Immerse In A Childs History Of England Conceived By Charles Dickens File Digital Edition
Victorian propaganda! A Childs History of England by Charles Dickens
My actual edition of this book is part of “The Works of Charles Dickens, with Illustrations, Cleartype Edition, Books, Incdate is questionable”I hestitated to turn down corners, but did one or two.
If only history could always be this fun, Oh me, what do you get when you add Charles Dickens English history Truly, a history for the people, sir! In more ways than one!
How so, you ask
Totally readable.
Written for children. True, not most of our poor children reared on a steady diet of Captain Underpants, but perhaps not as difficult for the vocabulary challenged as other works by same author.
In fact, one source says this work was used as curricula in British schools until WWII, Lucky little brats.
Charles Dickens, always a champion of "the people" writes this book as a chronology of English monarchs beginning from ancient timesB, C. to James thend. As such, although we are given a glimpse of the Kings and such, more, we are also given a glimpse of how said Kings affected the lives of their subjects.
True, never is it much a chronicle of individual commoners as it is of the Kings, but we are shown what life was like under each Merry or not so Merry Monarch.
Sadly, it's not a pretty picture, Not many of them were truly Merry, If they were, it was at the expense of the people,
Reads like a novel, although it is said to be fairly accurate, Of course it doesn't give all the details that would fill volumes but it is always interesting and fastpaced, Thats fantastic as history, at least for me,
Bloody, sir. Enough to happily employ the mind of any imaginative but not overlysensitive child ofor so, Good gracious, the times were abominable for blood, Burnings. Beatings. Quarterings. Drawings. Hangings. Torturings. Incarceratings. You name it. They were pretty horrible. Imagine a ferocious Irish Chieftain biting off the nose of his dead enemy in glee, Egad. That said, if I may interject a personal opinion, they were no worse than we are sometimes, Sure, we dont go for physical torture and mass peasant killing these days so much, but we have created all sorts of ways to emotionally and mentally torture each other and especially ourselves.
If our day were written of candidly, perhaps the deeds told would be more of how we poison
our bodies with antifood, or our spirits with pornography, or our minds with obsessions for perfection or unattainable realities, or each other with coldness and apathy and judgement.
Todays ills seem certainly a more personal picture, but nonetheless earthlife is as sad as it ever was, I dont know which I would choose had I the choice, That sounds really doomsday, didnt mean to, because I do think the world is still pretty awesome, but was just comparing the times,
Um, people, its written by Charles Dickens, Okay, I know some of you arent as in love with him as I am poor you! but, pon my soul, its good reading,
Here is a fun anecdote on how Britain became a Christian nation:
Chapter II “Ancient England Under the Early Saxons”
“After the death of ETHELBERT, EDWIN, King of Northumbria, who was such a good king.
held a great council to consider whether he and his people should all be Christians or not, It was decided that they should be, COIFI, the chief priest of the old religion, made a great speech on the occasion, In this discourse, he told the people that he had found out the old gods to be impostors, I am quite satisfied of it, he said, Look at me! I have been serving them all my life, and they have done nothing for me whereas, if they had been really powerful, they could not have decently done less, in return for all I have done for them, than make my fortune.
As they have never made my fortune, I am quite convinced they are impostors! When this singular priest had finished speaking, he hastily armed himself with sword and lance, mounted a warhorse, rode at a furious gallop in sight of all the people to the temple, and flung his lance against it as an insult.
From that time, the Christian religion spread itself among the Saxons, and became their faith, ”
All in all, wonderful, Truly had FUN reading it, and history me doesnt usually equally fun,
An interesting take on the pageant of British history, from King Arthur to the Revolution of, A final chapter glosses over the period up to Victoria's assumption of the throne, Dickens spares no sentiment, and details a plentiful amount of the bloodthirsty, violent, murderous, vengeful and inhumane acts by the rulers of his nation, My father commented, on reading this tale of one atrocity after another, that it is a wonder Dickens supposedly intended it for children, as the title indicates, According to Wikipedia, the text was used in British classrooms well into the last century, A little tough, but worth the effort!
I did not subscribe to monarchy rule, and I can site this book as my justification, Charles Dickens writing style is long winded and descriptive, However, he outlines the notable deeds, and misdeeds, of the succession of the British royals,
Starting with the best of intentions, the actions of each subsequent ruler was the acquisition of, and maintenance of power, This novel does not sugarcoat the length and means that they utilized to obtain it, Dickens graphically paints the flawed and barbaric methods most of the rulers used to gain the throne of England, eliminate rivals which meant murdering relatives, and justifying unlawful treatment of citizens.
The moral pulpit upon which the British pronounce their judgements from looks slightly more shaky than before after reading this book, I was on the airplane returning from Iceland when I started this, I realized that a "child's" knowledge of English history is more than I have, so this has not been familiar ground to me, Dickens empathy for the lower classes comes through again and again, The book undoubtedly has more descriptions of beheadings than any other "children's" book ever written,
If you don't feel like reading one of the long novels but are in the mood for some CD, then I'd recommend this book, Highly opinionated, not scholarly, but not boring or bland either, Dickens is willing to vilify the bad English kings as well as praise the good,
Final comment: all the various slaughters that were occasioned by religious/ethnic strife: Catholics vs, Protestants Scots vs. English Irish vs. English brings to mind the present craziness in the Mideast, It wasn't that long ago that Europe was quite similar, Finished at last! I read this book on and off for the past year, There were some turgid bits, but I did enjoy it when Dickens sounded off on various things, such as:
Dickens on King Henry theth "The plain truth is, that he was a most intolerable ruffian, a disgrace to human nature, and a blot of blood and grease upon the History of England.
"
Dickens on the execution of Lady Jane Grey ordered by "Bloody" Queen Mary Tudor "You know too well, now, what dreadful deeds the executioner did in England, through many many years, and how his axe descended on the hateful block through the necks of some of the bravest, wisest and best in the land.
But it never struck so cruel and so vile a blow as this, "
Dickens on religious differences in Elizabethan England "Since the Reformation, there had come to be three great sects of religious peopleor people who called themselves soin England that is to say, those who belonged to the Reformed Church, those who belonged to the Unreformed Church, and those who were called Puritans because they said that they wanted to have everything very pure and plain in all the Church service.
These last were for the most part an uncomfortable people, who thought it highly meritorious to dress in a hideous manner, talk through their noses, and oppose all harmless enjoyments.
".