All my reading friends will disown me, because I am enamored with ebooks. I love being able to read Dickens in bed – for free – without breaking my wrist. I love being able to flick between it and Eminent Victorians without changing books. I am lazy.

I’m amazed by the sophistication of Dicken’s narrative voice – I was expecting his narrative technique to be so primitive, yet I find a variety of voices and how convincingly he can write through the eyes of a young woman (Esther).

About 120 pages in, it’s interesting how episodic it is as a novel; I know Charles is in control, but he just keeps parading all these zany characters in front of the reader, characters who will have a small role in the overall plot, but not a significant one. He is psychologically profound, although a little overblown, as he skewers the crimes of the charitable of his day.