Dear Serial Readers,
This story starts slowly, or in small installments, because originally Dickens meant to write a short tale for his new magazine MASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK. Infact, it's Master Humphrey who is narrating the story so far of the Curiosity Dealer and his granddaughter (and, with this second installment, his grandson Fred). With three serial novels behind him (Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, and Nicholas Nickleby), Dickens had in mind, for this weekly journal, some sketches, essays, adventures, and letters along the lines of the famously successful eighteenth-century periodicals, the SPECTATOR and the TATLER. So that's one reason why this story seems so clearly focused already and the installments so short. I learned too that book versions of this novel do include a few sections Dickens added later to the original installments. But this is because he really had not initially meant for a full-length serial. The public's warm response to Nell demanded much more. So I wonder if we'll see a shift in the style of the narrative later on, as Dickens makes the transition from a tale to a multiplot serial novel.
This second weekly installment has our Master Humphrey narrator return to the Curiosity Dealer's warehouse in his efforts to learn more about the grandfather and his mysterious occupation. No doubt There we encounter, along with Master H., Fred, the grandson who's angry with his grandfather and demands to see his sister. Fred insinuates that the grandfather is rich and yet works little Nell nearly to death, while the Curiosity Dealer claims they're poor. Dick Swiveller provides some comic interest as a human curiosity in the shop/novel, a glimpse of the eccentric characters that are part of the Dickens trademark. What struck me again is how this short installment again ends with a bit of suspense--as Nell is on the threshold. I like these small doses of narrative that close with a teaser for more--and I'll be back soon to find out what happens when "the child herself appeared."
Next time (at the end of this week, via my Mousehold Words delivery system), chapters 3 and 4. With this slow starting up pace, I'm hoping there will be some Curiosity readers joining this serial experience! If you like, you can read the first four chapters and chime in next week. Curious?
Serially shopping,
Susan
2 comments:
Like Serial Susan, I too am struck by the leisurely, spectatorial, almost walking pace of these opening two chapters; I enjoy reading them this way! The second number is so intently focused on thresholds and transitions--who's in, who's out, and what they know.
Along with Nell's crowning appearance at the door, we also have--earlier on--our narrator's hesitation at entering the 'shop' and the theatrical summoning of Swiveller from off in the wings/ outside. How intriguing it is to read this number like a a theatrical game of chess, with its various moving pieces, speaking turns, and alliances (visible and hidden)! I'm struggling with grading and other work right now, but nonetheless want to continue the pace...
I also enjoyed the flaneur, who in chapter one reminded me of The Man in The Crowd, by Poe, in which it's never quite clear (at least to this easily befuddled reader) whether the evil lies in the viewer (the flaneur) or the viewed. I note how our narrator, who I had no idea was Humphrey!, at first perceives the world with a strong negative bias. He imagines how awful it would be to be an invalid forced to listen to the walkers outside, he crosses the Thames and thinks about those who have worked overly hard and those who imagine that drowning is an easy death. He hears a bird "half mad with joy" and thinks about the "poor bird" in captivity.
And then he meets Nell. Perhaps Nell is like that bird, or he wants to think she is. He is enchanted by Nell, but amazed at how she is not taken care of.
Then, his home is comforting and cheerful.
Chapter 2 seems less foreboding in some ways, but Swiveller and Fred seem to carry with them more concrete and friendly threats to Nell's security.
I do love the curiosity shop and hope to have more descriptions of it. And my sense of suspense is engaged!
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