In this article, you will get acquainted with a work called "The Antiquities Shop". Dickens wrote it in the genre of sentimentalism.
A little about the author
Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in England (Portsmouth). Glory came to the English writer during his lifetime, which is a great rarity. The author wrote mainly in the genre of realism, but in his novels there is a place for a fairy tale and sentimentalism.
So what is Charles Dickens famous for? The Antiquities Shop is not his only famous work. Books that brought fame to the author:
- "Oliver Twist";
- Nicholas Nickleby;
- The Pickwick Club;
- "Our mutual friend";
- Bleak House;
- “A Tale of Two Cities”;
- "Great expectations";
- "The Mystery of Edwin Drood".
The oddities of the famous Englishman
Dickens knew how to enter a state of trance, often fell into it involuntarily. He was haunted by visions, and he often felt a state of déjà vu. When the latter happened, he would crumple and twist his hat. Because of this, he ruined a lot of hats and eventually stopped wearing them altogether.
His friend and editor-in-chief of Fortnightly Review, George Henry Lewis, said that the author constantly communicated with the heroes of his works. While working on the novel "The Antiquities Shop", Dickens also saw the main character of the work - Nelly. The author himself said that she got under his feet, did not allow him to eat and sleep.
The novel "Shop of Antiquities" (Dickens): a summary
The main character of the novel is a twelve-year-old girl named Nelly. She is an orphan and lives with her grandfather, who simply adores her. A girl from infancy lives among outlandish things: sculptures of Indian gods, antique furniture.
The sweet little girl has tremendous willpower. Readers are impressed by the childish courage of a twelve-year-old baby. The relative decided to secure the girl's future in a very strange way - by playing cards. He wanted to win a large sum and send the girl to study at the best college. To do this, he leaves the girl alone at night and goes to meetings with friends.
Unfortunately, grandfather is haunted by failures in the game, and he loses their house and antique shop. The family has to go wherever they look. There is also a guy in the novel who is in love with a girl. His name is Kit. The teenager and his family are constantly trying to help the girl and her grandfather.
An evil dwarf named Quill becomes the owner of their shop. He knows how to do creepy and scary things:
- swallow eggs along with the shell;
- drink boiling water.
For some reason, when he becomes the owner of the shop, he moves to sleep in Nelly's crib. Quill is a creepy creature, a demon and a businessman. He never made money in an honest way, although he also has his own office. The author writes that it has been in it for eighteen years since the clock has become, and the ink has long since dried out in the inkwell. The table in the study serves as a bed for the dwarf.
So, a lot of adventures await old Trent and Nellie along the way. On the way, they meet comedians, a kind but poor teacher in a rural school.
They will also be sheltered by the kind mistress Mrs. Jarley. The woman provided Nellie with work and shelter for her and her grandfather. Finally, the girl lives in peace, but it didn't work - the grandfather starts playing again. Having lost all the money the girl earned, the grandfather decides to rob the mistress of the house. Nelly finds out about this and does not allow the relative to take a rash step. They leave the house on a quiet night.
Travelers find themselves in an industrial city. They cannot find a job. For the night they are given shelter by a local fireman. It does not work for him for a long time, and they need to go again. On the way, the girl gets caught in heavy rain and gets wet to the skin. The consequence of this is Nelly's illness. Finally, the travelers find shelter. They were pitied and given a gatehouse at the old church. Unfortunately, it gets late - the girl dies. The old man goes crazy and also leaves this world.
The Antiquities Shop (Dickens) is a fairy tale, the plot of which is based on the play of contrasts. The famous Englishman had a passion for everything fantastic, unearthly and bizarre. Baby Nelly appears to readers like a little fairy: fragile, tender, surprisingly kind. She forgives everything to her eccentric grandfather and tries, despite her young years, to solve problems for both.
When the novelist gets tired of Nelly's “fabulousness,” he introduces ordinary people into the plot: Keith, a teenager in love with her, his mother, brothers. Readers tend to have a special liking for Dick Swiveller.
Little Marquise - the heroine of the novel "Shop of Antiquities" (Dickens)
The novel also features a girl named Marquis. She is the absolute opposite of Nelly. The Marquis is a servant in the house of the rich: Samson Brass and his sister Sally. They completely tortured the girl with black work. She lives in a damp, cold kitchen. Sally beats her up and keeps her hungry.
