Of course Dickens wrote great literature!
But did he?
As I recall most of his early work at least was written for "penny dreadfuls" and/or serialisations. He wrote, as a journalist, for swift and profitable publication - in the cheapest mass media entertainment of his tiime.
It is only subsequently that some people have decided that his work is great literature - and they have made further commercial success out of promoting Dickens' work as "great literature".
Is there any chance at all that when Dickens sat down with pen and paper that he even dreamt that his work would still be in print even ten years on?
There have been a number of questions here recently about genre and similar things and these have frequently come back to issues of quality and (commercial) viability.
These things are importan - often very important (just to get the work out there) - but - I would like to stress the importance, for all of us, of just - writing.
Dickens would not have had a chance of producing "great literature" if he hadn't sat down and written something, anything in the first place.
What do people think?
David
Dickens wore himself out travelling and promoting his own works. Perhaps if he hadn't, he might have slipped away from the public's eye. He escaped dying in a train crash on one such occasion when others did die.
It has been said that Queen Victoria read his works, which might account for some of the social reforms.
Personally, it is his documenting of the poor man's Victorian life that holds my attention, although I don't care for the misery he imparts, possibly/probably for effect.
The Christmas Carol was, in my opinion, ingenious.
Strangely enough, I have never thought to criticise his actual writing skills as any imperfections have always been put down to the period in which he wrote. I have read for the story content more than the grammar etc.
Okay, Dickens and "one or two others" were (or may be regarded as) great writers - but the last part of my question was...
"Dickens would not have had a chance of producing "great literature" if he hadn't sat down and written something, anything in the first place.
What do people think?"
Or to rephrase that - How are we to go about writing? Should we work incredibly hard to create significant fiction - or should we set out to achieve at least reasonably good work - and let the paying customer and history decide?
David
Alice, I would Hardy and the Bronte's in the same bracket as Dickens.