The new Dickens

[Faceless Woman]

Another pTerry = D (not a smily) arguement is the contextual humour. pTerry links his world to ours all the time, while Dickens links his 'fictional characters' to real people of his time, or to biblical people, mostly saints like Stephen the martyr.

[Patrick Mahon]

I'd certainly agree that there are clear parallels between Pratchett's work and that of Dickens, and the Ankh-Morpork = London parallel is a really interesting one!

I've just read 'A Christmas Carol' in the original for the first time, having read far too many adaptations before now, and I loved it. The characterisation is great (even if a bit melodramatic).

I read 'Hard Times' a couple of years back, and I have to admit to getting very involved with the characters as the book wore on. But of course Hard Times is one of Dickens' shorter novels - so many of them are very long, which is where I guess he gets the 'serious' label from. But then, when they were originally published, many of these 900 pages novels came out in 20 monthly installments, and reading 45 pages a month can't have been too hard...

[High Eight]

Originally Posted by Allegra

I've always been wondering where the name of 'Ankh Morpork' came from...

It's a parody of the name of the late Fritz Leiber's fantasy city, Lankhmar.

[Joel007]

"Bravd and the Weasel were indeed takeoffs of Leiber characters - there was a lot of that sort of thing in The Colour of Magic. But I didn't - at least consciously, I suppose I must say - create Ankh-Morpork as a takeoff of Lankhmar." -Terry Pratchett

[High Eight]

Originally Posted by Joel007

"Bravd and the Weasel were indeed takeoffs of Leiber characters - there was a lot of that sort of thing in The Colour of Magic. But I didn't - at least consciously, I suppose I must say - create Ankh-Morpork as a takeoff of Lankhmar." -Terry Pratchett

I'm shocked! (there should be a smiley here, but the powers that be wouldn't let me). I had always assumed that Ankh-Morpork was a takeoff of Lankhmar!

Just goes to show where assumptions get you!

[akfarrar]

Anyone noticed the newer novels are becoming more Victorian?

The latest is very much a Trollope!