The baby is flighty and simple-minded. She often eavesdrops and spies at the keyhole. This is an ordinary, cheerful and lively girl. A little tricky: he can easily steal something tasty. Despite the cruel treatment, the Marquis does not harden against people, but remains kind and bright.
Charles Dickens in his works raises the question of the defenselessness of children in the cruel world of adults. The sad fate of Nelly, the mockery of the Marquis make the reader remember about the other heroes of his novels. Dickens lovers will also remember Oliver Twist, tortured to death in a working house.
Dickens' novel became popular during the author's lifetime. Not only the inhabitants of Foggy Albion, but also the Americans wept over Nelly's untimely death. The author himself, as he wrote to a friend, was very worried about this turn of events in the novel. He could not do otherwise, the death of the main character should have indicated cruelty towards children. The author wanted to turn readers away from evil and sow good and compassion in their hearts.
Dickens's fifth novel was The Antiquities Shop, begun in March 1840.
You will be shown a shop in London. The two-story wooden house looks like a hunched over old man caught in a crowd of gloomy but tall fellows: modern houses are around. Behind the glass, as befits an antique shop, all sorts of antique items are visible. The staircase, which must be creaky, leads directly from the door to the second floor. Suddenly you remember that no second floor is indicated in Dickens's book, and in general the shop was located, it seems, near Leicester Square, and this is High Holborn. And yet they tell you: "Here is a shop of antiquities." There is no big mistake here. This is in the neighborhood, and that shop still no longer exists, but it was here that the bookbinder's workshop was located, where Dickens bound books. You see the main thing: the city is piling up layer by layer over Dickens' house.
Although in the days of Dickens all the buildings were immeasurably lower, nevertheless in the book about the shop of antiquities it says "a little house" ...
Even then, the shop looked lost, squeezed among other houses, or rather, squeezed by rapidly growing buildings. The whole book is written about how England is changing, and the changes are far from being for the better.
In January 1841, the entire novel was completed and in the same year it was published as a separate book. So, at that time, still a matter of the future, however, the near future, in 1842, but still only the future, was the introduction of a law prohibiting the employment of girls under five, and boys - ten years old. This explains the depressing atmosphere of the entire novel, it explains why the main character of the book, Nelly, although she is small, is, in fact, already an adult. She is small in her years, but the tests do not fall on her shoulders for children.
We meet Nellie and her grandfather, the owner of an antique shop, at the very beginning of the book. But soon they remain homeless, need drives them on a journey across the country. Dickens deliberately directs them to Central England, the most industrialized, where the first railroad tracks were laid and new mining villages arose. Dickens's heroes follow right on the heels of innovations, reforms - and their hearts don't get any easier. They are simply frightened of the rebellious workers, and together with Dickens. He was horrified by both the inhuman working conditions and the exactingness of the disadvantaged.
And yet, in portraying the discontent of the workers, Dickens acted very boldly. After all, they were supporters of the first organized labor movement in history. They were called Chartists, because two years before Dickens began writing The Antiquities Shop, in the spring of 1838, they submitted a petition to Parliament, literally: “paper” (charter, or charter), demanding better conditions, increasing earnings - in a word, right. The mere mention of the Chartists frightened the owners. And Dickens described them, albeit in gloomy tones, but still sympathetically, for he could not fail to recognize the righteousness of their anger.
“While working on the Antiquities Shop,” Dickens said, “all the time I tried to surround the lonely girl with strange, grotesque, but still believable figures ...” Such faces in Dickens’s books, strange to disbelief and at the same time alive, won special attention of readers. True, the authorities say that just like that, on the streets of London, neither then nor now you can meet Dickensian characters. They inhabit only the books of Dickens. Still, something Dickensian is hard not to notice in every Englishman. First of all - quirkiness, sometimes attractive, sometimes repulsive and always understandable in its own way, as the strange shape of a tree is understandable, which under the onslaught of wind and bad weather has taken the shape of the surrounding area.
