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How to Read Charles Dickens (& Showing You My Complete Collection) (Patreon)

Published:
2021-11-17 13:56:22
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2026-06
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As you know, we are currently gearing up for our seasonal Big Read of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.

The excitement is palpable from the comments on the book reveal video.

I feel that we all share a strong love for Dickens and desire to read him deeply, meet more of his characters, and live in his world together.

So, in that spirit, I ran through seven tips for getting more out of your reading of this wonderful writer, and showed off my personal complete Dickens collection in chronological order.

We have an specific How to Read Great Expectations video coming out soon, followed by the deep-dive lectures across the festive period. 

But, for now, whilst we get our copies of this great novel ready for reading, please enjoy this video aimed at being widely applicable across Dickens' oeuvre. 

Video Timestamps:

  • 0:00 how to find your entrance novel to Dickens
  • 1:30 my personal introduction to Dickens
  • 2:50 The Pickwick Papers
  • 7:20 Oliver Twist
  • 8:25 The Old Curiosity Shop
  • 10:55 A Christmas Carol
  • 14:39 David Copperfield
  • 16:00 Bleak House
  • 18:00 A Tale of Two Cities
  • 19:25 Great Expectations
  • 21:10 Our Mutual Friend
  • 22:30 The Mystery of Edwin Drood
  • 23:20 how to read Dickens with a long-term view
  • 24:30 read into the heart of your childhood
  • 25:00 read without condescension
  • 25:47 befriend the characters
  • 26:30 trust Dickens
  • 26:58 read Dickens serially 

Questions for You:

1) What is your current relationship with Dickens? Will Great Expectations be the first Dickens you read? If not, what was your entrance novel(s)?

2) What immediately comes to mind for you when you think 'Dickens'? Is it a feeling, a set of ideas, a certain tone/atmosphere, or something else?

3) Bonus - let us know what edition of Great Expectations you're working from. Is it an old, beat-up, well-loved paperback from decades ago? Is it part of a hardback set? Is it a Kindle version for portability and late-night reading? 

Happy reading, everybody!

Files

Previews only

How to Read Charles Dickens (& Showing You My Complete Collection)

📚 Read the Great Books with Hardcore Literature: https://www.patreon.com/hardcoreliterature/about ———————————— 🎙️ https://open.spotify.com/show/70IZA24... (Subscribe to the Hardcore Literature Podcast on iTunes & Spotify) 🏫 https://hardcore-university.teachable... (Hardcore University, Exam Preparation Courses) ✍🏼 https://benjaminmcevoy.com My Personal Website ———————————— Hardcore Literature Lecture Series ———————————— 📔Contents Page: https://cutt.ly/CmNhRY3 🎖️ War and Peace: https://cutt.ly/U3nzGma 🎭 Shakespeare Project: https://cutt.ly/B3nxHH7 🐳 Moby Dick: https://cutt.ly/K3nzVKf ☄️ Blood Meridian: https://cutt.ly/P3nz6Qp 🍂 Wuthering Heights: https://cutt.ly/N3nxxYt 🇮🇪 Ulysses: https://cutt.ly/x3nxQmN 🚂 Anna Karenina: https://cutt.ly/vmNhAWv 💀 Crime and Punishment: https://cutt.ly/rmNhFt5 ⚓ Persuasion: https://cutt.ly/amNhX7b ☕ In Search of Lost Time: https://cutt.ly/5mNh8oD ⚔️ The Hero’s Journey: https://cutt.ly/UmNjrE3 🌸 Siddharta: https://cutt.ly/YmNjuzi 🎠 Don Quixote: https://cutt.ly/cmNjoK4 ❤️Shakespeare’s Sonnets: https://cutt.ly/nmNlW7V 🇫🇷 Les Misérables: https://cutt.ly/J3YixoA 🕯️ The Turn of the Screw: https://cutt.ly/nToAQQ3 🖋️ Dickens Seasonal Read: https://cutt.ly/9ToAybt 📖 Middlemarch Serial Reading: https://tinyurl.com/45rv965c ———————————— 0:00 how to find your entrance novel to Dickens' world 1:30 my personal introduction to Dickens 2:50 The Pickwick Papers 7:20 Oliver Twist 8:25 The Old Curiosity Shop 10:55 A Christmas Carol 14:39 David Copperfield 16:00 Bleak House 18:00 A Tale of Two Cities 19:25 Great Expectations 21:10 Our Mutual Friend 22:30 The Mystery of Edwin Drood 23:20 how to read Dickens with a long-term view 24:30 read into the heart of your childhood 25:00 read without condescension 25:47 befriend the characters 26:30 trust Dickens 26:58 read Dickens serially ———————————— Happy reading! And let us know - what is your relationship and experience with Charles Dickens?

