Charles Dickens is, without a doubt, one of my most favorite authors. As a child, my family went annually to our local community theater's production of A Christmas Carol and, long before I could fully understand this performance in its entirety, I found myself mesmerized by the sumptuous costumes, the props, the sets, the music... It was just so damn sparkly.
Fast forward a few years and I was required to read A Tale of Two Cities in English class. At the time, Dickens's writing was quite challenging for me, but I was still pulled in by the story itself, by the characters. Later in life, I found myself pulled back again and again to works by ol' Boz. I finally read A Christmas Carol (and had since seen dozens of iterations of the well-loved story in movies and on stage), but I'd added numerous other works including Bleak House, The Cricket on the Hearth, and even one of my all-time favorite books Nicholas Nickleby. Despite his sometimes formulaic writing (mysterious personages, surprise relations, blending both gothic and humorous themes), Charles Dickens is a master of beguiling characters from crotchety villains to underdog sidekicks to flawed heroes. While his treatment of women and minorities is often flat, I find myself granting him more amnesty than I would a modern writer. He is, after all, a 19th century male author in Victorian England. Plus, he makes me laugh out loud.
Most recently, I picked up a copy of a lesser-known collaborative work led by Dickens. Mugby Junction is a collection of eight short stories penned by five different authors. Set around an English railroad junction/town, each story features a different character telling of his own connection to the railroad. (Don't worry, you don't have to be into trains or anything.) They are divided as follows:
MUGBY JUNCTION
Barbox Brothers (Parts I, II, III) - Charles Dickens
Barbox Brothers and Co. - Charles Dickens
Main Line (The Boy at Mugby) - Charles Dickens
No. 1 Branch Line (The Signal-Man) - Charles Dickens
No. 2 Branch Line (The Engine-Driver) - Andrew Halliday
No. 3 Branch Line (The Compensation House) - Charles Collins
No. 4 Branch Line (The Travelling Post Office) - Hesba Stretton
No. 5 Branch Line (The Engineer) - Amelia B. Edwards
The eight stories in this collection vary from heartwarming (Barbox Brothers and Co.) to humorous (The Boy at Mugby) to mysterious (The Compensation House). The Signal-Man is a ghostly account of a railroad line worker who doesn't know what to do when he realizes that a specter appears before him, foreshadowing the deaths of unknown strangers. The Engine-Driver recounts his life as a working man that culminates in his current position as driver...and father. In The Compensation House, a strange young man (aptly named Mr. Oswald Strange) is haunted by his past. The Travelling Post Office features mistaken identities and espionage. Two best friends find themselves at odds over a woman in The Engineer.
While each of these stories brings a different type of intrigue to the proverbial table, I have chosen to highlight my two favorites:
Main Line (The Boy at Mugby) is the firsthand account of an employee of the train station's refreshment room, arguably written as a scathing critique of such workers after Dickens's own embarrassing experience at a similar (and thinly veiled) place. Allegedly, the proprietress of such an establishment treated Boz very rudely, so he exacted his revenge upon her in literary form. (Love it.) Anyone who has ever been the object of impolite service -be it at a restaurant, a doctor's office, or the DMV- can heartily relate. I can't help but feel that it is for such individuals that this funny little story is intended.
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| The Boy at Mugby, Sol Eytinge Junior 1867 |
Barbox Brothers and Co. must be read in succession after Barbox Brothers (Parts I, II, III). In Parts I, II, III, we are introduced to a character who has something of a tragic past, leaving him alone in the wide world. Upon taking his retirement, he finds himself wanting to outrun his own pending birthday, so he hops on a train to nowhere. He ends up stopping and staying at Mugby Junction for a short period, to reflect upon what his next move should be. In Barbox Brothers and Co., we follow his progress with the individuals he meets in Mugby Junction and how, after decades of loneliness and routine solitude, he makes a new life for himself. I won't say more so I don't spoil it too much, but suffice it to say you'll feel warm fuzzies at the conclusion.
Available for free in the public domain, Mugby Junction makes for a great travel read. (Otherwise, you can get it for a steal on Amazon -- just make sure that you get an edition that includes all eight stories.) Light, easy to follow, and broken up naturally into short stories, there really is no excuse not to read this little hidden gem.
