One hundred and sixty years ago today, thousands of mainly middle-and-upper class Englishmen and women were looking forward to the second installment of Dicken's much-anticipated and serialised novel Bleak House.
I don't have to wait for the post to deliver my copy (though amazingly had it been sent from the publishing house in London this evening it probably would have reached most regions by Monday or Tuesday) but having waited a month after the mysterious and ambiguous end to the first installment, I think I am looking forward to it in much the same way as in one would have in 1852.
I can imagine the package arriving, probably with a one-penny stamp (still something of a novelty; having only been introduced a decade previously) affixed to its brown paper. I can imagine carefully unwrapping and taking out the magazine inside - then settling down to read the next couple of chapters. It must have been a nice way to start a Monday morning.
Today I don't have to wait to read the next chapters, but though I'd like to start now as I'm fairly hard-up for reading material at the moment, I'm going to wait as I know I'll enjoy it more this way. I'm looking forward to the morning all ready!
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