The Treasure of Classic English Literature

1. The Treasury of Classic
English Literature
by Dr. Peter Hammond

3. English Literature is Being Hijacked
and Deconstructed on Campus
Like every other aspect of western civilisation,
English literature is under relentless assault today.

4. In all too many universities, “English professors”
seem to be teaching almost anything and everything except
classic English literature!

5. Many who have enrolled in English classes at university have
found themselves studying Marxist political and economic theory,

6. an “investigation of pornography through the ages”,

7. the gender theories of Freud, Latin culture, feminist theories,

8. deconstructionism, lesbianism, misogyny,

9. tirades against racism, sexism, colonialism, homophobia and a
bewildering array of other radical post-modern political agendas.

10. This had led to an increasing public demand for
shallow, superficial, sensational, vile,
violent, debased and disgusting content.

11. Under Attack
Many “politically correct” professors in English departments so
despise and fear the western civilisation that those enrolling to
learn more of English literature

12. are more likely to find themselves assailed with bankrupt
ideologies than to be exposed to some of the greatest
literature in western civilisation.

13. Back to the Sources
Instead of subjecting oneself to anti-Christian indoctrination in
so-called “English” departments of secular universities, students
would immeasurably enrich their experience and their education
by going directly to the works of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen,

14. John Milton, William Shakespeare, John Bunyan,
Geoffrey Chaucer, George Orwell, C.S. Lewis
and other greats of English literature.

15. A study of the
great classics of
English literature
is absolutely essential
for a true education.

16. The English classics have played
a key role in teaching individual
virtue and for laying foundations
for western civilisation.

17. Character Shaping
Reading the works of William Shakespeare, John Milton,
John Bunyan, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens helps us
exercise our minds and enrich our experiences.

18. Great Christian literature enables us to recognise truths,
appreciate beauty and admire what is virtuous.

19. The literary classics include
drama
that purges our minds,
with breath-taking intensity,
heart-breaking pathos
and poetry
that makes us
hunger and thirst
after virtue and courage.

20. Good literature enables us
to recognise what is
truly beautiful
and honourable.

21. It helps shape our character by teaching us to despise
what is dishonourable,

22. to love what is noble and to aspire to higher standards
in our own lives.

23. Foundational in Education
In his 1950 Nobel Literature Award acceptance speech, William
Faulkner described the primary duty of authors to remind men “of
the courage and honour and hope and pride and compassion
and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of our past.”

24. The study of great works of literature has always been considered
foundational in education.

25. The Value of
English
Literature
English literature teaches
appreciation for
military valour,
chastity and integrity.
Self-criticism
and the Christian Faith
are at the heart of
English literature.

26. Beauty and ugliness
in our characters
are exposed,
along with the capacities,
for good and evil,
of the human mind
and heart.
Skill is admired,
achievement is extolled,
the disastrous
consequences
of laziness,
cowardice
and foolish choices
are exposed.

27. There are an infinite variety of wonderful life-transforming lessons
to be learnt from English literature.

28. William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare’s plays have universal appeal because of
his intuitive understanding of human nature. Shakespeare’s plays
reflect the world as it is.

29. Shakespeare evidences a comprehensive, accurate and deep
perception of the nature of things, especially of human nature.

30. Insightful
Shakespeare’s plays are delightful, breath-taking, real and
natural. He gives us characters who show us more about what
human beings really are.

31. When you see a Shakespeare play, you recognise the characters,
you know them from your own experience, although his insights
enable us to understand these characters better than ever before.

32. Hamlet
Hamlet is much more than a depressed and confused young man.
He is self-conscious, sensitive to the moral failings of his elders,
keenly aware of the implications of everyone’s actions, but
tragically unwilling to shoulder responsibility and to gain control
over events.

33. Richard III
Richard III is a wicked king who resents other people’s happiness
and plots to ruin them for his own advantage. He is an outrageous
villain whose schemes succeed for a time, but then unravel
completely.

34. Defining the Issues
Shakespeare’s plays enable us to understand human nature,
human history and the things that human beings think about, in a
clearer way than any other playwright has succeeded in doing.

35. Shakespeare’s characters look at things from many different
angles. They do not merely consider the issues, they define them.
His plays are full of famous speeches which focus on the heart of
an issue.

36. Death
Each play seems to explore
a major issue.
For example,
Hamlet considers death
from every angle.
Why we long for death.
Why we fear it.
What it does to our bodies.
What it does to our souls.
What we know about death.
It is a mystery.

37. The many ways that there are to die.
The many reasons for dying.

38. Hamlet includes a girl who goes insane and kills herself; a rash
young man who throws his life away in a duel over his sister’s
honour;

39. a scheming courtier who is killed as he eavesdrops;

40. college friends who betray their schoolmate and conspire
to kill him, only to fall into their own trap;

41. a fratricide who is racked by guilt but cannot bring himself to give
up his brother’s wife and his brother’s kingdom.

42. Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” speech
and numerous poisonings, both purposeful and by accident,
are also included in this extraordinary play.

43. Success
Henry V considers every aspect of kingship and success. “Small
time, but in that small most greatly lived this star of England:
fortune made his sword; by which the world’s best garden he
achieved…”

44. What is a king? What are the qualities that make for greatness?
How many parts generosity, courage, leadership and humility?
How many parts ruthlessness? What are the costs?
Are not even the heaviest costs worth these great achievements?

45. Wealth
The Merchant of Venice
concerns wealth.
Every person and incident in
the play seems to have
something to do with money.
Antonio, a merchant who
has grown rich by
risky ventures in trade.

46. Shylock, a Jew who lives by lending money at interest
and hoards coins and jewels at home.
Shylock’s daughter, who elopes, taking large amounts
of his wealth with her, wasting it like a prodigal.

47. There are two marriages which are made, at least partly, for
money. Portia, an heiress whose father’s will specifies that she be
awarded to the man who guesses rightly among three treasure
chests.

48. Bassanio, a charming young man with large debts,
promising, handsome, spendthrift, disingenuous, careless,
who dares to ask his friend (from whom he has already borrowed
money he cannot pay back),
for a large and very risky loan.

49. There’s a lawsuit over a defaulted loan in which the moneylender
claims the right to cut a pound of flesh from the merchant’s chest.
The play includes much poetry concerning wealth and treasure:
where it comes from, where it goes and what it means to men and
women and to their relationships.

50. Understanding Human Experience
Such themes are the bones and muscles underneath the
surface of the drama in Shakespeare’s plays.
Shakespeare was an expert in the common fundamental
laws of human nature and he plainly drew his plays from
the actual structure of human experience.

51. Shakespeare prods and pokes at reality. He throws characters,
events and ideas together and makes them combine in every
possible way. He shows how ambition tends to work differently in
men and women.

52. He exposes the ugliness of human greed, lust, violence, envy and
betrayal. (Whereas today such things are glamorised and
popularised)

53. Macbeth
Macbeth exposes what unbridled selfish ambition can do to
human beings. Macbeth becomes a progressively more paranoid
and isolated murderer.

54. Lady Macbeth, who is all
strength, confidence and
resolve while she is
provoking Macbeth to
commit the initial murder,

55. cracks under the weight
of the responsibility once
the deed is done.
The tyrant’s crimes set in
motion destructive forces
that will ultimately
overwhelm him or her.

56. Jealousy
Othello is focused on lust and jealousy. Othello’s ensign, Lago,
envious of Othello’s Lieutenant Cassio deceives Othello into
murdering his faithful wife, Desdemona, by persuading Othello
that she has been unfaithful with Cassio.

57. The play revolves around the
nature and effects of jealousy
“the green eyed monster
which doth consume the meat
it feeds on.”

58. It also was seen as a clear warning against marrying
temperamental men of other races.

59. King Lear
King Lear is a profound play
set in the remote past of
pre-Christian Britain.
King Lear abdicated his
kingdom in favour of his two
daughters, Goneril and Regan,
who feed his appetite for
affection with extravagant and
insincere speeches.

60. When they turn on him and reduce him to being a homeless
wanderer in the wind and rain, he finds support from his third
daughter, Cordelia, whom he had disinherited because of her
failure to flatter like her treacherous sisters.

61. The tragedy of King Lear centres on being deceived by insincerity
and the failure of the most basic natural relationship between
parent and child.

63. Choices for Chastity
Shakespeare’s tragedies show that some choices are inherently
destructive. It is no wonder that Shakespeare is so shunned and
slandered by many liberal professors.

64. Shakespeare repeatedly exposes the wickedness of fornication
and adultery, the importance of pre-marital virginity, the shame of
unfaithfulness and the foundational importance of Christian
marriage and obeying the Laws of God.

65. John Milton
One of the greatest English poets, John Milton, was a dedicated
Evangelical Christian. Milton was one of the most learned writers
of literature. He studied for seven years at Cambridge University
and then completed six years of postgraduate studies, becoming
fluent in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Italian.

66. He knew all the great literature in each of those languages and
studied Philosophy, Theology, Maths, Music, History and Science.
He travelled throughout Europe and met many of the great minds
of his time.

67. During the English Civil War, Milton was a leader of
the Puritan Forces fighting for Parliament.

68. John Milton served as Secretary for Foreign Tongues under
General Oliver Cromwell.

69. Temptation
John Milton wrote Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. To
Milton, the most important events of history were the events of the
Bible. The central drama of human life is temptation. The highest
form of heroism is patient resistance to temptation.

70. Comus, a play written by Milton centres around the temptation of
“The Lady”, a 15-year-old daughter of an Earl. Comus exalts
temperance and chastity as essential for our safety and
happiness. We fall by giving in to temptation, but we rise by
resisting it.

