Today, a battle of the Titans: Charles Dickens or Thomas Hardy?
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Questions for the Tired
I think I'm going to introduce a little series for the days when I'm too tired to write anything more sensible... it'll be a simple x versus y question, and we'll see who comes out on top! They might have something in common or they might not...
Today, a battle of the Titans: Charles Dickens or Thomas Hardy?
Today, a battle of the Titans: Charles Dickens or Thomas Hardy?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Oh Thomas Hardy every time for me..the readibility factor is key here..Dickens, paints pictures with such THICK stodgy -sorry Moannie- that I cant see the wood for the trees, whereas Hardy sweeps you off into the false security of a blood red bleeding sunset....sigh!
ReplyDeleteI vote for Thomas Hardy---he's my favorite every time!
ReplyDeletehands down- Dickens every time.
ReplyDeleteNeither! This is a comment on their works as books to be read (and I find both of them almost unreadable), however I do think that they have had works adapted for television/cinema with some considerable success.
ReplyDeleteTH gets my vote - in fact if this goes on he will probably get my vote at every stage. Better stories, less complecated (I'm already getting confused by Little Dorrit - being televised in UK).
ReplyDeleteHowever a happy ebding or two might have been helpful.
make that "complicated" and "ending"
ReplyDeleteDickens, Dickens, always Dickens. I had a nasty run in with Hardy at High School and have never forgiven him. Hardy may have written the (admittedly) wonderful Jude the Obscure and Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but he also wrote The Mayor of Casterbridge, which I think might be in my Top 5 Least Favourite Books.
ReplyDeleteDickens is *brilliant* everytime for me. Bleak House trumps everything. :)
I love them both though I'd have to put Dickens at the top. But as for Hardy, unlike Kirsty I think The Mayor is my absolute favorite, and indeed in my top 5 favorite books, and the reason why he almost beat Dickens.
ReplyDeleteDickens, for sure. I always get totally absorbed in his books.
ReplyDeleteMy vote goes to Hardy. I do like Dickens as well - but I've read more Hardy.
ReplyDeleteI've only read one Hardy, so I'm going to have to plump for Dickens.
ReplyDeleteWere you trying to trick us with the portraits?
ReplyDeleteHardy - evocative, depressing, tragic.
Dickens - Victorian East Enders - and about as needlessly sensational... mind you, he was a journalist with mission.
TV adaptations OV...! Well, for the busy man/woman they save a lot of eye-strain. D is jolly and unbelievable. TH all too believable and terribly lowering.
I blame TH for my need for chocolate!
OVW
Oh, very difficult. Bleak House is one of my favourite books ever, but I think I'd have to go for Hardy. If you shut me up with only Hardy and Dickens to read, I'd probably go for Dickens first, though.
ReplyDeleteThomas Hardy, of course, dear lady. Name anyone who has set that dreadful old windbag Dickens to music? (And 'Oliver' doesn't count!)
ReplyDeleteDickens! Bleak House, Great Expectations, David Copperfield; they never disappoint.
ReplyDeleteThomas Hardy all the way.
ReplyDeleteDickens - no argument!
ReplyDeleteNeither!
ReplyDeleteI was so very lucky to take a course in college completely devoted to Thomas Hardy. I loved his writing, but that said - I think he's a young person's author. I find depressing, coincidental stuff harder to take than when I was 20. Same with Bergman movies. I can't imagine why I stayed in the theatre. :<) I am not a fan of dark, scary London in Dicken's time, and I've always thought of his books as having types rather than individual people, but I could be wrong. Anyhow, no one will ever convince me to read him. Do you know, Simon, that there is a fellow in Canada who offers this sort of blog author vs. author? Here's an example:
ReplyDeletehttp://bookmineset.blogspot.com/2008/11/great-wednesday-compare-3-stan-lee.html
Dickens, I think, based mostly on the fact that I've read and loved more Dickens than Hardy (Our Mutual Friend at the top of the list.) But I just finished Far From the Madding Crowd last month and loved it, so I am not knocking TH out of the ring!
ReplyDeleteWell, Dickens has a powerful uppercut, but Hardy's been in training just for this event and you can expect to see quite a bit of bobbing and weaving from him, getting in a good jab here and there. Mustn't count out Dickens either, at close range he is absolutely unbeatable and-
ReplyDeleteOh. You mean their books? Haven't read any. Sorry.
I'd rather use every single page of 'Jude the Obscure' to inflict papercuts on my eyeballs than read another Dickens. If it wasn't for The Muppets Christmas Carol the man would be beyond redemption.
ReplyDeleteNo comparison, it's Thomas Hardy every time! That's not just because my great great great aunt was a friend of his sister's.
ReplyDelete