Thanks Magoo!

Good Afternoon Flower!  

You know I think it was the year after year delight of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol throughout my childhood that first brought Charles Dickens to my attention. It wasn't until years later that I read any Dickens but it was certainly the charming Magoo that paved the way, planted the spark and whetted the appetite.

Who can forget or surpass Quincey Magoo's Scrooge? No actor I've ever seen. It is a dynamic play within a play musical version of the most famous Christmas story since The Nativity. Razzelberry Dressing anyone? It makes one weep.

Charles Dickens is my favorite, favorite writer. I have other favorite writers, but Charles is my only favorite, favorite writer. I heart him. I fell into full Dickens worship at 13 with Bleak House. As usual I picked it for the cover. It was the old NAL mass market edition with a black boarder around a painting of a waiting room. They still use the same painting in the currently available, but the boarder color has changed to a much brighter hue.

What was unusual for me was that I also choose it for the title. Bleak House. I had no idea at the time what Dickens meant by that title but to me it was catnip. I had it in my head that this was going to be a novel about a prison. Not psychological prisons I was too young for that but real bars on the windows prisons. And why was that interesting to me? No clue. At 13 it was probably the exotic-ness of it all.

When the reading started I forgot my expectations and succomed to the power of the Dicken's pen. Here was the best storytelling ever, unforgettable characters with names that have become common parlance for all sorts of things and writing that made me devour the books. I couldn't read Dickens fast enough.

Thanks to you Mr. Magoo!
Happy