Hmmm… I read Dickens, rather than Collins, at A-level, which
is interesting because the Dickens that I read was Bleak House and it
reintroduced me to a love for Dickens (Q. Do you like Dickens? A. I don’t know,
I’ve never been to one. [That’s lowered the tone, but it’s still one of my
favourite jokes]) that has never left me.
Bleak House led me to
The Moonstone, which led me to
The
Woman in White. And that’s where I stopped for several decades. Then the
eloquent
Charles Lambert convinced me to read
Armadale. It was good – a little
overwrought, as is
The Woman in White, but still good.
Oh, this is difficult! I have to keep The Moonstone, as it’s
a book I return to over and over, but can I live without The Woman in White?
Count Fosco is a superbly drawn character but is one really well-rendered
villain enough to preserve the whole book when I need to reduce my collection
by at least 70%?
Well … the problem with Count Fosco is not the Count himself
but the fact that since those ghastly
Go Compare adverts have aired on UK
television, I cannot help but compare the Go Compare tenor (Wynne Evans) with
Fosco and so his appeal is a little dented. Okay, with a considerable pang –
The Moonstone is a keeper,
The Woman in White is not.
Labels: Bleak House, Charles Dickens, Charles Lambert, Go Compare, The Moonstone, The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins, Wynne Evans