A Rare Radio Re-Post

I heard a decent report on Charles Dickens on NPR this morning (here).

I like Dickens. I like reading his works quite a bit. I'm no Prescott McNally who is oft described by Sanders as reading Dickens late into the night, but on average I read about one Dickens tome a year. I even took a senior seminar course on Dickens. Granted it was at Texas A&M so probably lacked some of the gravitas that might have been present at a college with a greater emphasis on the liberal arts.

That being said, one thing I missed in that seminar class, or is highlighted now that I'm in the throes of my own editing and rewriting, is that Dickens wrote his chapters with little or no chance to rewrite or edit. Most everyone knows that these stories were released as serials, with chapters going out every few weeks. I did not know he was given such little chance to rewrite. I shudder to think what crumby writing would be provided to the public if I was allowed no rewrite. Knowing this little fact makes me more impressed than I was even before. It also makes some of the less than perfect writing understandable.

Secondly, this link is worth a listen if only cause the reporter describes how Dickens' stories are so relatable to today's stories and plots seen on TV (makes this link - here - far more relevant). Where the story has a major plot device that has several dozen subsidiary or sub plots tangential to it. Think The Wire, Southland, etc.

Worth a listen and probably worth moving my next Dicken's book up a few notches on my reading wish list.