71. Personal Heroism
Despite personal tragedy in his own life, losing his sight by his
mid-forties and being publically disgraced and impoverished
by the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II,
Milton epitomised the heroic ideal by patient endurance
of affliction and unjust abuse. As he wrote:
“Who best bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best…”

72. Paradise Lost
The opening lines of Paradise Lost declare:
“Of man’s first disobedience and the fruit
of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
brought death into the world and all our woe,
with loss of Eden, till one greater Man
restore us and regain the blissful state…”

73. The Degrading
Doom of
Disobedience
Milton’s works show how
obedience to God can be heroic
and liberating. He exposes the
ultimate folly of giving in to
temptation. Milton shows that
disobedience which begins
by looking so attractive,
is ultimately selfish, squalid,
degrading, defiling,
destructive and doomed.

74. Paradise Regained
Just as in Paradise Lost where he focused on the Fall of Adam
and Eve, in Paradise Regained Milton focuses on Christ’s victory
over temptation in the desert and His triumph over sin, satan,
death, hell and the grave.

75. Freedom of Expression
Even when a key leader of the victorious parliamentary forces,
John Milton championed the freedom of the press. It is a fact of
history that freedom of speech and freedom of the press were not
invented by the Enlightenment rationalists, but rather by the
Puritan Christians of the English Protectorate.

76. Freedom of Speech
Milton argued for a wide liberty to publish opinions, even
erroneous ones! When the Puritan Parliament was triumphant
over all its enemies, John Milton addressed the Members of the
House to urge them to decide for free speech: “in the midst of
your victories and successes.”

77. To Milton truth is so important that we cannot afford to miss the
opportunity to learn from some piece of it that may never see the
light of day under the restrictions of government censorship.

78. Truth does Not Fear Investigation
Anyone who thinks that the work of Reformation is complete,
betrays that he is still very short of the whole truth. Censorship
hinders the work of truth seekers.

79. Milton explained that
it is our duty to sift through
different opinions,
to test them,
to find what is right.
“All opinions, yea errors,
learned, read and collated,
are of main service
and assistance
toward the
speedy attainment
of what is truest.”

80. Even “bad books” may be useful to the truth seeker,
to the “discreet and judicious reader.”
Milton taught that even errors can be used to “confute,
to forewarn and to illustrate.”

81. A Champion for Freedom of Conscience
We live in a world where good and evil “grow up together almost
inseparably” because God wants human beings to be free. “For
God sure esteems the growth and completing of one virtuous
person more than the restraint of ten vicious.”

82. As a champion
of freedom of speech,
freedom of religion,
freedom of worship,
freedom of conscience and
freedom of the press and
as an unparalleled poet,
John Milton and his epics
Paradise Lost
and Paradise Regained,
testify against
the danger of societies
exiling religious Truth
from the public
market place of ideas.

83. Jane Austen
Jane Austen is widely recognised as one of the greatest English
writers of all time. No other writer is so often compared to
Shakespeare.

84. Jane Austen has been described as: “The most perfect artist
among women, the writer whose books are immortal” and “the
greatest female writer in English.”

85. Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817)

86. Jane was the seventh of eight children.

89. Her father Rev. George Austen,
was an Anglican pastor at Steventon and nearby Deane.

90. The first 25 years of Jane’s life were spent in the Manse of
Steventon, with her six brothers and sister, Cassandra. As their
home also was the local parish school, she was brought up in a
crowded, busy home with lots of distractions.

91. Productivity Amidst Much Distraction
However, her father, recognising her skill in writing, gave her a
portable wooden desk which could open up and serve as her
portable office, containing drawers and compartments for writing
materials and manuscripts.

92. Wherever Jane went, this portable writing station went with her. In
1801, the Austen family moved to Bath. After her father’s death in
1805, his widow and daughters moved back to Hampshire.

93. Creative Trend Setter
Her first published book was Sense and Sensibility (1811), which
was followed by Pride and Prejudice (initially named First
Impressions) published in 1813.

94. This was followed by Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816).
Two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were
both published posthumously in 1818.

95. Her use of biting irony, realism, humour and social commentary
have earned her great acclaim amongst critics, scholars and
popular audiences alike.

96. Love Stories from a Broken Heart
Jane Austen was recovering from a broken heart when she wrote
the original draft of her book Pride and Prejudice. Her suitor could
not afford to marry her and he moved away. She never found a
love to match her first love and therefore never married.

97. A Literary Genius
Jane Austen spent
her whole life
financially dependent
on her father
and six brothers,
sharing a room with her
sister Cassandra and
writing her novels in the
general sitting room,
subject to every kind
of interruption…

98. Jane Austen was a genius whose novels present some
of the most insightful commentaries on society and the
most extraordinary understanding of human character.