Comments

Rian Floyd

What a fantastic crash course on Dickens. I’m coming to Dickens a bit later in life, in my 30s. Despite a literature degree, I’ve never read any of his books in any meaningful way. I felt some resistance towards reading Dickens in my youth—perhaps because he’s considered popular culture and my rebellious streak wouldn’t let me. That changes this year. I’m currently reading A Christmas Carol (’tis the season!), and after that it’ll be Great Expectations, and then I’ll probably jump on the yearly secret Dickens train with the rest of you. I’m already falling in love. The prose is extremely readable and pulls you right in. What a treat.

Ylva

Thank you for this great introduction! With me being from Germany, Dickens never was on my school's curriculum—maybe a blessing, given that reading books for school can easily become a chore rather than anything else (Wilhelm Tell is my personal school nightmare to this day). Still, I find it a shame that even my English classes skipped Dickens; so I never had much contact with him. I do remember watching the movie adaptation of A Christmas Carol with Patrick Stewart as a child and then reading it a few years ago, though I can't recall whether that was in German or if I already had converted to reading in English then… Anyway. I got an audiobook collection a while back and somehow struggle to truly get into Great Expectations. And then, a few days ago, I listened to your podcast episode on intense reading, Benjamin, and just LOVED the idea of serialised reading. And since just a week ago I found the most beautiful Puffin clothbound edition of David Copperfield in a bookshop, I am actually following the original publication schedule now with mostly 3 chapters a month. It's absolutely wicked, such a great experience, even only 1 read in, and I'm looking forward to what awaits me in June.

NicoleA

I read Great Expectations a long time ago. I remember how much I loved Joe and look forward to rereading and bringing him back to life.

Daisy

Hello, I've just joined the book club and hope to start a yearly tradition of reading Dickens every December. I chose Great Expectations as my first Dickens novel purely because my local library did not have a copy of David Copperfield, the current book club read. I usually read my books in Kindle format, so I am looking forward to reading a physical book. Can't wait to delve into this world!

Vida
>>158307734

Welcome Daisy. I hope you enjoy our club as much as I do. I joined in last year and it has been such a great experience. I wish I had joined from the very beginning of the club. Dickens is amazing.

Holly Hastings

Hi, everyone. I've just joined the club and I'm very excited to dig in and become a more proficient/experienced reader.

Priscilla Basilio

What copy of David Copperfield would you recommend?

NicoleA

I am embarking on a second read of Great Expectations. I enjoyed my first read but it was David Copperfield that had me fall in love with Dickens as a person as well as author. I will be embracing Dickens December as an annual ritual.

Lee Zirkle

I'm starting with A Christmas Carol. I wanted to get my "feet wet" before Bleak House.

Kim K

Loving the illustrations of the novels! (also the kintsugi tea bowl on shelf!)--

Bill Freeman

Arlington, Virginia - USA Ben et al., My entrance point to Dickens was “A Christmas Caro.,” As a kid, we didn't read and I was busy surviving. In my adult family, my chosen and created family, we have a tradition of watching the 1951 movie in black and white as well as the 1946 black and white version of “It's a Wonderful Life."’ As I mentioned before, we have a wonderful memory of attending a rendition of “A Christmas Carol” in 2017 at The Old Vic. While I was going to start Frankenstein today, I am beginning “Great Expectations” now, given this podcast. Q: Ben, I understand that this was serialized. Should we read “Great Expectations” as a serial, as we are rereading “A Turning of the Screw,” or just read it throughout? How long should we be reading it? As an aside, the idea of serialization -- delayed gratification -- in this time of Internet moments is an interesting discipline. Thanks.

