THE NEW VICTORIAN AGE

I thoroughly detest Jane Austen and I really don’t like Charles Dickens. I feel I must explain myself on this. I hate romantic love novels. It makes my stomach churn, truly. I couldn’t stand Sweet Home Alabama or Sleepless In Seattle. I must be the only woman alive who hates that movie. I did enjoy You’ve Got Mail and I have Princess Bride which I love. I have made numerous attempts to read Pride and Prejudice and just can’t get through the second chapter (I made it through the first on account of it being so short). I did enjoy the husband complaining about his wife who talks too much about marriage, which I quite agree. It just grosses me out. Mark Twain once said, "Any library which doesn’t contain a copy of Jane Austen is a good library, even if there are no other books in the library." Which makes me feel a lot better about not liking an accomplished author.As for Charles Dickens.... I envision, along with countless Americans, the "Dickens England" to be one of rich, vibrant colors. One which swarmed with etiquette and grace. We see it most at Christmas time, little snow villages are sold which are modeled after that ideal Victorian Age of high elegance and morals.... And then I watched Sweeney Todd and all visions I had of that ideal were lost. Dickens didn’t paint those illusions himself. His books had as much horror and abuse in them as Sweeney Todd did, so I’m unclear when and how the truth of the "Sweeney Todd Age" switched to the "Victorian Age" with Dickens being their ideal. Aside from A Christmas Carol, I don’t see the connection from A to B.