Lovely examples, B.J. And I agree with you about Audible recordings. There are four unabridged recordings of novels read by Martin Jarvis (
David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Hard Times, Tale of Two Cities) and it's like having full-cast performances of each one.
An interesting issue of the TLS this week with a number of articles on Dickens (including two Dickens-related poems, by Carol Rumens and Alison Brackenbury). In one article there's a review of a new
Selected Letters, which can be found on the paper's website at this
address. After my reference above to Dickens's fondness for umbrellas and wooden legs, I was pleased to come across this passage:
Quote:
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Another time, he describes asking directions in Rome of a Frenchman, “with an umbrella like a faded tropical leaf (it had not rained for six weeks), staring at nothing at all, with a snuff-box in his hand”. The Frenchman asks if the man Dickens is seeking has a servant with a wooden leg: “‘Great Heaven, sir’ said I, ‘how do I know! I should think not, but it is possible.’ ‘It is always,’ said the Frenchman, ‘possible. Almost all the things of the world are always possible’”.
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