99. A Feminist’s
Nightmare
It is understandable why
many “politically correct” radicals
would want to distort, or ignore,
Jane Austen’s literary contributions,
because Jane Austen is so
obviously a conservative Christian
whose novels celebrate marriage
and patriarchal society.

100. The opening line of
Pride and Prejudice
is an easily recognisable
and famous quote:
“It is a truth universally
acknowledged,
that a single man
in possession of
a good fortune must
be in want of a wife.”

102. Dereliction of Duty
Jane Austen’s novels encourage men to take charge. The male
tendency to not take responsibility, to keep their options open and
not to get involved, is what makes young men so dangerous.

103. The villains in Jane Austen’s novels are generally the men who
don’t stick around. The male tendency to avoid, or weasel out of,
commitment creates havoc. Desertion from duty leads to disaster.

104. Psychology and Sin
Jane Austen recognises the stubborn realities of male and female
psychology. She takes her religion very seriously and finds it
completely natural that men and women should occupy gender
specific roles. She accepted that human misery is caused, not by
traditional societal rules and structures, but by individual sin and
dereliction of duty.

105. Identifying the Root Issues
Flying in the face of politically correct feminist rhetoric and
egalitarian dogma, Jane Austen’s novels portray the failure of
female self-control on one hand and male abdication of their
proper responsibilities on the other, as among the chief causes of
people’s unhappiness.

106. Her novels celebrate old-fashioned marriage, in which a woman
can expect to be guided and protected by her husband and to be
responsible for the management of a household and the nurture of
her children as her most intense sources of fulfillment.

108. Humour and Hypocrisy
Jane Austen happily pokes fun at every kind of superficiality,
pretence and hypocrisy.

109. Her novels are full of women
who are too free
with their tongues,
such as the
embarrassing vulgar
Mrs Bennet in
Pride and Prejudice.
Mrs Bennet’s gossip about
her eldest daughter’s success
with the rich young man
determines that man’s friend
to get his friend out of the
neighbourhood and break
her daughter’s heart.

110. Selfish Stupidity
Numerous female characters’ habits of selfish whining make their
families miserable and cause untold suffering. Lydia Bennet in
Pride and Prejudice so violates accepted social customs and good
sense, that she ends up dependent on relatives and friends
needing to bribe her seducer to marry her.

111. Arrogance on Display
Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice is a rich widow
clearly spoiled by too much money. “Elizabeth found that nothing
was beneath this great lady’s attention, which could furnish her
with an occasion for dictating to others.”

112. Emma – The Matchmaker and Manipulator
Emma Woodhouse, although “handsome, clever and rich” and
only 21 years old, is spoiled, not only because of money and good
looks, but because her “affectionate, indulgent” father is a
hypochondriac who does not have the energy to give her the
guidance and direction she so clearly needs.

113. Emma is in some danger of ending up as an interfering, bossy old
dragon, like Lady Catherine de Bourgh, as she amuses herself
with matchmaking.

114. Because Emma is blessed with
more than most young woman
could possibly want,
(more intelligence,
more freedom, more money,
more good looks and without
the needed constraints from her
parents), she is always used
to getting her own way and
mercilessly interferes in other
people’s lives.

115. Emma chooses to adopt Harriet Smith to manipulate, rather than
Jane Fairfax, who is of Emma’s own class, because Jane is just
as intelligent as Emma and much more accomplished.

116. Jane reminds Emma of her own few faults, whereas Harriet gives
Emma endless opportunity to indulge herself in condescension
and advice and to bask in Harriet’s uncritical gratitude.

117. Emma falls to the temptation to enjoy Harriet’s blind flattery rather
than make the effort to live up to a real friendship with a girl who is
her equal. Laziness and pride almost destroy Emma.

118. Spoiled Males
There are many spoiled
men in Jane Austen’s
novels too.
These men are not the
feminist villains of those
who attempt to dominate
women.
Jane Austen’s male
villains are those who
shirk their responsibilities,
do not involve themselves
and fail to take charge.

119. Mr Elton humiliates
Harriet Smith in public
in order to please
his vulgar new bride.

120. John Dashwood allows his selfish wife to persuade him to break
his promise to his dying father to take care of his sisters.

121. Mr Bennet, in Pride and Prejudice, fails to be an effective father,
retreating into his library and his sardonic sense of humour,
to escape his ridiculous interfering wife
and the daughters he lets run wild.

122. Mr Woodhouse is so weak that it does not even occur to him that
he has a duty to guide his daughter, Emma.

123. Weak Males
Sir Thomas Bertram,
of Mansfield Park,
is a strict parent,
but he fails to adequately
interfere to the extent of teaching
his daughters
“the necessity of self-denial
and humility.” Most seriously,
he allows his daughter, Maria,
to marry a worthless man whom
he knows does not love her,
just because he is reluctant to
scrutinize her motives
too closely.

124. Flirtatious Males
Jane Austen exposes
the tendency of men to fail to take
responsibility and in each of her
novels there’s at least one man
who pays a woman the kind
of attention that he should not,
unless his intentions were serious,
which in these cases,
they were not.

