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boeken/books/boeken/books/boeken/books/boeken/books
In deze nieuwe rubriek biedt de redaktie van The Dutch Dickensian u een
overzicht van in de afgelopen periode verschenen Dickens-uitgaven en boeken
over Dickens. Onderstaand overzicht bestrijkt de periode vanaf het aftreden
van de vorige redaktie. De tussen haakjes geplaatste code achter genoemde
titels verwijst naar de Dutch Dickensian-lezersservice-pagina'swaar na
dere gegevens over uitvoering en prijzen van de genoemde boeken te vinden
zijn, evenals de gelegenheid tot bestellen via de PD
I. EDITIONS
Nicholas Nickleby
If I am not mistaken Nicholas Nickleby (NN) has been most the popular Dickens
novel lately, or at least one of the most popular. Reason for this no
doubt has been the truly great and impressive dramatization of the novel
by the Royal Shakespeare Company, which started to make history in 1980.
This production, which presented the novel almost completely, and in
Dickens's own world, should have been seen by each Dickensian. I myself was
so lucky as to get into one of the last performances in London, after queu
ing hours - and the show itself lasted a total of nine hours. Yet I did not
regret a single minute spent on it.
After an immensely successful run in the USA (where people paid hundreds of
dollars for their tickets, and flew into New York from California to see the
play) the complete play was filmed and turned into a TV serial, reaching
millions of people. In Nederland werd de serie door de VARA uitgezonden, en
echt, als u het niet gezien hebt dan hebt u een grootse Dickensiaanse erva
ring gemist. Gelukkig zijn er videobanden beschikbaar, te koop (El) en te
huur (E2)Of course, with the TV serial came TV editions of the novel: a
paperback with only the cover from the series, in the Oxford Illustrated
Dickens (E3) and a splendid edition from Michael Joseph. This last one is
a facsimile of the early Household Edition, and it includes 40 full page
colour photographs (E4)Leon Rubin, assistant director on the RSC Nickle
by production, wrote a book on the Nickleby experience (E5), from the cover
of which I take a quotation to round off this section on the spin off of
this theatre production: "Not for many years has the London theatre seen
anything so richly joyous, so immoderately rife with pleasure, drama, colour
and entertainment, so life-enhancing, yea-saying and fecund, so - in the
one word which embraces all these and more - so Dickensian." (Bernard Levin
in The Times)
I am not sure whether some other new Nickleby editions came about be
cause about because of the RSC show. If, however, mr. Slater's facsimile
edition of the original monthly instalments did, a more lucky result could
not have been achieved. It offers all the Dickensian could wish for: The
complete monthly numbers, with title pages, advertisements and everything
bound into two paperbacks, available in a carton case for only 9.95 pounds
(E6)In an introductory essay by Michael Slater a gold mine of information
opens up. A book no Dickensian should miss. Another recent edition is the
Bantam paperback which has an introduction by Edgar Johnson (E7). Collins
reprinted their Collins Classics edition with an introduction by Alec Waugh,
in hard back (E8)while PAN offers an edition in their Classics series,
introduced by Arthur Calder-Marshall (E9)who tells the following story, of
Thakeray's daughter asking her father: "Papa why do you not write books like
