“WHEN [Dickens] found a thing in Europe which he did not understand, such as the Roman Catholic Church, he simply called it an old-world superstition, and sat looking at it like a moonlit ruin.” —G.K. Chesterton
Friends, I’m excited to invite you to continue our annual tradition, begun with Shakespeare 2020 and Tolkien 2021, of devoting one calendar year to the works of a classic author! This year, our subject is the great Charles Dickens. Although his body of work (coupled with my academic work-load!) is too vast to traverse in a single year, we will read his most famous novels, as well as his letters and a selection of other works which, although less known in our day, were among the most renowned in his.
Books You’ll Need (and their abbreviations):
We will begin the year with a biography of Dickens by G.K. Chesterton, called by T.S. Eliot the “best on that author that has ever been written.” Fortunately for us, all his novels and letters for the remainder of the year are available in a single Kindle edition! The only other book you will need is an edition of the Lord of the Rings for Lent and Easter, if you choose to join in the annual excursus into Middle-Earth.
- [CH] Charles Dickens: A Critical Study by G.K. Chesterton
- [CW] The Complete Works of Charles Dickens
- [PP] The Pickwick Papers
- [OT] Oliver Twist
- [DC] David Copperfield
- [TC] A Tale of Two Cities
- [GE] Great Expectations
- [CC] A Christmas Carol
- [LT] The Letters of Charles Dickens
- [LOTR] The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition
- [FR] The Fellowship of the Ring
- [TT] The Two Towers
- [RK] The Return of the King
Preliminary Notes
Pacing. This year’s schedule is designed with the intention to “go deep, not thin”—that is, to take our time reading a handful of significant works, rather than rapidly reading through a broader selection. It is not intended to be arduous. A chapter a day will get you through almost all of the novels in the allotted time, except for The Pickwick Papers, which demands two chapters a day (they’re short). If you fall behind, there is a break of 4-8 days built in to the schedule between each novel which will allow you to catch up.
The Letters. Dickens’ letters in the Complete Works are not numbered, but rather broken up into sections by year. We will read them continuously throughout 2022 in chronological order. If you read one letter a day in addition to one chapter from the novel, you will stay on track. At the beginning of each month in this schedule, you will find the corresponding year(s) in Dickens’ life from which we will be reading letters that month, as “milestones” to make sure you are keeping up.
Lent. With continuing gratitude to Michael G. Fischer, creator of the Lenten Lord of the Rings reading plan, we will once again be reading the Lord of the Rings cycle in its entirety this Lent and Easter. The schedule is set up such that we will depart with the Fellowship from Rivendell on Ash Wednesday and arrive with them at Mount Doom on Good Friday. To make the timing work, you will see that we begin with The Fellowship of the Ring about two weeks before Lent begins and continue with The Return of the King into the first week of Easter. The Dickens readings will pause during these weeks. (Note: the readings for the first week of Fellowship call for two chapters a day. After that, we fall back to our normal walking pace of one chapter per day.)
Complete Works? Ha! We’re hardly scratching the surface! Of Dickens’ fifteen published novels, we are reading five (plus A Christmas Carol). However, as Chesterton argues, “Dickens’s work is not to be reckoned in novels at all … The units of Dickens, the primary elements, are not the stories, but the characters who affect the stories–or, more often still, the characters who do not.”
January 2022: Chesterton; Pickwick Papers
Letters: 1833-40 [LT-I, 1-5]
Jan 3-14: Charles Dickens: A Critical Study [CH 1-12]
Jan 16-31: Pickwick Papers [PP 1-32]
February 2021: Pickwick; Lenten Lord of the Rings
Letters: 1841-42 [LT-I, 6-7]
Feb 1-13: Pickwick Papers [PP 33-57]
Feb 21: Begin Lord of the Rings
| Mon Feb 21 | LOTR, Prologue | Concerning Hobbits, and other matters | |
| Tue Feb 22 | FR I-1 & I-2 | A Long-expected Party & The Shadow of the Past | |
| Wed Feb 23 | FR I-3 & I-4 | Three is Company & A Short Cut to Mushrooms | |
| Thu Feb 24 | FR I-5 & I-6 | A Conspiracy Unmasked & The Old Forest | |
| Fri Feb 25 | FR I-7 & I-8 | The House of Tom Bombadil & Fog on the Barrow-Downs | |
| Sat Feb 26 | FR I-9 & I-10 | At the Sign of The Prancing Pony & Strider | |
| Sun Feb 27 | FR I-11 & I-12 | A Knife in the Dark & Flight to the Ford | |
| Mon Feb 28 | FR II-1 | Many Meetings |
March 2021: Lenten Lord of the Rings cont.
