Answers To Go: Commemorate Dickens’ birthday with ‘Bleak House’

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“Bleak House” by Charles Dickens.

February 6, 2010

The San Marcos Record Sat Feb 06, 2010, 02:39 PM CST

— By Susan Smith

Answers To Go

Each week hundreds of people call or visit the San Marcos Public Library to find information.

"Answers•To•Go" highlights recently received questions. Please visit the library at 625 East Hopkins, call 393-8200 for information over the phone, or e-mail us through our web-page at www.ci.san-marcos.tx.us/library.htm.

Q. I’d like to read something more challenging than my usual light fiction. I thought I’d try some of the classics. I checked out Dickens’ “Bleak House” and found it heavy going. So many characters!

A. Today is Dickens’ birthday. He’d be 198!

I have two thoughts that might make reading Dickens more pleasurable.

Would you like to check out our DVD copy of the BBC version of “Bleak House”? I’ve found that watching a dramatization can really help me relax and savor the pleasure of reading a classic book. We have film versions of many of Dickens’ best-known novels.

We also have several reference books that would be helpful. “Masterplots” offers a brief summary of “Bleak House.”

The write-up includes many of the characters and the role they play in the plot. You could tuck a photocopy of the pages in your book and refer to it as needed.

If you’d prefer an alphabetical list of characters, our reference copy of “Cliffs Notes on Bleak House” will work for you.

It also addresses your impression that Victorian novels can be difficult to read. Author Robert Beum writes, “Dickens wrote for an audience that loved to read and was unafraid to tackle a work of serious literature.

Dickens was not forced to use only a very limited vocabulary, nor did he feel obliged to keep all his sentences short and simply constructed.

“Even in casual conversation, Dickens’ characters (except for those at the bottom of the social ladder) speak rather elaborately. Their grammar (unless Dickens is making fun of some idiosyncrasy of expression) is flawless. They command a sophisticated vocabulary and tend to favor the formal word or phrase.

“It may be hard for us to believe that people ever really spoke that way. But they did. Correctness, in language as in manners, was a central concern for the typical middle-class person of that era.”

Q. I’m applying for a job that asks me to submit a résumé with my application. Is there anyone who can help me prepare a résumé?

A. Yes. The librarian on duty at the reference desk will be happy to help you get started. When you’ve typed in the information about your education and employment history, we can help you format your résumé in a professional style.

We have another new Internet option that we can show you. The Central Texas Library System has purchased a subscription to RésuméMaker for use in area public libraries.

Step-by-step guides make it fast and easy to base your résumé on your choice of over 1000 samples.

Résumés are grouped by industry or career. You can also select from a list of career situations: re-entering the workforce, recent graduate, entry-level; management, trades and blue collar, changing careers, etc.

When you’re done, you may e-mail your résumé, print it, save it as a Microsoft Word document, or all three.

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