Tag Archives: Charles Dickens

RKS Literature: The Three Stages of Intoxication (Dickens)

“Most public characters have their failing; and the truth is that Mr. Snevellicci was a little bit addicted to drinking; or, if the whole truth must be told, that he was scarcely ever sober. He knew in his cups three distinct stages of intoxication-the dignified-the quarrelsome-the amorous. When professionally engaged he never got beyond theContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Three Stages of Intoxication (Dickens)”

RKS Literature: Dreams (Dickens)

“Dreams are the bright creatures of poem and legend, who sport earth in the night season and melt away at the first beam of sun, which lights grim care and stern reality to their pilgrimage through the world.” Charles Dickens, “Nicholas Nickleby”, 1839

RKS Literature: Child Abuse in 1839 England at Wackford Squeers School for Unwanted Boys (Charles Dickens)

“Pale and haggard faces, lank and bony figures, children with countenances of old men, deformities with irons on their limbs, boys of stunted growth, and others whose long meagre legs would hardly bear their stooping bodies, all crowded on the view together; there were the bleary eyed, the hare-lip, the crooked foot, and every uglinessContinue reading “RKS Literature: Child Abuse in 1839 England at Wackford Squeers School for Unwanted Boys (Charles Dickens)”

RKS Literature: The Great Muffin Scam (Charles Dickens)

“He had visited the houses of the poor in the various districts of London and had found them destitute of the slightest vestige of a muffin, which there appeared to much reason to believe some of these indigent persons did not taste from year’s end to year’s end. He had found that among muffin sellersContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Great Muffin Scam (Charles Dickens)”

RKS Literature: A Swindler of a Man on the Run (Dickens)

“Shame, disappointment, and discomfiture gnawed at his heart: a constant apprehension of being overtaken or met – for he was groundlessly afraid even of travellers, who came towards him by the way he was going – oppressed him heavily. The same intolerable awe and dread that had come upon him in the night, returned unweakenedContinue reading “RKS Literature: A Swindler of a Man on the Run (Dickens)”

RKS Literature: A Hollow Woman in a Hollow World (Charles Dickens)

‘I am a woman.’ she said confronting him steadfastly, ‘who from her very childhood has been shamed and steeled. I have been offered and rejected, put up and appraised, until my very soul has sickened. I have not had an accomplishment or grace that might have been a resource to me, but it has beenContinue reading “RKS Literature: A Hollow Woman in a Hollow World (Charles Dickens)”

RKS Literature: Hatred of the Boss (Charles Dickens)

‘I tell you all’, said the manager, ‘that your hypocrisy and meekness – that all the hypocrisy and meekness of this place – is not worth that to me,’ snapping his thumb and finger, ‘and that I see through it as if it were air! There is not a man employed here, standing between myselfContinue reading “RKS Literature: Hatred of the Boss (Charles Dickens)”

RKS Literature: The Supreme Mr. Dombey (Charles Dickens)

“Mr. Dombey was resolved to show her that he was supreme. There must be no will but his. Proud he desired that she should be, but she must be proud for him, not against him. As he sat alone hardening he would often hear her go out and come home, treading the round of LondonContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Supreme Mr. Dombey (Charles Dickens)”

RKS 2023 Literature: The Great Mr. Dombey (Charles Dickens)

“Towards his first wife, Mr. Dombey, in his cold and lofty arrogance, had borne himself like the removed being he almost conceived himself to be. He had been “Mr. Dombey” with her when she first saw him, and he was “Mr. Dombey” when she died. He had asserted his greatness during their married life, andContinue reading “RKS 2023 Literature: The Great Mr. Dombey (Charles Dickens)”

RKS 2023 Literature: The Great Mr. Dombey (Charles Dickens)

“Towards his first wife, Mr. Dombey, in his cold and lofty arrogance, had borne himself like the removed being he almost conceived himself to be. He had been “Mr. Dombey” with her when she first saw him, and he was “Mr. Dombey” when she died. He had asserted his greatness during their married life, andContinue reading “RKS 2023 Literature: The Great Mr. Dombey (Charles Dickens)”