"There was a man in the world with crooked legs, and he walked for a century on a crooked path" - these verses were written by the poet-joker, a contemporary of Dickens. Dickens unfolded a whole gallery of faces and figures, twisted, broken, distorted. His smiles in a strange way turn into a predatory grin. Politeness, impeccable politeness, too impeccable, eventually becomes methodical tyranny. And sometimes - severity and dryness, hiding the heart, even too responsive. Such are they, Dickensian eccentrics, who are certainly distinguished by some other oddity: some without an arm, some hunched over, some with a limp ... Their circumstances and life have crippled them. And if this eccentric is one of evil eccentrics, he himself, with grins and smiles, cripples, oppresses and torments those around him. If an eccentric is kind, then he tries to protect at least the weakest and most defenseless from evil.
In the "Shop of Antiquities" there are both. Among all, of course, the dwarf Quilp stands out, a miniature monster, an octopus, tenaciously grasping with its tentacles. There and then eccentric dreamers, overwhelmed by dreams of all shades, from the crazy idea of suddenly winning a fortune (this is poor Nellie's grandfather) to the soft daydreaming characteristic of at least a school teacher who sheltered travelers (after all, Dickens himself had such teachers who did not teach at all with a rod ).
But first of all, the hearts of readers, contemporaries of Dickens, were touched by Nell. They were waiting for ships with the next issues, where the question was to be resolved: will the girl withstand the tests or will she die? The cowboys wiped away tears from the weary faces when they learned that the hardships of life were beyond the strength of little Nell. The demanding critic Geoffrey shed tears over her fate, while the most touching verses of English poets left him completely cold. The harsh historian Carlyle was shocked by her fate. And even Edgar Poe, the author of the "horrible stories" from which the hair stands on end, said that the death of Nelly is too difficult a test for readers. True, later, at the end of the century, another English writer - a great paradoxist - argued that only people without a heart can cry over the death of Nelly. This is - times have changed, literary tastes have changed. And besides, after all, in Dickens, in fact, some of the descriptions were not really touching, but just tearful.
Yes, and it was with Dickens. He knew how to make laugh, he knew how to make and cry, but not always by means permitted, meeting the requirements of high art.
Dickens's books were generally influenced by the conditions of his work. For example, the dimensions of a novel. They were predetermined. Twenty issues were supposed to come out, no more and no less, then two or three volumes should have come out, depending on the order. The novels also adapted to the "continuation", to the "family reading", which was then becoming popular. In the preface to a separate edition of The Antiquity Store, Dickens said that originally, since the novel was intended for Mr. Humphrey's Watch magazine, Mr. Humphrey himself was supposed to be the narrator of the whole story. Then live heroes appeared on the pages of the narrative, and Mr. Humphrey was not needed. “When the novel was over,” says
Dickens, "I decided to free him from the intermediate material." And he did not release. All this has remained so and somewhat interferes with the reader.
Nevertheless, the "Antiquities Shop" made Dickens the master of the readers' hearts. Understanding perfectly well why he so touched the reading public, Dickens did not part with the topics touched upon, with the faces once outlined, although, of course, he did not repeat the previous one, but developed, vigilantly observing those around him.
Over and over again, children, special Dickensian children, small adults will appear on the pages of his book. This will be Paul Dombey from the novel "Dombey and Son", and his untimely death will make us shed, perhaps, no less tears than the death of Nelly; moreover, this childhood death, described by Dickens, an already more mature Dickens, will not leave the modern reader indifferent. It will be David Copperfield from The Story of David Copperfield, which Tolstoy read for the first time in his youth and, recalling in his old days what impression this book made on him, put it: “Huge”.
Dickens will continue to keep a close eye on the changing face of England of his day. Over time, he would write a whole novel "Hard Times" about laboring England.
Appreciated the book
6,5/10
That's why I love Dickens, so much for his grotesque exaggerations and oppositions. I don't even know how to present his prose. Perhaps this is a piece of stinking shit wrapped in beautiful foil. You admire the wrapper, unfold it, inhale this disgusting smell like a gourmand and take a bite, and under the layer of shit there is a delicate praline. And under a layer of praline - stale, moldy bread. And it’s so much fun you’ll just laugh it off. After all, what kind of life is it without humor? Why is there life! What is death without humor? When I finally decide to commit suicide, I will definitely breathe laughing gas before jumping off the roof. Carnival culture, if you understand me, sweethearts.
