The Victorian Era

After breakfast, spent the rest of the morning savoring the language of Victorian England: Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, and Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit.  I’m embarrassed to admit (though the info is easily viewable in my LibraryThing catalog) that I started Little Dorrit a year ago (during the PBS airing of a Masterpiece Classics version).  Slow going and nearly 800 pages long, but I’m over 2/3 through.  And I just love his descriptions of the Barnacles and their “Circumlocution Office” with its mind-boggling bureaucracy and miles of paperwork and red tape.  Then there’s Mrs. General varnishing and polishing people into “proper” behavior . . . it really is delightful, despite the length.  And the financial ups and downs of the characters are eerily familiar today.

Then I took a very long nap.  Interrupted by some helpful citizens ringing my doorbell to tell me about a new “Make your home energy efficient” program that I can’t afford to participate in.  When I arrived at the door in my bathrobe to tell them to stop ringing the bell and go away they tried to talk to me anyway!

Time for shower and lunch break . . . then I probably need to start on that review of The Undervalued Self.