Wednesday, April 13, 2016

The Great Winglebury Duel - Charles Dickens

With his lovely breezy style Dickens ties up two stories that rise up like a balloon in their anticipation and brings them down to ground, well tied up. There is a humour that's constant, like a mischievous friend who cannot keep quiet, even when he is not saying anything.

'The Great Winglebury Duel' is a series of miscommunication that ends up alright in the end. It starts with our hero receiving a challenge to a duel to death the next morning, wrongly sent to him it appears. On the other end, an elderly lady with a fancy for young men, is seeking to make off with a young man of uncertain mind. Bung in the mayor and a letter written by our hero to the mayor to rescue him from the duel and we find that all's well that ends well. The elderly matron friends a young man, the broke young man finds a rich matron to marry, the duel is cancelled because one of them dies. Rather conveniently.

''The Steam Excursion' is a tale of a young man who puts together a party on a steam boat as an excursion and all that happens on that not too fine boat ride what with bad weather, children and all that. Some unforgettable characters.

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