125. Traditional Family Values
In Sense and Sensibility, Marianne Dashwood, seriously hurt by
her experience with passionate Rousseauian naturalism finds
refuge in religious principles, conventional standards and
traditional family values. She marries “with no sentiment superior
to strong esteem and lively friendship” settling for much less than
she had once hoped for.

126. However, having seen where her blindness to the cold, hard facts
of human nature had almost taken her, she recognises how much
worse it could have been. Such as in the case of the already
seduced, pregnant and abandoned other girl who was in love with
her almost lover.

127. Jane died in Winchester, aged just 42, after a yearlong debilitating
illness and was buried in Winchester Cathedral.

134. Resistance to Immorality
The Victorian reaction to the excesses of Romanticism were also
seen in the writings of Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning,
Matthew Arnold, George Meredith, Gerard Hopkins,
the Bronte sisters, George Eliot and Charles Dickens.

135. Charles Dickens

136. Charles Dickens (7 February 1812 - 9 June 1870)
was one of the greatest Novelists of the Victorian era.

137. Charles Dickens was born 7 February 1812 at Landport, Portsea
Island, Portsmouth, the second of eight children of John and
Elizabeth Dickens, his father worked for the Royal Navy as a pay
clerk.

138. One of his favourite books as a
young boy was Robinson Crusoe.
Charles experienced a few years
of private education,
including at a school run by a
dissenter, William Giles,
in Catham.

139. Debtors Prison
Mounting debts and living beyond his means, led John Dickens
into Marshalsea Debtors Prison in Southwark, London, in 1824.
Charles was then just 12-years old and was forced to work in a
“Blacking” (shoe polish) factory, to help support the family.

140. Journalist
At age 21, Dickens
began working as
a parliamentary reporter.
He submitted short stories
and articles to local
papers and magazines,
travelled across Britain
to cover
election campaigns for
the Morning Chronicle
and became
a Court reporter.

141. In 1836, Dickens became editor of Bentley’s Miscellany.

142. Pioneer of Serialised Cliffhangers
Dickens’ was a pioneer of serialised fiction incorporating
accessible, affordable, series of regular cliff-hangers, making the
next new episode widely anticipated

143. with reports of American fans waiting at the docks at New York
harbour, shouting out to the crew of incoming British ships for
details of the next episode in a Dickens novel!

144. Charles Dickens was a crusading social reformer

145. against the debtors prison, the workhouse and other
abuses in Victorian society. However, as an astute
observer of human nature,

146. Charles Dickens exposes the faults typical of liberal thinking as well.

147. Unintended
Consequences
Charles Dickens’ novels illustrate
the unintended consequences
of liberal actions.
Every set of choices set in motion
a complex chain of events that
no one could have foreseen,
let alone control.
Good and evil deeds have
long shadows.

148. Actions Have
Consequences
The ultimate effects of our actions
are determined more by the
intrinsic character of the acts
themselves than by
our motivation at the time.

149. Deeds of greed and cruelty have
devastating consequences.
The end does not justify
the means.
It is never right to do evil
that good may come of it.

150. Hard Times
In his “Hard Times,” novel
Dickens not only depicts the
conditions of factory workers,
but exposes the
destructiveness of the
radical modern experiments
in education as well.

151. Bleak House
In Dickens’
“Bleak House,”
Mrs Jellyby loves
the Africans so much
that she neglects
her own family,
even persecuting
her own children
in pursuit of her high and
compassionate ideals
for strangers.

152. Her children become casualties of the Revolutionary era, in which
large projects for the betterment of the human race, crowd out
traditional individual responsibilities and absolute moral standards.

153. Oliver Twist
When Oliver Twist was published in 1839, young Queen Victoria
read it, staying up until midnight to discuss it. As with most of his
later books, Oliver Twist was first published in monthly instalments
in a newspaper, before being published as a complete book.

154. Social
Reformer
Dickens
first successful Novel,
Oliver Twist (1839),
shocked readers with its
images and insights of crime,
poverty and
the criminal underclass
of industrialised London.

155. His novels have been
accredited with literally
changing public opinion
on a vast amount of
social issues.
Some asserted that
Dickens communicated
more political and social
truths than all the
politicians, publicists and
moralists combined.

156. Oliver Twist was first published as a
monthly series
from 1837 to 1839 and
then published as a book.

157. The story centres on orphan Oliver Twist, born in a workshop, sold
into apprenticeship with an undertaker. Oliver’s mother, Agnus,
died in childbirth. His father was mysteriously absent.

158. Oliver spent the first 9 years
of his life in the “care” of a
Mrs. Mann, with little food
and few comforts. Oliver
was removed by Mr Bumble
and sent to the Workhouse.

