Dickens which to read first

There are so many on this list As someone who has only ever read A Christmas Carol, what you recommend as the best one to ease me into his writing style? I know many people are very put off by Dickens, and I don't want to tackle the most difficult one unwittingly. The only other one I have read is Great Expectations. It is not so hard to read. However, I didn't care for it that much mostly due to the premise of the love story, but reading it was not a chore at any rate.

With him I feel like you always have to keep in mind that they were written as serials. So each chapter is a bit cliffhangery. I would suggest one you might already know quite well from adaptations would be good Oliver Twist perhaps. So instead of reading something new you might get lost in you will instead be filling in the gaps of a story you already know and seeing the details an adaptation glosses over.

Great Expectations is my favourite Dickens I think but I might save it for later in a Dickensian odyssey, to be savoured when you are down with the Dickens. The Pickwick Papers is a book of his I read too young and really feel I need to revisit soon as I am not sure I properly appreciated it. Although it is his first novel, a more rounded later story seems a better start to me.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, found it style relatively easy to follow and because of the nature of the book, it was stories about the travels of Mr Pickwick and friends, it was easy to read a bit as much or as little as I wanted. I found it very humourous and kept quoting bits to my husband - probably rather to his annoyance! I intend to read of of Dickens, in published order, hence starting at this one. Like you, my first Dickens was A Christmas Carol which I think is an excellent introduction because it is both familiar and short.

My second was Bleak House , which I absolutely loved. It's very long though and the sheer weight of the book is daunting. I found it to be a real page turner, though. I'm now reading Great Expectations and it's okay, but doesn't seem to have the magic of Bleak House. I think Oliver Twist seems like a reasonable choice, as Uffishread says, it's probably somewhat familiar. I haven't read any Dickens, but I will probably pick A Christmas Carol first, because I'm familiar with the way the storyline pans out, and the fact that it's shorter than most of his other works.

Thanks for the suggestions. I was leaning toward Bleak House already as I don't mind the length. But maybe one of the lesser know books like Martin Chuzzlewit or Mudfrog just to get a different perspective Mme Defarge and her knitting while the aristocrats lose their heads still gives me the creeps. Martin Chuzzlewit is not one of my favourite Dickens novels but it does have some memorable characters in it.

David Copperfield is a favorite of mine. I was devouring Dickens books quite a few years ago and enjoyed everything I read. I haven't seen your name around for a while. On one hand reading is a lovely hobby which helps you escape the techno-obsessed world we live in.

But the books written by Dickens can be full of cultural references and phrases which are not familiar to us in Most books written in the modern world are designed to be read quickly. Dickens novels on the other hand, were created to fill the time in the evening. Think of each chapter as an episode of your favourite TV programme: they are witty, descriptive, often quite long and written to be savoured and enjoyed.

Often the characters are comical and are just waiting to be impersonated. Sit back, when reading his books, and really try to conjure up the image of what Dickens is writing about.

But when you are reading alone of an evening, if you start to stumble on a sentence, or reach a part of the story which is difficult to follow, start reading out loud instead of in your mind.

Dickens was himself a keen performer and he wanted his stories to be read out and performed. Try making a book club, or joining one, where you can all read out loud together. It will really bring out the storylines so much better. No joke, the author would regularly act out his characters in front of his mirror so that he could see how well his character was forming!

This is also helped by doing the accents out loud. Why this apparent contradiction? Because Dickens is being sarcastic! One of the most brilliant things about Dickens is the fact that he really paints a picture.

Sign up to the Best of Pan Macmillan newsletter to discover the best of our books, events and special offers. Charles Dickens' books are an important part of our literary heritage, and Dickens is one of the most beloved English writers of all time. He was one of the great chroniclers of Victorian life and his brilliant wit and rich narratives brought him incomparable fame in the literary world, both in his own time and in ours.

If you're not sure where to start, we're here to help with this guide to the best Charles Dickens book for every type of reader. Part tightly plotted murder mystery, part biting condemnation of the corruption at the heart of English society, Bleak House follows the inheritance case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce.

With murder, secrets and spies, if your go-to genre is crime fiction , then this Charles Dickens book is the one for you. Centred around the lives of Victorian children, Oliver Twist is part pleasure, part education and the perfect book to get children into Dickens.