Veneeerings, Podsnaps and Podsnappery, the Golden Dustman, the one legged Weg, Headstones, Riderhoods and Lightwoods, the Cherub --the Cherub's wife begging pardon to shut people up, the Cherub's daughter who wants so desperately to marry money, his other daughter: younger, sharp tongued, and her boyfriend George who'd better keep his mouth shut. Eugene Rayburn (there was a Gene Rayburn who was a game show host --was it The Match Game?) --the Golden Dustman's wife seeing ghosts and wanting to adopt a little boy, the scheming Lamelles (I listened to it in my car so I'm not sure of the spelling), Lizzie Hexam, Jenny Wren the doll's dressmaker --one of the weirdest characters I've met in recent memory, Sloppy overseeing the removal of the mounds, the antisemitic debt buyer and the Jewish employee who fronts for him, taking all his insults without giving up his dignity. The river and the locks, the mills and the ministers, the schools and schoolteachers. The pupil who lives with her teacher and raises her hand whenever she has anything to say. . .
I'm doing this from memory --I know there are Dickens scholars and I've checked out some of the websites, but I don't want to go there now. I want to test my memory. I listened to this novel while driving back and forth to work last year --28 CDs in all, and I loved it.