Wildly mixed with Camus with Woodhouse, Balzac with Apuleius - this is happiness! Ah, if my dream came true (that's just what - I don't understand in any way), then everything would surely blossom and smell. And the song "Some of these days" would be played as a kind of existential bonus. Yes exactly.
So, what am I talking about? Oh yes! When the good ones get rewards, the bad ones get the reward, and the sisters get the earrings, it’s such a boredom. And when everything is exactly the opposite, it is somehow depressing. I love the middle ground, if I can't grab the tops or roots.
That's why I love Dickens for this.
And I just cannot forbid myself to take advantage of such a convenient opportunity and not advise you all, my friends and foes, the wonderful series The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff.
Now, perhaps, that's it. And then he signed here, like Dickens is so insatiable.
Appreciated the book
Recently, I began to download a lot of audiobooks - they go very well for Minecraft =) Where else can you find a better place for thoughtful listening to world classics, if not in a deep mine?
My acquaintance with Dickens was limited only to the "Pickwick Club", which brought me out of my mind with its immense size and flickering of the plot, which was not facilitated by the tight deadlines of the third year of the philological faculty, which probably assumed that students at any moment could go into a time loop, once for each Talmud set aside a maximum of a couple of days. And now, having heard about the work with the intriguing title "Antiquities Shop", I decided to continue with it.
What can I tell you? This is the rare case when for me the form has taken precedence over the content. Beautiful language of the author, pacifying reading - it was, as they say, "nice" to listen to. Sometimes I would come out of this meditation, yelling: "Damn it, what are these crazy people doing ?!" and then she sank again, blowing bubbles and smiling blissfully.
The plot, for the modern reader, will probably seem either frivolous or far-fetched. Girls - they are all so gentle, beautiful, angelic, with consumptive pallor on their faces. Boys are brave, rushing into battle for girls, ready to hurt themselves into a cake. Family relationships are filled with love and self-sacrifice. Love relationships are a complete dere-dere. Villains are ugly, ugly, infernal. Well-wishers - running to the ends of the world to help. All their actions are a mix of tears, passionate confessions, screams, fainting, timid looks, naivety, assurances of friendship and love, aching heart and nervous fever. Is this a madhouse? Oh nooo, this is sentimentalism, baby !!! Even in my tender school years I was too wretched and cynical to be imbued with his spirit. But I adored landscape passages of this style.
In general, it is sad that the book ends so sadly. I thought that everyone there would be happy, they would move to live in the countryside and be friends with their families. And they didn't move X_x Or they fled to the navy. Or out of your mind. Or even tragically died. Hamster's heart was filled with hopeless longing, honestly.
A good book, albeit a dull one. Read it - such a refined sample of the genre that you simply admire.
Appreciated the book
What an amazing book! I haven't read too many books from Dickens yet. And until now, my favorite book was "Great Expectations", which introduced and made me absolutely in love with the work of this writer. But now next to it there will certainly and always be a "Shop of Antiquities". With what pleasure I read it! And the strangest thing is that now I do not know at all what to write about her. That is, thoughts and feelings, of course, are. But for some reason I don't find those that would be worthy to put into words and put on public display. For some reason, this book made me feel a kind of boundless, nagging tenderness. For some reason, I feel warm from her, despite the fact that the events described in her are far from joyful. Maybe this is because the author himself describes his characters with great love and tenderness? Reading Dickens, I got used to the fact that the character traits of many of his characters are too hypertrophied. If the hero is positive, then literally in everything. If it's a villain, it's a monster like the dwarf Quilp. I somehow cannot imagine such horror as it in human life. I read this sad story of the old man and his granddaughter literally without stopping. The author's syllable, which disposes to leisurely reading somewhere in an armchair by the fireplace, wrapped in a warm blanket, with a mug of hot tea or mulled wine in his hands, literally bewitches and lulls. This is probably why the book seems so cozy.
I highly recommend reading it both to lovers of the author and to those who are just planning to get to know him. For the first acquaintance, the book is simply great!
