A review by bergsteiger
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

3.0

Ah, Dickens. Loved "Great Expectations". Enjoyed "Oliver Twist". I found the only way for me to slog through his painfully verbose style is to do the audio thing. "The Old Curiosity Shop"? Meh. Loved many of the characters and Anton Lesser is an absolute master with the voices. But the story itself was incredibly painful. It went on forever with many extraneous plot lines that reminded me of the equally painfully long Dark Tower series by Stephen King. In both cases the stories could have been half as long (or a third). This is where the serial nature of Dickens' work, trying to squeeze as much money out of a story as he could, comes to light. I am glad I listened to it and it would be unfair to say I didn't enjoy it, it simply meandered and went on for much longer than it should have. If you like Dickens, give it a read (or listen), but if you've never read anything by him then please don't start with this one. It could turn you off to a writer who is actually quite entertaining. Solid 3 stars.