In April of 1840 Dickens began his own weekly periodical, Master Humphrey's Clock, using the set-up of a small circle of elderly gentlemen gathering around the grandfather clock at Humphrey's house once a week to share tales. The first such tale concerns the statues at London's Guildhall of the giants Gog and Magog, fabled protectors of London, coming alive at night to swap tales themselves to pass the time. Fairly amusing, I thought. Though this section is titled "First Night of the Giant Chronicles", Dickens never returned to the theme.

Other parts include Master Humphrey describing his life and how he gathered together his small circle, which includes some quality pathos; the centuries-old confession of a child murderer, middling; some correspondence received, briefly; the secret burial of an executed rebel, also middling; and the re-introduction from [b:The Pickwick Papers|229432|The Pickwick Papers|Charles Dickens|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360795072s/229432.jpg|3315230] fame of Mr. Pickwick, Sam Weller, and Mr. Weller, in which the Wellers create their own "downstairs" version of the storytelling society, in my opinion not successfully - they do not recapture their magic in this new setting and the whole attempt seems rather embarrassing.

Dickens seems to have thought all this not worth pursuing very far, as the serial first morphs into weekly installments of [b:The Old Curiosity Shop|429024|The Old Curiosity Shop|Charles Dickens|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1332523435s/429024.jpg|5246858], with interruptions of other material quickly fading, and then into [b:Barnaby Rudge|11026|Barnaby Rudge|Charles Dickens|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309202834s/11026.jpg|1495598], with no interruptions at all. The whole conceit was then quickly wrapped up at the conclusion of Barnaby Rudge in November 1841, the pressure of a weekly serialization schedule cancelled, and Dickens went off to visit America and take a rest from publishing.

This "rating/review" is only for those parts of Master Humphrey's Clock exclusive of the two novels, which Dickens later wished to be considered independent of their origin. ( )

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Master Humphry's Clock
Series: ----------
Author: Charles Dickens
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 158
Words: 46K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia

Master Humphrey's Clock was a weekly periodical edited and written entirely by Charles Dickens and published from 4 April 1840 to 4 December 1841. It began with a frame story in which Master Humphrey tells about himself and his small circle of friends (which includes Mr. Pickwick), and their penchant for telling stories. Several short stories were included, followed by the novels The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge. It is generally thought that Dickens originally intended The Old Curiosity Shop as a short story like the others that had appeared in Master Humphrey's Clock, but after a few chapters decided to extend it into a novel. Master Humphrey appears as the first-person narrator in the first three chapters of The Old Curiosity Shop but then disappears, stating, "And now that I have carried this history so far in my own character and introduced these personages to the reader, I shall for the convenience of the narrative detach myself from its further course, and leave those who have prominent and necessary parts in it to speak and act for themselves."

Master Humphrey is a lonely man who lives in London. He keeps old manuscripts in an antique longcase clock by the chimney-corner. One day, he decides that he would start a little club, called Master Humphrey's Clock, where the members would read out their manuscripts to the others. The members include Master Humphrey; a deaf gentleman, Jack Redburn; retired merchant Owen Miles; and Mr. Pickwick from The Pickwick Papers. A mirror club in the kitchen, Mr. Weller's Watch, run by Mr. Weller, has members including Humphrey's maid, the barber and Sam Weller.

Master Humphrey's Clock appeared after The Old Curiosity Shop, to introduce Barnaby Rudge. After Barnaby Rudge, Master Humphrey is left by himself by the chimney corner in a train of thoughts. Here, the deaf gentleman continues the narration. Later, the deaf gentleman and his friends return to Humphrey's house to find him dead. Humphrey has left money for the barber and the maid (no doubt by traces of love that they would be married). Redburn and the deaf gentleman look after the house and the club closes for good.

In the portion of Master Humphrey's Clock which succeeds The Old Curiosity Shop, Master Humphrey reveals to his friends that he is the character referred to as the 'single gentleman' in that story.

My Thoughts:

Although it pains me, and in a sane world this wouldn't be a negative, I could only give this short book 3 stars. Isn't that just terrible?!?

It wasn't really bad, mind you, just that the short stories mostly centered around the ghostly and/or supernatural that Dickens liked and that I don't care for in my classic historical novels. The other downside was that everything with Pickwick felt extremely forced. Like Dickens was trying to emotionally manipulate his readers by introducing a beloved character from another book so they would love this current book. Then the whole “I'm from this other book” thing also felt forced.

I know that Dickens was a manipulator (he would have been at the forefront of the SJW movement today, for sure and lying through his teeth about any and all) but most of the time I like it in his stories. I like having my emotions pushed around. This time though, it felt very cheesy. More like he was clapping 2 coconuts together and telling me he was riding a horse while he obviously wasn't.

Recommended for those who really like Dickens and are completionists. Not really recommended for the casual Dickens fan. (does such a mythical being even exist? I have my doubts!)

★★★☆☆ ( )

Amusing, in large part because of its historical place in Dickens's omnibus. ( )