Barnaby Rudge

It's a chilly 30º F (or -1º C) outside as I type this. I took the picture above during yesterday morning's dog walk along West End Lane. Yes! Olga wanted a walk after all! As soon as I'd posted to the blog and stood up, she leapt to attention and was raring to go. She can turn on a dime, that dog.

Here she is wandering through the frosty garden. Look at how the Japanese maple has lost all its leaves, seemingly all of a sudden. Two weeks ago it was a flaming red torch, and now it's bare twigs.

I did not sleep well last night. More work stress, about which we shall not speak. I woke up about 2:30 a.m., came out to the living room and plowed through the last 30 pages of "Barnaby Rudge." Another Dickens done! I thought it was good and very interesting, given that it was written about the Gordon Riots of 1780, an event in British history I knew nothing about. I can see why it isn't one of Dickens' more famous books -- there are a lot of characters and some of them are quite thinly drawn, especially (of course) the women. But he succeeds in making his readers care about Barnaby, the central character, and the scenes involving the actual riots (which begin about two-thirds of the way into the book) are quite suspenseful.

Dickens can turn a phrase. I liked this quote, for example, about a character who speaks in shiny but empty clichés: "Nor is this to be wondered at; for as hollow vessels produce a far more musical sound in falling than those which are substantial, so it will oftentimes be found that sentiments which have nothing in them make the loudest ringing in the world, and are the most relished."

And he can be pretty funny, as in this description of a matronly character's movements: "Mrs. Varden slightly raised her hands, shook her head, and looked at the ground as though she saw straight through the globe, out the other end, and into the immensity of space beyond."

Of course Dickens can't resist some discussion of the human condition: "The despisers of mankind -- apart from the mere fools and mimics, of that creed -- are of two sorts. They who believe their merit neglected and unappreciated, make up one class; they who receive adulation and flattery, knowing their own worthlessness, compose the other. Be sure that the coldest-hearted misanthropes are ever of this last order."

That quote reminded me of Donald Trump. I'm pretty sure he's the guy who feels unappreciated, but it's possible that subconsciously he feels he's getting more adulation than he deserves, and is thus overcompensating.

Our Christmas lights, shining through my glasses,
cast these sparkles on the book!

Finally, I liked this description of the government's attempts to quell the rioters near what is now the Holborn Viaduct, which I visited with blogger Sharon a little more than a month ago: "At Holborn Bridge, and on Holborn Hill, the confusion was greater than in any other part; for the crowd that poured out of the city in two great streams, one by Ludgate Hill, and one by Newgate-street, united at that spot, and formed a mass so dense, that at every volley the people seemed to fall in heaps. At this place a large detachment of soldiery were posted, who fired, now up Fleet Market, now up Holborn, now up Snow Hill -- constantly raking the streets in each direction. At this place too, several large fires were burning, so that all the terrors of that terrible night seemed to be concentrated in one spot."

That's what I like about London. It's living history, all around us!