Pablo

Lovely post Ben: Your enthusiasm for the Dicken’s oeuvre really shone through and is very infectious. I have to confess that it made me feel rather guilty for leaving my grandfather’s collection unread for this many years. To my shame I don’t currently have a relationship with Dicken’s other than some very distant early memories of Grandad Pat sat in his armchair in my mother’s childhood home in Bristol, with a tea service at his side, his collection of classical 78 records behind him, reading to me softly, and occasionally pausing for a sip of his tea or peering over his glasses to make sure I was still being a good boy and listening. I have seen some film or TV adaptations, which I did enjoy and instilled in me that Dicken’s was obviously a skilled and well regarded story teller. When I inherited the collection when grandad passed on in the very early part of my second decade, I did try to read Bleak House at that time, but I couldn’t get on with it. Due to that Dickens is double edged to me; evoking memories of grandad, and also what we term ‘Dickensian’ Victorian London and the characters that pepper that universe. I’m very much looking forwards, with a dash of trepidation, to the first of December when I will relish taking that vintage Hazell, Watson & Viney hardback down from its resting place on my shelf, opening it, and beginning this journey. Maybe I’ll pour myself a cup of tea in a ‘basin’ and put on some Brahms too in homage.

hardcoreliterature
>>71987529

I love serialised reads, and they often significantly influence our relationship with a particular work. Dickens is so wonderful for reading in serialised fashion. I personally love reading him as part of a Christmas/end-of-year tradition and find it a nice way to move through his oeuvre over the long-term. Great Expectations can be divided quite nicely into three main parts, which could be spaced out or read in a serialised fashion with a rest between them. The 1861 three-volume set has some nice markers set up for doing this, with the first volume containing the first 19 chapters of the story. For those wishing to follow Dickens’ original 36-week serialised publication for GE, it would take them from December 1st all the way through to August 3rd. To answer your question - self-pacing, as always, is key. But I would recommend reading it through over the course of the month. This one goes at quite a nice, enjoyable pace and shouldn’t be too difficult to get through within the timeframe of a month or so. Plus it’s such a lovely one to fill the end of the year with!

hardcoreliterature
>>71995520

That’s a beautiful memory. And such a momentous time for you now, with such a lovely ritual surrounding it. It sounds like now is the perfect time for you to enjoy Dickens, Pablo. I heartily believe that books find us when we’re most primed for them - and your time is now :) Bless your grandfather for leaving you with such a wonderful collection and set of memories!

Sarah Bell

Oh Great Expectations! How this book did haunt my early teenage years and wrought havoc on any further reading of Dickens. My precocious young self complained constantly at the oldy wordiness and threw it aside as 'painful' once the obligatory school test was over. Consequently I never once looked any further than the first few pages of any of his other work! Now I am seriously excited and can't wait to re read, nearly 40 years later. And keen to ensure son Ruben's introduction to Dickens is somehow more fun!

hardcoreliterature
>>72002171

I believe this is a very common experience with this novel, but 40 years on I can almost guarantee that your response will be significantly different :)

Fiona Wang

Great Expectations is the only Dickens I've read, but from your descriptions of his other novels, Ben, I am most curious about Bleak House and David Copperfield; the former because of the challenge and its fog passage, the latter because it's the man's favorite and contains some autobiographical information. My favorite Dickens opening, however, has to be from A Tale of Two Cities - I love the sharp contrast. I read GE more than 7 years ago, and don't remember Dickens' style. After watching this video, the impression I am getting and what comes to mind when thinking about Dickens is that he is a fellow companion for the common man: easy-going, light-hearted, yet also layered with profundity. To me, he is a quintessential 19th-century Englishman. I can't separate his name and images of London and workhouses - they're in the same category in my mind. For GE, I am ordering the Penguin edition as I already have several Penguin books and love their black designs. The Dickens Penguin books all have a black and white drawing as the cover picture, which would make for a good collection down the road!

Jetzabel Peniche

Hello Ben, This is my first time I actually read a book from Charles Dickens. I have heard about him but never read or picked up a book from him. I know him for Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol but only on film adaptations. I am excited and reading the first chapter. When I think of Charles Dickens , what comes to my mind is life , how it evolves around everyone . The book that I am using is the one that you recommended “ Penguin”. the book is beautiful.I love books and the smell of paper. It doesn’t matter if it’s hard back or soft back, I love them. I’m going to take this slow and enJoy this ride with Dickens. Thanks Ben for making this happen and sharing your love of books and knowledge with us. It’s amazing !!