No Mercy: David Lean, the Law and Great Expectations

Steyn Online ^ | 16 Sep 2023 | Rick McGinnis

[Rummyfan]

My grandfather, who was born when Charles Dickens was still alive and writing, left me his books, including copies of David Copperfield, Bleak House and Barnaby Rudge, which is good because at no point in either grade school or high school did Dickens appear on any reading list. Dickens was – and still is – one of the most famous novelists ever, but like Mark Twain and Tolstoy, I have no sense whatever that he's being read.

Back at the end of World War Two, when David Lean was a young director presented with Dickens' Great Expectations as his next project, he had only read A Christmas Carol, which remains the sole work by the writer that's probably still read – mostly because it's short and concise and sums up nearly everything we think we need to know about Dickens.

Indeed, the adjective "Dickensian" and a handful of scenes (Oliver Twist asking for more gruel, Scrooge confronted by Marley's ghost) are the whole of our understanding of Dickens today, and comprise much of our image of the inequities of Queen Victoria's England as it persists in popular imagination. Much the way that Jane Austen is the foundation, walls and roof of what we know about class and the status of women in Georgian Britain – though I suspect that Austen is more read than Dickens.

[Rummyfan]

My favorite Dickens adaptation... And always loved this guy:

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Terrific movie. They don't get any better, "Eh, Pip?"

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Abel Magwitch confronts Pip in the graveyard.

[GOPJ]

Bob Huke, camera operator on the film, recalled to Brownlow that "he said, for instance, when we shot the children, we would use 35mm lenses, and 24mm, which was the widest lens in those days. Even on close-ups we'd use the 35mm, so the set around them would seem so much bigger. But when we shot them when they're grown-ups, we'd use longer lenses. 50mm and 75mm. So it was exactly the same set, but it was a vast, cavernous shadowy place when they were kids, and it was a dreary, dirty, run-down house when they were adults."

Cool post. ping

[Bookshelf]

Joe the blacksmith (Bernard Miles), has stuck with me. lo these many years. He is the quintessence of honest friendship that Pip comprehends before it is too late. That we should all have a Joe the blacksmith in our lives.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

I couldn't agree more with your comment! You nailed it: Joe Gargery.

[Rowdyone]

It’s such a tragedy that children don’t read more, especially the classics. But then not enough of them learn how to read proficiently in school nowadays. And David Lean is my all time favorite Director.

[proxy_user]

Well, Dickens was certainly read in my Austen-Dickens seminar at Yale Grad School. Every book of both authors in one semester! Plus extensive critical and biographical material, and three term papers.

[Dr. Sivana]

I was assigned “Emma” and “Great Expectations”in high school, but as an adult I went a Dickens kick and read “Pickwick Papers”, “Tale of Two Cities”, “Nicholas Nickleby”, “Bleak House”, “Hard Times”, “Martin Chuzzlewit”. My wife has read the Austen canon several times.

Dickens writes long form, but some of them are well worth it. “Bleak House” was great, “Martin Chuzzlewit” very under-rated, “Tale of Two Cities” very important. “Hard Times”, on the other hand, was a little too much, even for Dickens, and halfway through the book he seems to be presenting an apology for easy divorce the motivation for which might stem from his own bad behaviour.

[SunkenCiv]

Thx GOPJ.

[Buttons12]

Recently in conversation with a young attorney (35-ish) I made a reference to Jarndyce and Jarndyce. He wasn’t familiar with it. “Bleak House,” I explained. He’d never heard of that. At which point I decided not to mention Dickens.

[nopardons]

BTTT

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Either of you ever read A Handful of Dust, by Evelyn Waugh? I’m thinking of the chapter in which Tony is lost in the Amazon bush and rescued by Mr. Todd, who is fond of Dickens.

I really like Waugh. He had a savage sense of humor.

[rlmorel]

“Tale of Two Cities” is one of my favorite books...

[bert]

Last year I went on a Dickens binge.

He wrote for publication is magazines in segments. He apparently needed to meet a word quota..

At the end my conclusion was that so far as Charles Dickens is concerned, neber write 10 or even 20 words when you can write a hundred.

The Tale of Two Cities is not so word as some others.

Aside:

My grand father was from Knox county Tennessee where there are lots of Mynatt’s. The last time I read, actually watced, A Tale of Two Cities I wondered. Is Mynatt an Americanization of Doctor Manette

[bankwalker]

Dickenson sounds like a commie ...

[Dr. Sivana]

neber write 10 or even 20 words when you can write a hundred.

They are mostly really good words, though. You will find this style in many British 19th Century authors.

[nuconvert]

Great movie

[bert]

Yep.......

But reading sometimes gets pretty tiring

[GOPJ]

Joe the blacksmith (Bernard Miles), has stuck with me. lo these many years. He is the quintessence of honest friendship that Pip comprehends before it is too late. That we should all have a Joe the blacksmith in our lives.

Also that when we're older we work at being a "Joe the blacksmith"...