Len,

Have you ever read, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville, Jules Verne or Rudyard Kypling or ... oh god ... Ian Fleming?

Biggles ... really. I read Johns when I read Enid Blyton's The Secret Seven and The Famous Five.

Your two late 19the centrury Australian spinsters lives really bnecome pathetic in comparison to the richness and sexually vibrancy of Australias greatest feminist, their contemporary, Louisa Lawson. Did you know she was reasponsible for The NSW Married Womans pProperty Act? It was a world first. It entitled women to own their own property and share the husbands when property when in a marriage.

F... spinsters doodlings! ... really.

Dickens was a mere social commentator. I can think of dozens of writers who contributed more to Western Culture.

For a start try Bulwer-Lytton's Zanoni. He was a contemporay of Dickens. He was a Lord in the House of Lords so I suppose because he was Wealthy, Titled and Privileged his views aren't valid?

Have you ever read Tolstoys short stories, Leskov, Flavert, Homer, Plato, Diogenes, Epipetus, Marcus Aurelius, Dante, Cervantes to name a few, off hand, among hundreds of others, who added more to the body of understanding of the human condition than dickens ever did.

I reckon you love dickens because he highlights the darker side of democratic traditions rather than it's positives. It causes me to ask are you a part of the leftie dumbing down and attenpt to retard the traditional Western Liberal Denocratic Traditions?

Grow up.

imajulianutter - wonderful demonstration there of the increasingly typical default Australian reaction to any new and unfamiliar information: sanctimonious denigration (though at least you're consistent, as evidenced by your choice of politician...)

Of course Len has read all the authors you list - he's merely pointing out that interesting ideas can also be found in unlikely places.

Grow up.

'... is this Dickens work the greatest English-language narrative arc ever produced?'

Sam Janwich, my answer was no and I gave valid criticism.

Didn't you understand tha?

Of course not. If the uthor had read any of those authors I'd mentioned or the hundreds of others I've alluded to but not mentioned, but which I've read, he would not have asked such a silly question.

Do you really think a book about two spinsters whose lifes are the focus of a feminist writer would carry as much weight or relevance had she written of the life of Australia's greatest feminist. BTW someone whose life no-one has ever sensibly explored in a book.

Tell me what is the 'new and unfamiliar information' contained in a book review of the juvenile character Biggles and his exploits?

Hermon Wouk is merely one of a series of US writers who focused on US interaction in the world but his focus is much narrower and less concerned about the human condition than the work others. He also tends to hightlight shortcomings in US structures, action and policy. In a similar vein to Dickens.

Mate, your response and uncalled for personal attack on me sinply shows you too must support the dumbing down of our intellectual endeavours. Do you?

'... wonderful demonstration there of the increasingly typical default Australian reaction'... yes it is, but it is not about any 'new and unfamiliar information'. My typically Australian reaction is about the paucity of intellectual depth by the advocation of such tripe.

Happy reading! Have you reached Enid Blyton yet?