Aberdeen Voice

I have a friend who divides the population into two categories, those who have read Steinbeck’s East of Eden and those for whom that is a pleasure in prospect. I’m pretty much of the same opinion, but with Bleak House as the tome in question.

So, it was with delight that I read chapters 1-16/numbers 1-5, pretty much untouched since I first read it in awe as an undergraduate in 1978. It was with even more delight that my fellow Dickens fans and I absorbed the wisdom of Aberdeen Dickens Fellowship’s guest Professor Grahame Smith, who effortlessly drew contributions from the Dickens devotees attending, enthused by his own passion for the author and the book. David Innes reports on the latest get-together of the Aberdeen Dickens Fellowship.

Grahame was obviously delighted to attend and to return to Aberdeen, where he studied, meeting friends old and new who share his enthusiasm for the master of novel-writing.
Bleak House, most Dickens readers would agree, sees the man at the peak of his powers as a novelist. Grahame pointed out that it followed David Copperfield in the author’s canon and that since he had honed his writing to literary perfection in that semi-autobiographical masterpiece, Bleak House gave him the confidence to experiment.

The use of a narrator, interwoven with chapters by the main character and conscience of the novel, Esther Summerson, was bold, although as one contributor on the night pointed out, Dickens had to be careful not to alienate a large and appreciative readership as a consequence of experimentation.

Radiohead and the transition from OK Computer to Kid A is the best contemporary comparison I could make.

Is Esther credible, too good to be true? We mused on this. One of our number commented that her background of psychological abuse was similar to that experienced by many young people with whom he has contact, and her reactions and motives are not untypical of similarly unfortunate young people in the 21st century.

She is also fairly unique, it was agreed, in being a strong female character and major protagonist in Dickens’s fiction.

As well as his Dickens scholarship, Grahame also has a fascination for the cinematic. He believes that the best potential Dickens film adaptations might have been directed by Orson Welles, which is no longer a possibility, sadly. He feels that perhaps Spike Lee could do Dickens justice, a controversial view perhaps, but one which chimed with some of the Fellowship who shared Grahame’s interest in cinema.

It really was the best of times.

Bleak House is the biggie, of course, and in more ways than one, given its labyrinthine plot, range of characters and ground-breaking fiction-writing technique. It’s also large in volume. To do it justice, therefore, the next three meetings will consider it further, and allow those of us with limited reading time to read it cover to cover. That is no hardship.

The Fellowship’s programme between now and the end of 2013 will be:

• Tuesday 15 October 2013: lecture by Paul Schlicke, on the topicality of Bleak House, followed by seminar on numbers 6-10, chapters 17–32.
• Tuesday 12 November 2013: lecture by Dan Wall, on the serialisation of Bleak House, followed by seminar on numbers 11-15, chapters 33–49.
• Tuesday 3 December 2013: lecture by Paul Schlicke, on plots and detecting in Bleak House, followed by seminar on numbers 16–20, chapters 50–67.
• Tuesday 17 December 2013: Paul Schlicke will read A Christmas Carol

All meetings will be held in Grampian Housing Association’s offices, situated at the corner of Huntly Street and Summer Street, Aberdeen, where there is ample free parking. Each evening’s proceedings will start at 19:00 and finish at 21:00. We’ll be delighted to see you.

The Aberdeen Fellowship intends to affiliate to the International Dickens Fellowship. We’ll carry details of that here when everything’s finalised, but https://sites.google.com/site/aberdeendickensfellowship/ is the place to go to keep up to date.

To be added to the circulation list for information on local Fellowship activities, contact Dr Paul Schlicke p.schlicke@abdn.ac.uk  , newly elected chair of the Aberdeen Dickens Fellowship.

Thanks to Dr Paul Schlicke who has reminded Voice that local Dickens fans are planning to meet this week.

“As previously intimated, at the next meeting of the Aberdeen branch of the Dickens Fellowship we will discuss Hard Times Part 2, Reaping.

“Feel free to join us, whether or not you managed to attend last month’s discussion of Part 1, Sowing.

“We will meet from 7-9 pm on Wednesday 24 April at Grampian Housing Association, 74 Huntly Street, 300 yards up from the Catholic Cathedral, at the corner of Huntly Street and Summer Street. There is free parking adjacent.”

The venue’s also near enough to Union Street and Rosemount to travel by bus. Last month’s meeting had a lower than expected turnout, but the weather, which prevented some from attending, is improving.

Some believe that his writings are as relevant in the current austere age as they have ever been.

If you have read any or no Dickens, or are just curious about the continued interest in an author who was born over 200 years ago, you’ll be made welcome.

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Peering out over the High Street’s rimed cobbles from ‘neath their frosted brows, one might easily mistake these spectral figures as characters from some long-forgotten Victorian melodrama. But no, this is Old Aberdeen. They are, in fact, local Dickens enthusiasts, gathering for the last time in the great man’s Bicentennial Year. David Innes reports.

“No fog, no mist, clear bright, jovial stirring cold” is how Dickens described Christmas Day in A Christmas Carol.

He might have been describing conditions in Aberdeen on Thursday 6 December, but while the wintry weather was without doubt a factor in keeping numbers low, those who braved the temperatures and icy underfoot conditions to attend the event at the new university library enjoyed a one-off treat.

The university is proud to possess one of the best Dickens collections in the world and it was a privilege to be present when the first editions of all his works were laid out for examination and enjoyment.

With special thanks to Keith O’ Sullivan, the University of Aberdeen’s Senior Rare Books Librarian. Thank you, Keith.

Particularly worthy of mention are the two first editions of Oliver Twist (1838). Until publication of this novel in its constituent parts, Dickens had used the pen name ‘Boz’. He had decided, however, that his own identity be used when the book was published in collected form.

The first edition was published by George Bentley before Dickens’ wish could be granted. It was only delayed by a week, as the Boz edition sold out and the imprint with the author’s own identity was offered for sale.

The entire Sketches by Boz series is also part of the University’s collection. It was surprising to see that each part was priced at one shilling (5 pence), expensive for the times.

Theatre posters of interest and lesser-known works were also displayed, each adding to the overall picture of the hugely-talented man still loved by millions, two hundred years after his birth.

Due to the low numbers, formal business was suspended for the evening but dates of future meetings, based around discussion of specific writings from the great man’s output, were agreed. Everyone on the mailing list will be contacted in advance of these meetings, the first of which is scheduled to be held on 21 February 2013.

If you wish to be added to Dr Paul Schlicke’s e-mail circular, drop him an e-mail p.schlicke@abdn.ac.uk