Victorian Lit Dickens
What We Can Learn from Dickens’ Long-Windedness
Ah, Charles Dickens—the undisputed king of never-ending sentences, elaborate descriptions, and characters with names that sound like inside jokes. Reading his novels can feel like running a marathon through a maze of words. But before you shake your fist at Bleak House and give up halfway through David Copperfield, let’s take a moment to appreciate what Dickens’ lengthy prose can teach us about storytelling, pacing, and the lost art of patience.
Why Was Dickens So Wordy? Blame Serial Publishing!
Dickens didn’t write books; he wrote installments. His novels were originally published in magazines as monthly or weekly serials, meaning he had to keep people hooked (and subscribing) for months, sometimes years. Cliffhangers, detailed world-building, and meandering subplots weren’t just artistic choices—they were business strategies.
Think of Dickens as the original binge-worthy Netflix series, except instead of dropping an entire season at once, he made you wait in agony for the next chapter. Imagine if Stranger Things released one episode every three months. The suspense! The frustration! The engagement!
What We Can Learn: The Art of Pacing
Modern writers often hear, “Cut the fluff. Be concise.” But Dickens teaches us that sometimes, the fluff is the story. His long-windedness allows for deep character development, immersive settings, and an emotional build-up that pays off in big, satisfying ways.
Consider Great Expectations—if Pip’s journey from orphan to gentleman were rushed, we wouldn’t feel the weight of his transformation. If Miss Havisham’s decayed mansion were described in a single sentence, it wouldn’t haunt our imaginations the way it does. Dickens teaches us that good storytelling isn’t just about what happens, but how it unfolds.
The Magic of Dickensian Description
Yes, Dickens describes things in excruciating detail. But he also makes those details work overtime. He doesn’t just say a character is greedy—he gives us Mr. Smallweed, a shriveled old man who hoards money like a dragon guarding treasure. He doesn’t just tell us London is grimy—he makes us smell the soot, feel the fog, and dodge the pickpockets.
His descriptions create mood, personality, and social critique, all in one go. Compare that to today’s minimalistic fiction, where you sometimes have to guess what the protagonist even looks like.
What We Can Learn: Let Setting and Description Do the Heavy Lifting
Instead of just describing what something looks like, let it tell a story. Consider how Dickens makes a setting feel alive:
- A Christmas Carol’s bleak, cold streets vs. the warm, glowing homes of the Cratchits.
- Bleak House’s suffocating fog—a literal and metaphorical sign of corruption.
- Miss Havisham’s wedding dress, frozen in time like her broken heart.
See? Description isn’t just extra words—it’s emotional world-building.
Dickens’ Characters: The Bigger, The Better
No one does over-the-top characters like Dickens. From the tragic Oliver Twist to the hilariously named Wackford Squeers, Dickens populated his novels with figures that were practically memes before memes existed.
And yet, for all their exaggeration, they feel real. Why? Because Dickens was a master at making his characters reflect larger social issues.
- Scrooge isn’t just a miser—he’s a warning about unchecked greed.
- Little Dorrit isn’t just a fragile heroine—she’s a symbol of the failures of the debtors’ prison system.
- Uriah Heep isn’t just creepy—he’s the embodiment of false humility and social resentment.
What We Can Learn: Make Your Characters Matter
Dickens teaches us that characters should be more than just people—they should represent something bigger. Whether it’s a critique of class divides or an exploration of human nature, great characters have something to say. Also, it doesn’t hurt to give them a really fun name.
Should We Still Read Dickens in the Age of TikTok?
Yes! While his prose can be intimidating, Dickens reminds us that stories are meant to be savored, not skimmed. In a world where content is getting shorter and faster, maybe we need a little Dickensian patience.
So, the next time you’re tempted to abandon A Tale of Two Cities because it has too many words, remember: good things take time. And sometimes, getting lost in a sea of words is exactly the point.
Reference :
- Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Penguin Classics, 1861.
- Tomalin, Claire. Charles Dickens: A Life. Penguin Books, 2011.
- Smiley, Jane. Charles Dickens: A Life Defined by Writing. Viking, 2002.
