I challenge anyone to find a good reading space (preferably a warm, snug room while it’s raining outside) then read the first chapter of this book and (here comes The challenge) not immediately recognize you’re in the company of a genius. I’m being serious, I read this first chapter not having read anything by Dickens… and I was like “where has this guy been my whole life 😂”. To make the fog a character, to take you on a tour of that dementedly dark and wonderful Victorian London, to lampoon and capture the irrationality and absurdity of the legal system, to introduce the themes the characters so f****** quickly is just mind blowing. So, I’ve set the challenge… tell me how you got on.
