The mountain of Dickens...

I have a confession to make...

I've never read a Dickens novel before .

I know what you're thinking. How in the hell can this be the case? How could an English major in his last semester have gone this far without reading one of the literary giants of all time? The answer is kinda simple. First, I've never had a class require it. Ever. I never had teachers in high school that made their students read Great Expectations or Tale of Two Cities. And, due to Dickens's reputation as being the "English Mark Twain," I somewhat avoided him like the plague. You see, I'm not the biggest Twain fan. I find him to have great stories, but to get bogged down in the telling of them. His novels are my biggest contention, as many of his short stories I find to be quite good. They're concise, their language is better rendered, and there's less filler. Likewise, I've read a few Dickens stories, or selections from novels in textbooks, and found them to be readable. But, because of that Twain comparison, I always steered clear of any of these "must read" works.

But here we are, and it's required. Half way through, I'm enjoying it. It's challenging, but it should be rewarding as I plow through the rest of the novel.