvet too and wold never call it Dickensian. How weird that is was labeled as such! You’re right, you have to wonder what such a label even means.
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