Yes, Susan, you're right, there really is a surreal poetry in Jingle's staccato monologues. That's a superb example.
Sharon, I didn't know that about Van Gogh. You're right: those chairs could be characters in a Dickens novel - just as objects and buildings and possessions take on a weird life of their own in his books. And he has a wonderful way of relating people to objects. Look at this description of Volumnia Dedlock in
Bleak House:
Quote:
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Then is there a singular kind of parallel between her and the little glass chandeliers of another age embellishing that assembly-room, which, with their meagre stems, their spare little drops, their disappointing knobs where no drops are, their bare little stalks from which knobs and drops have both departed, and their little feeble prismatic twinkling, all seem Volumnias.
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You could even write a whole book (maybe someone already has) on umbrellas in Dickens: think of Mrs Gamp's or Silas Wegg's or Miss Mowcher's... And wooden legs too.
Lance, I agree that opening scene of Dombey is superb. And I love Dombey's suggestion, as they discuss finding a wet-nurse: "Couldn't something temporary be done with a teapot?"
Cally, no-one knew the power of a catchphrase better than Dickens. And those two have certainly entered my own life.
In my opinion the best essay ever written on Dickens is George Orwell's, in particular where he says that the "outstanding, unmistakable mark of Dickens's writing is the unnecessary detail".