Transcript I`m miserable

The Worst of
Times
Although Charles Dickens was a
champion for the poor in Victorian
England, his novels actually inflict the
very suffering he was trying to
expose.
Dickens’ message:
• “to remedy existing social evils to help the
poor, oppressed, and unfortunate.”
(“Dickens”).
• Argued against the “torturous” and
“agonizing” punishment solitary
confinement “inflicts on its sufferers”
(“Dickens”).
• Widely heard spokesperson to alleviate
the “miseries of the poor” (“Charles”).
Hmmm….
I’m stuck here
reading in my
room while other
get to play
reading is
evil
“I’m
miserable”
“this is
torture”
Even Librarians agree…
• Excessive use of words!
• “Dickens sends the reader on a long and wearying trek
through 600 pages of contrived and sentimental
melodrama, and at the end of this twisting and turning
literary odyssey, there is no idyllic seaside home for the
reader to rest in. You feel cheated.”
• “even the most original cast of characters cannot
salvage novels that have plots that drip with
sentimentality and are jerry-rigged together with one
contrivance after another.”
• (Manley)
Works Cited
• "Charles John Huffam Dickens." Encyclopedia of World
Biography. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 538541. General OneFile. Web. 7 Apr. 2011
• "Dickens, Charles." Crime and Punishment in America
Reference Library. Ed. Richard Hanes, Sharon
Hanes, and Sarah Hermsen. Vol. 3: Biographies.
Detroit: U*X*L, 2005. 61-68. Gale Virtual Reference
Library. Web. 7 Apr. 2011
• Manley, Will. "Dickens, pro and con." Booklist 1 Nov.
2006: 8. General OneFile. Web. 8 Apr. 2011.