Letters: 1843-44 [LT-II, 1-2]
| Tue Mar 1 | FR II-2 | The Council of Elrond | |
| Wed Mar 2 Ash Wednesday | FR II-3 | The Ring Goes South | |
| Thu Mar 3 | FR II-4 | A Journey in the Dark | |
| Fri Mar 4 | FR II-5 | The Bridge of Khazad-dum | |
| Sat Mar 5 | FR II-6 | Lothlórien | |
| Sun Mar 6 | FR II-7 | The Mirror of Galadriel | |
| Mon Mar 7 | FR II-8 | Farewell to Lórien | |
| Tue Mar 8 | FR II-9 | The Great River | |
| Wed Mar 9 | FR II-10 | The Breaking of the Fellowship | |
| Thu Mar 10 | TT III-1 | The Departure of Boromir | |
| Fri Mar 11 | TT III-2 | The Riders of Rohan | |
| Sat Mar 12 | TT III-3 | The Uruk-hai | |
| Sun Mar 13 | “On Fairy-stories” | ||
| Mon Mar 14 | TT III-4 | Treebeard | |
| Tue Mar 15 | TT III-5 | The Whire Rider | |
| Wed Mar 16 | TT III-6 | The King of the Golden Hall | |
| Thu Mar 17 | TT III-7 | Helm’s Deep | |
| Fri Mar 18 | TT III-8 | The Road to Isengard | |
| Sat Mar 19 | TT III-9 | Flotsam and Jetsam | |
| Sun Mar 20 | “The Book of Jonah” | ||
| Mon Mar 21 | TT III-10 | The Voice of Saruman | |
| Tue Mar 22 | TT III-11 | The Palantír | |
| Wed Mar 23 | TT IV-1 | The Taming of Sméagol | |
| Thu Mar 24 | TT IV-2 | The Passage of the Marches | |
| Fri Mar 25 | TT IV-3 | The Black Gate is Closed | |
| Sat Mar 26 | TT IV-4 | Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit | |
| Sun Mar 27 | TT IV-5 | The Window on the Wes | |
| Mon Mar 28 | TT IV-6 | The Forbidden Pool | |
| Tue Mar 29 | TT IV-7 | The Journey to the Crossroad | |
| Wed Mar 30 | TT IV-8 | The Stairs of Cirith Ungol | |
| Thu Mar 31 | TT IV-9 | Shelob’s Lair |
April 2021: Concluding Lord of the Rings & Beginning Oliver Twist
Letters: 1845-47 [LT-II, 3-5]
| Fri Apr 1 | TT IV-10 | The Choices of Master Samwise | ||
| Sat Apr 2 | RK V-1 | Minas Tirith | ||
| Sun Apr 3 | “Ainulindalë” | |||
| Mon Apr 4 | RK V-2 | The Passing of the Grey Company | ||
| Tue Apr 5 | RK V-3 | The Muster of Rohan | ||
| Wed Apr 6 | RK V-4 | The Siege of Gondor | ||
| Thu Apr 7 | RK V-5 | The Ride of the Rohirrim | ||
| Fri Apr 8 | RK V-6 | The Battle of the Pelennor Fields | ||
| Sat Apr 9 | RK V-7 | The Pyre of Denethor | ||
| Sun Apr 10 Palm Sunday | RK V-8 | The Houses of Healing | ||
| Mon Apr 11 | RK V-9 | The Last Debate | ||
| Tue Apr 12 | RK V-10 | The Black Gate Opens | ||
| Wed Apr 13 | RK VI-1 | The Tower of Cirith Ungol | ||
| Thu Apr 14 Holy Thursday | RK VI-2 | The Land of Shadow | ||
| Fri Apr 15 Good Friday | RK VI-3 | Mount Doom | ||
| Sat Apr 16 Holy Saturday | No Reading – Reflection | |||
| Sun Apr 17 Easter Sunday | RK VI-4 | The Field of Cormallen | ||
| Mon Apr 18 | RK VI-5 | The Steward and the King | ||
| Tue Apr 19 | RK VI-6 | Many Partings | ||
| Wed Apr 20 | RK VI-7 | Homeward Bound | ||
| Thu Apr 21 | RK VI-8 | The Scouring of the Shire | ||
| Fri Apr 22 | RK VI-9 | The Grey Havens |
Apr 24-30: Oliver Twist [OT 1-7]
May 2022: Oliver Twist
Letters: 1848-50 [LT-II, 6-8]
May 1-31: Oliver Twist [OT 8-38]
June 2022: Oliver Twist; David Copperfield
Letters: 1851 [LT-II, 9]
June 1-15: Oliver Twist [OT 39-53]
June 19-30: David Copperfield [DC 1-12]
July 2022: David Copperfield
Letters: 1852 [LT-II, 10]
July 1-31: David Copperfield [DC 13-43]
August 2021: Finishing Copperfield; A Tale of Two Cities
Letters: 1853 [LT-II, 11]
August 1-21: David Copperfield [DC 44-64]
August 28-31: A Tale of Two Cities [TC 1-4]
September 2022: A Tale of Two Cities
Letters: 1854 [LT-II, 12]
September 1-30: A Tale of Two Cities [TC 5-34]
October 2022: A Tale of Two Cities; Great Expectations
Letters: 1855 [LT-II, 13]
October 1-11: A Tale of Two Cities [TC 35-45]
October 16-31: Great Expectations [GE 1-16]
November 2022: Great Expectations
Letters: 1856 [LT-II, 14]
November 1-30: Great Expectations [GE 17-46]
December 2022: Great Expectations; A Christmas Carol
December 1-13: Great Expectations [GE 47-59]
December 18-22: A Christmas Carol [CC 1-5]
In Your Embrace 