www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2508/
Reviewed by Mariana Genise
Dickens’ Mugby Junction tells the reader about ordinary people little
stories. The setting of this story is a symbol of the age in which the author wrote: a busy crossing of railways, an usual image of the times of the industrial revolution, full of different trains to take. These trains as a metaphor of the different possibilities a person may have in life.
The place also seems to have a lot of stories waiting to be told; A man who wants to escape from his past; two families; whose present is their only treasure; a boy; whose mediocre future is fixed; and a group of women, who want to impose their ancient lifestyle to everybody.
As a result, between past, present and future, we meet several characters whose lives are related to one another and to the Junction itself.
Dickens’ way of writing, full of humour, irony and social criticism, makes us think about life and destiny and the way different people take different “trains” along their lives in an attempt to live better stories. Dickens’ aim of depicting the junction as a crucial moment in a person’s life, is fully achieved.
I recommend this story to those who like the Victorian style of writing, rich in descriptions and wordy sentences, such as:
“A place replete with shadowy shapes, this Mugby Junction in the black hours of the four-and-twenty. Mysterious goods trains, covered with palls and gliding on like vast weird funerals, conveying themselves guiltily away from the presence of the few lighted lamps, as if their freight had come to a secret and unlawful end.”
And besides, I’d recommend it too, to those fond of witty writers, who make the reader think from the beginning to the end of the story.
6 comments:
Hi, I read a novel of Dickens called 'A Tale of Two Cities' and I enjoyed it a lot since it depicted the life of a particular neighbourhood; people gossiping, a man picking up some flowers for a lover, quarrels in canteens and others. Summing up, life objectively described. In this novel, like it seems to happen in your short story, Dickens seems not to step aside from his immediate reality. Totally agree with u, he's tendency towards adjectivation and style handwriting can help us improve our composition writings.
Well, I think it is a short story I would like to read because you can travel through the time with the narration. In adittion, readers can know different realities of common people at that time. I like stories which show history of a society. The only problem that I don`t like very much of this kind of short stories is that they sometimes are too descriptive. It makes me bored.
I have not the oportunity to read a Dicken's story, but i am quite sure that his style shows a magnificent english. I think that he is by far one of the best writers of all times.
Hello dear blondie, I have read Christmas Caroll,(it was long long time ago), it was about the suffering of poor people during the cold Christmas time in Britain, and I felt really sad. I know it was a critic story about the reality of that time, but that children living in the street, starving and frozen make me cry. Perhaps you can endure it better than me. Good luck.
I agree with you Lau,I think that Dicken's style is very sad, but, once again, as in the case of Virginia Woolf you mentioned in relation with your review, I think this is due to the hardship he had to face during his own life.
In fact, I think every writer ressembles a part of his own life in his works,which is great for us readers to enjoy different styles.
Mariana, I love the way that Dickens showed the Victorian society in his books. I hadn’t heard about “Mugby Junction”, so l´ll bear your recommendation in mind.
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