Customer Reviews

The Charles Dickens Collection, Vol. 2 (David Copperfield / The Pickwick Papers / The Old Curiosity Shop / Dombey and Son / Barnaby Rudge) (Slim Case)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The American television network TNT proclaims in its advertisements, "We know drama," but it can't hold a candle to the BBC. Since the sixties, the Beeb has been producing exquisite adaptations of the plays of Shakepeare, Shaw, and Wilde, the novels of Eliot, Austen, and Trollope, and the works of many other treasures of British and Irish literature, not to mention those of other European nations: Ibsen, Checkhov, Dostoeivsky, and so on.

These productions tend to be simple, elegantly-appointed affairs. There's very little flash, and some viewers may be disappointed by their talky, set-bound nature, but they are quite faithful to their sources. Performances are uniformly top-notch, often by the most talented and justly famous of British actors: Ben Kingsley, Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench, Patrick Stewart, John Hurt, Diana Rigg, Rex Harrison, John Gielgud, Joan Plowright, and many more.

While this series of Dickens adaptations and its parter, Volume 1, do not utilize thespians especially well-known to Americans (though Ian McKellen, Maggie Smith, Bob Hoskins, and Daniel Radcliffe do star in "David Copperfield" on Volume 2), the acting and direction are excellent.

If you love British literature and history, particularly the Victorian period, you will find these DVD sets to be thoroughgoing treats. They will expose you to dramas both familiar and obscure, and they will encourage you to delve more deeply into the delight that is Dickens.

Both 2009 sets use slim rather than standard DVD cases, so they are more compact versions of the sets issued in 2005 and 2006, but their contents are identical. They are highly recommended in either form.

Note:
I have not yet viewed the remastered / repackaged / pan & scan collection of Charles Dickens: volume 2. The biggest change, however, (from the original BBC Dickens volume 2: ASIN: B000FQIRYK) is the addition of Barnaby Rudge (1960) starring John Wood, Barbara Hicks, and Newton Blick. The film is approximately 400 minutes.

In my opinion, if you have already purchased Charles Dickens: volume 2, I would wait and hope the BBC issues "Barnaby Rudge" separately. (Note: I have also never viewed "Barnaby Rudge.") However, if you are planning on buying Charles Dickens: Volume 2, KNOW THAT THIS CONTAINS BARNABY RUDGE.

In this collection:
Barnaby Rudge (1960)
David Copperfield (1999)
The Old Curiosity Shop (1979)
Dombey and Son (1983)
The Pickwick Papers (1985)

To see an image of the new collection (since Amazon does not yet have an image), go to B&N com and copy code: 883929068722.

************************************************************************************************************ For your information, this was my review for the ORIGINAL Charles Dickens: volume 2. (Amazon made me delete the review below before I could publish the above review.)

I loved viewing the four films in this collection. "The Pickwick Papers", "Dombey and Son", and "David Copperfield" were all very enjoyable to watch, while "The Old Curiosity Shop" was tolerable.

Overall, I wouldn't spend more than $[...] for the set, yet I do believe that they are worth at least thirty dollars, if just for "The Pickwick Papers" and "David Copperfield (2000)", which were my personal two favorites.

The acting in these films was excellent and the plot, characters, and flow progressived well. The only negative was that I just thought "The Old Curiosity Shop" was poorly made with unbelievable characters and an inconclusive, poor done ending.

Wonderful casting and rendition of the author's stories. We think of Charles Dickens during Christmas because of the Christmas Carol but I enjoy him all year round. thanks for the superb service through amazon.com.

These dramas deserve better than how they were manufactured and assembled into this set. My single star rating is not meant to slight these fine dramas. It is entirely due to the frustration associated with trying to view the episodes. At multiple places, the DVDs freeze and you have to skip forward to get them running again. It did not matter what kind of player I used. They froze at the same place whether played in a standard DVD player or in a PC DVD player. I thought this might have been due to a defective product, so I returned it and received a replacement from Amazon. The second set had the same problem. In fact, the episodes froze at the same places as the first set had frozen. I returned the second set for a full refund from Amazon thinking that somehow the supplier Amazon obtained them from was somehow at fault. I ordered a third set from BBC directly only to find the EXACT SAME PROBLEM in the same scenes as before. The problem is obviously with the manufacturing process used in the pressing of the disks included in this particular set. My advice is DO NOT BUY THIS PACKAGE! I have read elsewhere that other packages that contain these dramas do not exhibit this freezing behavior. It is something specific to how these were created for this particular package.

I have no complaints about this set: It's several great Dickens works starring iconic actors.

My favorite one thus far is the David Copperfield, which has such an all-star cast and is so compelling that (even though I already knew how it was going to end) I cried a little!

If you need something for a fan of Dickens's novels, this is a great thing as a gift!

With the exception of David Copperfield, I found the movies outdated in appearance with black and white color. I was overall disappointed with this product

I enjoyed David Copperfield and Domby and Sons, but found most of Charles Dickens stories much to dark and slow moving. They were hard to follow at times and very long. I would not repurchase this.