159. Exposing the Abuse of Children
Oliver Twist exposed the cruel treatment of many orphans, in
London, in the mid-19th century Industrial Revolution. His
alternative title, The Parish Boy’s Progress, alludes to Bunyan’s,
The Pilgrim’s Progress.

160. Charles Dickens exposed the abuses of his time: child labour,
the recruitment and abuse of children as criminals,

161. the presence of street children and the nefarious activities of
gangsters who exploited them.

162. Fagin
Oliver escapes and travels to London where he meets the Artful
Dodger, a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the
criminal Fagin

163. Fagin
In popular culture, Fagin is now used as a term for adults who
abuse children for illegal activities.

164. Fagin is a miser who, despite the wealth he has accumulated,

165. does nothing to improve the squalled lives of the children
he abuses and exploits. He beats the Artful Dodger
for failing to bring Oliver back when he was arrested.

166. Fagin indirectly, but intentionally, causes the death of Nancy,
by falsely informing Sikes that she had betrayed him.
Whereas in reality, she had actually shielded Sikes from the law.

167. As a result
of Fagin’s scheme,
Sikes kills Nancy.

168. The Jewish Connection
When Dickens was
accused of antisemitism,
for identifying Fagin as a
Jew, Dickens wrote,
that, as a Court Reporter,
he had extensive
knowledge of London’s
street life and “it
unfortunately is true, that
class of criminals, almost
invariably, is a Jew.”

169. In fact, the Fagin character was based on a specific notorious
Jewish criminal of the era, Ikey Solomon. Pressure from Jewish
bankers required the deletion of over 180 instances of “Jew” from
the text of Oliver Twist for later editions.

170. Nancy
Nancy is a victim of domestic violence and psychological abuse at
the hands of Bill Sikes, who ultimately murders her. Nancy was
recruited, indoctrinated, groomed and trained by Fagin since
childhood.

171. Yet she comes to
repent of her role
in the kidnapping
of Oliver Twist
and takes steps
to try to atone
for her part in the crime.

172. Nancy redeems herself at the cost of her own life and dies in a
prayerful pose.

173. Dickens received
considerable criticism for
depicting “a woman of the
street,” so sympathetically.

174. Again, Dickens referred to actual case studies and individuals

175. which he had encountered as a court reporter, which were an
inspiration for the novel.

178. Great Expectations
is a masterpiece
by one of the world’s
greatest storytellers.
Charles Dickens
had already written
12 successful novels
before Great Expectations.

179. Great Expectations exceeds the promise of its title. It includes a
convoluted, but thrilling, story line, unforgettable characters, heart
wrenching scenarios and tremendous insights.

180. Rejected Love
Pip, a poor orphan, encounters and assists an escaped convict,
Magwitch.

181. Some years later he is informed by a lawyer that he has
great expectations because a mysterious benefactor
will provide for him to become a gentleman.

182. Pip assumes that the eccentric
Miss Havisham is his sponsor and
that he is being groomed to marry
Estella, Miss Havisham’s beautiful
adopted daughter, whom he has
been regularly called to play with.

183. As Pip abandons his humble
origins to begin a promising
new life in London, he falls in
love with Estella, who treats
him with callous indifference.

184. Deception
However, nothing is quite
as it seems and
when a strange visitor
reveals the true identity
of his benefactor,
Pip is horrified.
Now his real education,
through adversity,
leads him to the true nature
of his great expectations.

186. Dickens’ story of the spirit of
Christmas past, present and
future, has been dramatized on
stage and film dozens of times
and it never seems to lose its
impact.
Charles Dickens wrote
A Christmas Carol
in just 2 months.

187. Contrasts at Christmas
The miserly Ebenezer Scrooge has wealth, but little joy in life.
This is in contrast to the Cratchit family, who are poor in the things
of this world, but rich in family love, spirit and in meaning and
purpose.

188. Selfishness Confronted
On Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of
his business partner, Jacob Marley, in chains.

189. Marley warns Scrooge that to help
him avoid the same fate,
three spirits are going to appear to
him that night.
The ghost of Christmas Past,
the ghost of Christmas Present
and the ghost of Christmas
yet to come.

190. Scrooge was offered a chance
to change his wicked ways.
Will he experience
Redemption?

191. This novel by Charles Dickens was brought to the screen as
“The Man who Invented Christmas.”

192. Bleak House is
a searing indictment
of the convoluted legal profession
in industrial Britain,
although it seems even more
relevant and applicable today.

193. Based on actual legal
precedents,
Jarndyce and Jarndyce,
a long-running legal case is
at the centre of Bleak House.
This novel helped support a
Judicial Reform Movement,
which culminated in the
enactment of Legal Reform
in the 1870’s.

194. Victimised
by Lawyers
There are three main
stories interwoven
in Dickens style
with characteristic warmth
and humour.

195. The first is the case
where young
Richard Cartstone,
who is a ward of
benefactor John
Jarndyce,
but is exploited
by ruthless predators
and hopelessly trapped
in a convoluted,
apparently endless
and ruinous court case,
Richard descends into
poverty and ill-health.

