Writers Talk About Writing The Power of Ordinary Writing The
great novelists of 19th century English literature — Charles
Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, and
George Eliot chief among them — are justly beloved by
generations of readers who read and reread their hefty fictions,
learning from them about human souls and human society, and
about the art of writing. Oliver Twist in the 6th grade gave me
my first taste of these glorious books, and I've spent much of
my life since engrossed by the unfolding adventures of Nicholas
Nickleby, Becky Sharp, Phineas Finn, and Daniel Deronda. Many
similarities link the writers: their country and culture, their
long story arcs, their "omniscient author" point of view, and
their big canvas realism; and many differences set each off from
the others: Thackeray's sarcasm, Eliot's warmth, Dickens'
melodrama, and Trollope's common sense. Luckily we can enjoy
them all, reading Vanity Fair in April and Middlemarch in May,
as we can enjoy Duke Ellington in Jun