Monday, December 31, 2007

The Best Dickens Novels Are..........

My friend Tom Angleberger of Christiansburg, Va., is a devout fan of 19th century British author Charles Dickens who is popular this time of year because after all he wrote "The Christmas Carol."

Angleberger's favorite Dickens book is "Bleak House," which made into a PBS "Masterpiece Theatre" mini-series recently.

Here is a complete list of his top five Dickens books:

1. "Bleak House"

2. "Our Mutual Friend"

3. "Little Dorrit"

4. "The Pickwick Papers"

5. "Tale of Two Cities"

Angleberger said that he also likes "David Cooperfield," "Martin Chuzzlewhit," "Great Expectations" and "Barnaby Rudge." He surprisinly doesn't care for "Oliver Twist" (I didn't ask him about the musical adaptation or the 1968 film version of "Oliver!). Nor does he like the 1841 novel "The Old Curiousity Shop." He considers "Hard Times" to be the very worst Dickens book.

Angleberger recently published a children's book under his pen name Sam Riddleberger. He is also a columnist for "The Roanoke Times." His "What's on Your Mind?" columns runs on Mondays.

His wife CeCe Bell is also a children's author, and she has a running series with The Sock Monkey character- it is not to be confused with the sock monkey in adult cartoonist Tony Millionaire's books!

Useful links:

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.qwickpick.com


 

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