I have started reading the works of Charles Dickens.
Somehow I made it through high school, college and grad school having only perused "A Christmas Carol" twice.
My mom always liked to rent musicals back in the heyday of VHS so I had seen "Oliver!" numerous times.
I started reading "Great Expectations" a few weeks ago and laughed when one of the characters becomes an actor in the "theatuh" and gives a shaky performance in Hamlet.
Dickens writes that the actor playing Hamlet's father had a terrible cough which he carried with him into the afterlife.
There were also some stockings that weren't doing the wearer's legs any favors.
I read "Oliver Twist" next and was surprised to see how the writers of the musical had made Fagin a more sympathetic and likable character.
What I have enjoyed so far is how Dickens manages to make his social commentary with a touch of humor.
In Oliver Twist, Mr. Bumble is completely unfeeling toward the welfare of the parish orphans and is consumed with pride in his power over the unfortunate. In the end, he marries a disagreeable woman and loses all employment when he conspires with a criminal to hide Oliver's true identity.
I just started reading The Pickwick Papers and was delighted by the titular character's paper entitled "Speculations on the Source of the Hampstead Ponds with Some Observation on the Theory of Tittlebats."
The word "tittlebats" put me in hysterics and caused Nick to give me the side eye (he didn't see anything particularly funny about the word.)
Heh, heh. Tittlebats.
Somehow I made it through high school, college and grad school having only perused "A Christmas Carol" twice.
My mom always liked to rent musicals back in the heyday of VHS so I had seen "Oliver!" numerous times.
I started reading "Great Expectations" a few weeks ago and laughed when one of the characters becomes an actor in the "theatuh" and gives a shaky performance in Hamlet.
Dickens writes that the actor playing Hamlet's father had a terrible cough which he carried with him into the afterlife.
There were also some stockings that weren't doing the wearer's legs any favors.
I read "Oliver Twist" next and was surprised to see how the writers of the musical had made Fagin a more sympathetic and likable character.
What I have enjoyed so far is how Dickens manages to make his social commentary with a touch of humor.
In Oliver Twist, Mr. Bumble is completely unfeeling toward the welfare of the parish orphans and is consumed with pride in his power over the unfortunate. In the end, he marries a disagreeable woman and loses all employment when he conspires with a criminal to hide Oliver's true identity.
I just started reading The Pickwick Papers and was delighted by the titular character's paper entitled "Speculations on the Source of the Hampstead Ponds with Some Observation on the Theory of Tittlebats."
The word "tittlebats" put me in hysterics and caused Nick to give me the side eye (he didn't see anything particularly funny about the word.)
Heh, heh. Tittlebats.
You know, I have visited a lot of blogs where people speak of their love of The Pickwick Papers, but no one so far has mentioned the humour of the word "tittlebats". And if that word put you in hysterics, then what about the phrase "tittlebatian research"? Imagine someone saying "Today I shall be carrying out detailed tittlebatian research."
ReplyDeleteAnyway, let me introduce myself. My name is Stephen Jarvis, and I have actually written a novel about the story behind the creation of The Pickwick Papers.The novel is called Death and Mr Pickwick and it will be published in May by Random House (in the UK) and in June by Farrar, Straus & Giroux (in the USA). Three links will tell you all the essentials:
http://www.deathandmrpickwick.com – the novel’s website, with links to the publishers' sites
http://www.publishersweekly.com/9780374139667 – the first pre-publication review, in Publishers’ Weekly
https://www.facebook.com/deathandmrpickwick – the novel’s facebook page, where I regularly post bits and pieces of Pickwickiana
I hope you will take a look at the novel. And "tittlebat" appears twelve times in its pages (I've just done a word count) so that's at least twelve laughs the book will give you!
Also, I hope that I will make all sorts of new friends and associates by writing the novel, so if you feel like getting in touch, please do so. I can be contacted via the website.
Best wishes
Stephen
Thanks for leaving this comment. I will definitely check out your book.
DeleteLong live the tittlebat!