March 11 2010
Twelve-year-old Nelly lives in a fantastic environment of outlandish things: rusty weapons, knightly armor, antique furniture and tapestries, sculptures of oriental gods. Left alone every night. Her grandfather is an incorrigible gambler. True, he plays to ensure the future of his granddaughter, but he is pursued by failure. Modest savings and money received on the security of his shop of antiquities have already been lost. The evil dwarf Quilp becomes its owner, and Nelly and grandfather, to the great grief of the teenager Keith, who is in love with a girl, leave the house wherever they look. They meet very different people along the way: cunning comedians-puppeteers; a poor country man who, unlike Squeers, is kindness itself; Mrs. Jarley, the owner of the wax museum, is an affectionate and caring woman. She gives Nellie a job, and the girl lives in peace until her grandfather starts playing again. He steals the money earned by his granddaughter and wants to rob the good mistress of the museum. However, Nelly did not let the crime happen. At night, she leads her grandfather out of Mrs. Jarley's hospitable shelter.
.Road leads travelers to a large industrial city. For one night they were sheltered by a factory stoker. And again they are on the road - in the cold and rain. Nellie wants to quickly go out into the expanse of fields and meadows, but the travelers are tired, they barely wander and see the depressing pictures of grief in the Black Craft of factories and mines. It is not known how this difficult path would have ended if it were not for a happy accident: a meeting with a kind teacher, who again came to their aid. In a small gatehouse at the old church, Nellie and her grandfather find themselves a refuge, but not for long: the girl is already terminally ill and soon dies. Old Trent, who has lost his mind, also dies of grief.
novel The Antiquities Shop (1840) is conceived as fantastic as. Here he gave free rein to his special addiction to everything bizarre and strange, to the play of contrasts. From the very beginning, the girl, surrounded by curiosities, sets the tone for the entire book. Dickens surrounds her with not only strange things, but also strange people. Sometimes they are scary, grotesque, like the ugly Quilp, who all the time grimaces and commits inconsistent acts: swallows whole eggs in a shell, drinks boiling water, sits on the back of a chair or on a table, and having taken possession of an antique shop, goes to bed in a small bed Nellie. But Quilp is also monstrously cunning, there is something supernatural about him. This is a fabulous evil troll who only thinks how to harm good people. He is rich, but even in this case we do not know how he got rich: there is no trace of the case in his office. Everything here is abomination and desolation, in this dirty wooden shack, where the clock has stood for eighteen years, there is no ink in the inkwell, and the work table serves as a bed for the owner. But Dickens does not need any signs of the case. He portrays us not a real businessman, but a demon who embodies evil and cruelty in the same way as Nelly personifies good and humanity.
But is it is not Nelly herself a "curiosity"? She is so good, kind and reasonable that she seems like a little fairy or a fairy-tale princess, who cannot be imagined as a plump and cheerful mother of a family, like, for example, the pretty servant Barbara, who is in love with Kit. But Dickens - this creates the impression - still more to his liking ordinary people who eat a lot, drink, have fun (and work a lot, of course). And when the fabulousness tires him, he enjoys the company of Keith, his mother and little brothers, the cute slacker Swiveller, the servant girl whom Dick gallantly calls the Marquise and who is so unlike Nelly.
The marquise lives from the villainous lawyer Samson Brass and his monstrous sister Sally. They completely tortured the little servant with black work, hunger and cruel treatment. lives in a dark, damp kitchen, where even a castle hangs on a salt shaker and where every day the painful procedure of "feeding" a hungry maid is performed. Miss Sally cuts off a tiny piece of mutton, and the girl "copes" with it instantly. Then everything is played out as if by notes. “The dragon in a skirt” asks if the servant wants more, and when she barely audibly answers “no”, she repeats: “You were given meat - you ate your fill, they offered you more, but you answered“ I don’t want ”. So don't you dare say that you are being kept here from hand to mouth. Do you hear? ":
Wherein, as if by chance, she hits the hands, head, back of the girl with the handle of a knife, and then begins to beat her. And so every day. Dickens largely attributes Miss Sally's sadistic inclinations to the unfeminine nature of her nature and even the well-known "emancipation", because Sally is engaged in jurisprudence, and not domestic "women's" affairs. But the reader perceived the picture of the mockery of the little servant at the same time with the same scenes: he remembered Oliver Twist in the work pillbox, poor Smike, hounded by the Squeers, and admired Dickens even more, the protector and friend of children.
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