196. Murder Mystery
The virtuous Esther Summerson, another Jarndyce ward, is
pivotal to the second strand of the story. She apparently has some
link to the aristocratic Lady Dedlock, whose sinister lawyer
Tulkinghorn, senses a secret which he tries to uncover.

197. There is also a murder, which is doggedly investigated by
Inspector Bucket. This is arguable the first murder mystery in
English literature.

198. Unique Narrative Structure
The third strand to the story is narrated subjectively by Esther.
This is the first time a male English writer used a female narrator
for a story. Bleak House has a unique narrative structure told both
by a third person narrator and a first person narrator. These
narrative strands never quite intersect, although they do run
parallel.

199. Exposé of Judicial Extortion
Bleak House is both a tragic story of doomed young love and a
genuinely enthralling murder mystery.

200. However, it is also a stunning
exposé of lawyers who,
far from upholding the noble
principles of justice,
delight in extorting money out
of the misery of their clients.

201. Inspiring Legal and Social Reform
Dickens’ descriptions of urban squalor and legal injustice were
quoted from by editors, social reformers, members of Parliament
& investigators on sanitary conditions of British towns.

202. English legal historian,
Sir William Holdsworth,
in his 1928 series of
lectures, Charles Dickens
as a Legal Historian,
made a case for treating
Dickens’ novels,
Bleak House in particular,
as primary sources
illuminating the History
of English law.

203. “It was the best of times, it was
the worst of times, it was the
age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness…” these opening
lines of A Tale of Two Cities are
some of the most famous and
easily recognisable in literature
and it sets the tone for the book.

204. A Story of Contrasts
A Tale of Two Cities is a story of contrasts, of the dramatic events
that affected London and Paris, England and France, contrasting
the fruit of Christianity in London

205. and the disastrous
consequences of
secular humanism and
revolutionary fervour
in Paris.

206. Love and Loyalty
Against All Odds
A Tale of Two Cities covers the full
range of human experiences:
love and hate,
peace and violence,
order and chaos,
sobriety and drunkenness,
compassion and cruelty,
selfishness
and self-sacrifice,
hope and despair.

207. The underlying moral message
is Redemption.
All of this is weaved into a
gripping human story of love
and loyalty against all odds.

208. Revolution
After 18 years unjustly imprisoned in the Bastille, Dr. Manette is
released and taken to England to start a new life with his
daughter, Lucie.

209. A court case brings them
into contact with two very
different men, Charles
Darnay, an exiled French
aristocrat accused of
espionage and Sydney
Carton, a brilliant, but
disreputable and self-
loathing barrister.

210. Darnay is saved by Carton who cast doubts on the case of the
prosecution. Both men love Lucie, but she chooses to marry
Darnay and together they have a child.

211. Redemption
Years later when Darnay learns
that a faithful servant has
been imprisoned in France,
he feels he must return
to plead his case.

212. When Darnay is imprisoned and sentenced to death by the
Revolutionary mob, his family is drawn to bloodstained Paris
where they all fall under the lengthening shadows of the guillotine.

213. It is at this crisis time
that Sydney Carton
chooses Redemption.
“It is a far, far better
thing that I do than
I have ever done;
it is a far, far better
rest that I go to,
than I have ever
known.”

214. It was most appropriate that in 1989, on the 200th anniversary of
the French Revolution, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
of Great Britain presented French president, Francois Mitterand,
The Iron Lady in Paris

215. a leather-bound first edition of Charles Dickens’, immortal classic
A Tale of Two Cities book.

216. When reporters at the G7 Conference in Paris flocked to ask
Margaret Thatcher’s impressions of The French Revolution,
the Iron Lady replied: “It resulted in a lot of headless corpses
and a tyrant.”

217. Prime Minister Thatcher had a sense of the momentous event,
as this G7 Conference had been scheduled in Paris to coincide
with the 200th anniversary of The French Revolution.
Resistance to Revolution

218. The Iron Lady’s symbolic act of resistance was itself historic.
Margaret Thatcher advised the French President to read
A Tale of Two Cities, to learn why the French Revolution
had been completely unnecessary.

219. “They promise them freedom,
While they themselves are slaves
of depravity…” 2 Peter 2:19

221. Creative Literary Genius
Charles Dickens enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his
lifetime and critics and scholars have recognised him as a literary
genius.

222. Fellow authors, Leo Tolstoy, George Orwell and others, have
praised Charles Dickens for his realism, comedy, unique
characterisations and social reform.

223. He created some of the world’s best-known fictional characters
and his novels and short stories are still widely read today.

224. Against the backdrop of an often-turbulent personal life, Charles
Dickens wrote 14 novels between 1837 and 1870.

225. A gifted performer, starting in 1842, Dickens also made lucrative
and highly acclaimed tours of Britain and the United States of
America, giving public readings from his works.

