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Quote by Charles Dickens

“The meagre lighthouse all in white, haunting the seaboard, as if it were the ghost of an edifice that had once had colour and rotundity, dripped melancholy tears after its late buffeting by the waves.”

Book:LITTLE DORRIT

Work

LITTLE DORRIT

Charles Dickens' 'Little Dorrit' is a complex narrative that explores themes of social class, family loyalty, and the human spirit. The story follows Amy Dorrit, a young woman who spends her formative years in the Marshalsea prison with her family, who are there due to financial debts. The novel delves into the lives of various characters, including Amy's brother Arthur, who is mistakenly believed to be a criminal, and her friend, the artist Merdle. Through these characters, Dickens critiques the British legal system and societal norms of his time. more

Author

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens, a British writer born on February 7, 1812, and died on June 9, 1870, is one of the greatest novelists of the 19th century. Known for his profound social criticism and vivid narrative style, Dickens' works extensively cover social reality, revealing various issues in the British society of the time. more

“Blackened skeleton arms of wood by the wayside pointed upward to the convent, as if the ghosts of former travellers, overwhelmed by the snow, haunted the scene of their distress. Icicle-hung caves and cellars built for refuges from sudden storms, were like so many whispers of the perils of the place; never-resting wreaths and mazes of mist wandered about, hunted by a moaning wind; and snow, the besetting danger of the mountain, against which all its defences were taken, drifted sharply down.”

Source: The Complete Works of Charles Dickens: Little Dorrit

“An aria in an opera - Handel's 'Ombra mai fu,' for example - gets along with an incredibly small number of words and ideas and a large amount of variation and repetition. That's the beauty of it. It's not taxing to the listener's intelligence because if you haven't heard it the first time round, it'll come around again.”

Ifs Firsts Ideas Numbers Heard Havens Example Amount First Time Rounds Opera Listeners Repetition Variation Small Numbers Aria Handel

Author:James Fenton

“The weathercocks on spires and housetops were mysterious with hints of stormy wind, and pointed, like so many ghostly fingers, out to dangerous seas, where fragments of great wrecks were drifting, perhaps, and helpless men were rocked upon them into a sleep as deep as the unfathomable waters.”

Men Water Sleep Sea Dangerous Wind Fingers Mysterious Helpless Fragments Hints Wrecks Drifting Stormy Unfathomable Spires

Book:Charles Dickens's works. Charles Dickens ed. [18 vols. of a 21 vol. set. Wanting A child's history of England; Christmas stories; The mystery of Edwin Drood].

Source: Charles Dickens's works. Charles Dickens ed. [18 vols. of a 21 vol. set. Wanting A child's history of England; Christmas stories; The mystery of Edwin Drood].

“I am at the moment deaf in the ears, hoarse in the throat, red in the nose, green in the gills, damp in the eyes, twitchy in the joints and fractious in temper from a most intolerable and oppressive cold.”

Moments Eye Health Cold Red Ears Green Noses Throat Temper Deaf Joints Damp

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)

“The flowers that sleep by night, opened their gentle eyes and turned them to the day. The light, creation's mind, was everywhere, and all things owned its power.”

Mind Light Eye Night Nature Sleep Creation Flower All Things Gentle

Book:The Old Curiosity Shop: And Reprinted Pieces

Source: The Old Curiosity Shop: And Reprinted Pieces

“The town was glad with morning light; places that had shown ugly and distrustful all night long, now wore a smile; and sparkling sunbeams dancing on chamber windows, and twinkling through blind and curtain before sleepers’ eyes, shed light even into dreams, and chased away the shadows of the night.”

Source: The Complete Novels of Charles Dickens: 20 Illustrated Classics in One Volume: Oliver Twist, The Pickwick Papers, Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, David Copperfield…

“[I]t seemed as if the streets were absorbed by the sky, and the night were all in the air.”

Ifs Night Air Sky Streets

Book:Our Mutual Friend

Source: Our Mutual Friend

“The clouds were drifting over the moon at their giddiest speed, at one time wholly obscuring her, at another, suffering her to burst forth in full splendor and shed her light on all the objects around; anon, driving over her again, with increased velocity, and shrouding everything in darkness.”

Light Suffering Nature Darkness Objects Moon Clouds Speed Driving One Time Shed Splendor Drifting Velocity Anon

Book:Works

Source: Works

“It was very dark; but in the murky sky there were masses of cloud which shone with a lurid light, like monstrous heaps of copper that had been heated in a furnace, and were growing cold.”

Light Dark Growing Sky Cold Mass Clouds Monstrous Furnaces Copper

Book:A Cyclopedia of the Best Thoughts of Charles Dickens

Source: A Cyclopedia of the Best Thoughts of Charles Dickens