Reading Dickens in 21st Century

It always intrigues me as to, why Charles Dickens, to many seems to be the ultimate paragon of the art of novel writing. Any bookshop’s segregation devotes at least a shelf to Mr. Charles Dickens novels. All these works, that have enjoyed the epithet of classic, for over a century now, are hefty for the eye and hand. Every reader is handed down Dickens at some point or the other in life.

Dickens was one of the greatest, reigning and holding sway over the European literary world, when European arts and culture were at the cusp of modernism. What was to come in a few years was completely different to the Victorian style of prose employed by Dickens. The range of characters, settings and highly descriptive prose of Dickens have become his trademark.

One of Dickens’ most reputed works, A Tale of two cities, which, contrary to all relationship models between bestsellers and literary substance, is listed by Wikipedia to be the bestseller of all time. In A Tale of two cities, Dickens dealt with the theme of duality. He just not used it but staged it on the grandest scale possible in his depiction of Paris and London, separated and joined , by the English Chanel. The very first line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”, shifts the prose from a singular form to a dual one, as if , there were two planks on which the reader is standing and steered forward  by a fine and delicate balance. The French revolution, where the entire set of characters molded by Dickens is thrown in, was both a strong and highly universal background at that time. French Revolution, with the peasentry and lower strata of society revolting against the age old injustices done to them by the aristocrats, was the first of its kind of social upheaval anywhere in the world. The perseverance of people had reached the limit and the angst with the system led them to ask questions both from themselves and their fellow beings. This growing resentment is very much palpable in the Book I of A Tale of Two Cities .

However, it was the storming of the Bastille -that Dickens uses with much precision- that was symbolic of the revolution. Dickens very deftly shows the post revolutionary period. The lack of government, public trials, widespread apathy of any kind of institutions and class become the guiding principles of the French society. The fact that the book was published in 1859, 70 years after the French revolution, was in itself a stroke of brilliance by Dickens. At a time when the younger generation was growing disenchanted with paying obeisance to the upper class, Dickens tapped into the undertones of the society. The book was very topical and pertinent in its content, ideas and at the same time, maintaining the virtues of a pleasant read.

But, what is it, that makes the book enjoyable even now, in the third century of its publication? The times have changed; most of the countries are not plagued with the same  social prejudices, even the revolutions that we are seeing (in the Middle East) are of a different character.

We live at a time in history, when class and categorization are starker than ever before, even though few of us acknowledge it. The rich are becoming  richer and the  poor poorer. The disparity and gap is humongous. The divide, whether on social or economic background, is something innate to any society. Dickens explored the fact on a social scale while we find ourselves facing this on a far reaching and wider panorama.

The Tale of two cities, is and always will be the perfect novel. Charles Dickens wrote at a time when authors often came from the upper class genteel society. Dickens on the other hand had spent his childhood in dark and dingy slums and not in lavish English gardens. Hence, he always had an inherent duality in him- something every author aspires of.