226. Popular Material
for Stage Plays
and Film
Adaptations
His 1843 novel,
A Christmas Carol,
remains especially popular
and continue to inspire
adaptations for stage,
theatre and film.

227. Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations have
frequently been adapted to film.

228. Dedicated Christian
Although Charles Dickens exposed hypocrisy and formalism in
organised religion, he honoured the Lord Jesus Christ and was “a
Christian with deep convictions.” He wrote The Life of our Lord in
1846 to school his children and family in the Faith.

229. Some has described Charles Dickens as
“the man who invented Christmas” because of the enormous
social impact of his Christmas Carol novel.

230. In 1845, when Charles Dickens took up the Editorship of the Daily
News, he editorialised that his goal was “the principles of progress
and improvement, of education in civil and religious liberty and
equal legislation.”

231. Productive and Generous
In 1851, Dickens moved into Tavistock House where he wrote
Bleak House (1853), Hard Times (1854) and Little Dorrit (1856).

232. Bleak House (1853), Hard Times (1854) and Little Dorrit (1856).

233. Dickens was a generous philanthropist who raised and donated
large sums for hospitals and Childrens’ homes.

234. Energetic Speaking Tours
On one of his reading tours,
from April 1858
to February 1859,
he gave 129 appearances
in 49 different towns
throughout England,
Scotland and Ireland.

235. A Tale of Two Cities was published
in 1859 and Great Expectations in
1861. When Charles Dickens died
8 June 1870 of a stroke, it was
after a full day’s work on The
Mystery of Edwin Drood.

236. Westminster Abbey
He was laid to rest in Poets Corner of Westminster Abbey.

237. An epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: “To the
memory of Charles Dickens (England’s most popular author) who
died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June
1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser for the poor, the
suffering and the oppressed and by his death one of England’s
greatest writers is lost to the world.”

238. Genius for Social Reform and
English Literature
Dean Arthur Stanley praised: “the genial and loving humourist,
whom we now mourn for showed by his own example that even in
dealing with the darkest scenes and the most degraded
characters, genius could still be clean and mirth could be
innocent.”

239. Pointing to the fresh flowers adorning the novelist’s grave, Stanley
commented that “the spot would henceforth be a sacred one with
both the New World and the Old, as that of the representative of
literature, not of this island only,
but of all who speak our English tongue.”

240. Dickens
Remodelled
Psychological
Geography
Dickens’ novels included pictures,
melodrama, arresting names
for his characters, allegorical
impetus, satires, striking settings,
describing down to the minutest
details the personal
characteristics and life history
of his characters.

241. Critics noted that Dickens remodelled our psychological
geography with extraordinarily revealing remarks and insights on
characters in his novels.

242. Scarred by Traumatic Childhood Experiences
Others noted that while Charles Dickens certainly drew on his
childhood experiences, he was so ashamed and scarred by them

243. that he would not reveal
that this was where
he gathered his
realistic accounts
of squalor.

244. Very few knew the details of
his early life until
six years after his death,
when John Foster published
a biography on him.

245. Compelling
Characters
Confronting
Crime
Dickens gave to the world:
compelling story lines and
unforgettable characters,
which confronted
social justice issues
and frequently led to
legislation and action
to correct injustices
in society.

246. One of the Most Successful and
Popular Authors of All Time
Charles Dickens was one of the most popular novelists of his time
and remains one of the best known and best read of English
authors of all time. His works have never been out of print. They
have been continually adapted for the screen, with at least 200
dramatic films and TV adaptations based on Dickens’ works.

247. Celebrated Novelist
In a UK survey carried out by the BBC in 2003, five of Charles
Dickens books were named in the top 100 English books of all
time.

248. In 2002, Charles Dickens
was voted 41
in the BBC’s poll
on the 100 Greatest Britons
of all time.

249. Dickens and his publications have appeared on postage stamps
throughout the world

250. Dickens was commemorated on a series of £10 notes issued by
the Bank of England between 1992 and 2003.

251. In 2012, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles
Dickens, the Museum of London held major exhibition on the
author and his books.

261. Non-Art
Evelyn Waugh points out that “art”, the only aim of which is to
annoy and upset its audience, is not really art at all.

262. Without Faith Civilisation Crumbles
Waugh observes that without the Christian religion human beings
are disgustingly selfish and shallow. The loss of the Christian
Faith means death for western civilisation.

263. This may explain why so many politically correct “English
professors” today have stopped teaching English literature.

264. “Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things
are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure,
whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good
report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything
praiseworthy – meditate on such things.” Philippians 4:8

265. Dr. Peter Hammond
Reformation Society
P.O. Box 74
Newlands, 7725
Cape Town, South Africa
Tel: (021) 689-4480
Fax: (021) 685-5884
Email: info@ReformationSA.org
Website: www.ReformationSA.org