Crime and Punishment

You know what I most love about Dickens? The fact that he is so Sidney-esque, Philip Sidneyesque that is. The good are rewarded. The evil are punished. Although sometimes the pathetic die. I mean like Smike. Although I do not see how Smike could have lived...he loved Kate and Kate loved Frank Cheeryble. So he had to die. And Dora had to die too, or there couldn't have been a happy ending with Agnes.

So complicated.

But other than that...when I find a character particularly noxious, I can be glad that he/she is going to come to an untoward end.

And as he does not have Hardy's morality, he doesn't punish the "fallen" women by killing them or worse. (I think Hardy's Jude the Obscure punishment was worse than mere death).

So, I'm still in the first few pages of Barnaby. I haven't advanced as much as I would like, though it is by no means boring. Only, it doesn't grip me the way David Copperfield did. (although it makes an honest effort to)

Also, last night I was at Backyard till late...so I was too tired to read more than a few lines before succumbing to the comforting dark.

Whatever it is, I push gamely on...14 or is it 15 books by this time next year.

That shouldn't be too hard, don't you think?

And I get so much from a Dickens' book. It feels like nourishment.

I didn't get this from George Martin, fascinating as he was. I prefer gentler books, where language is wielded as a weapon. Not horror. Not gratuitous violence. Not Sir Gregor Clegane.