6 Dickensian Novels Worthy of Your Great Expectations

It makes sense that Brinda Charry’s THE EAST INDIAN is such an achievement worthy of comparison to literary greats. The author is a Shakespeare scholar herself, but what makes her U.S. debut so Dickensian is the picaresque journey of her main character. Tony is only eleven when his mother dies in their native India. Left alone, a family friend secures him passage to London where he finds work on the docks and spends his free time watching performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That is until he’s kidnapped and taken to colonial Virginia where he’s forced into indentured servitude, working tobacco fields for a series of cruel masters. Despite his position in life, Tony is sustained by the relationships he forms while on the plantation. And, much to the reader's delight, his entire life is rich with hijinks and humor—to balance out the tragedy of it all. A vivid, coming-of-age story, THE EAST INDIAN has all the Dickensian elements to make this novel a bona fide classic, and it comes out on May 2.

Welcome to 1793 Stockholm. It is here that watchman, Mikel Cardell, spends most of his days drinking the pain away. A veteran of the war with Russia, Cardell usually can’t be bothered, but when a mutilated body is discovered in a polluted lake, he’s forced to act. Luckily, lawyer Cecil Winge is also on the case, hopeful to identify the corpse and the killer before his recent consumption diagnosis does him in. The two hit the streets, quickly finding themselves knee-deep in the maze that is Stockholm’s dark underbelly. What’s so Dickensian about THE WOLF AND THE WATCHMAN is the detailed exploration of the societal classes, including those subjected to the poor workhouses and the wealthy that operate like a secret society. It’s intricate and equally as enthralling, with characters that are fully formed and uniquely memorable. It’s too well-written to put down, and unlike Dickens’s serials, you don’t need to wait for its epic conclusion.

Sometimes it’s simply the ambition of a work that secures its comparison to some of the great novelists of history. That is true of Jamie O’Neill’s powerful work, AT SWIM, TWO BOYS. Set in early twentieth-century Ireland, in the years before the Easter Uprising, the story opens with Arthur Mack. He is a struggling shopkeeper with loyalties to Britain that causes all kinds of trouble with his neighbors. His son, Jim, is more of a wide-eyed optimist, hoping to avoid life in his father’s shop and instead become a teacher of sorts. But when Jim meets Doyler, the son of one of Arthur’s army pals, life becomes far more simplified. Jim immediately falls under the spell of Doyler, forming a special bond with the boy as they swim together at Forty Foot. All the while, Arthur is unaware of the relationship blossoming between his son and Doyler. It’s a tender and tragic love story that, after a decade of writing, is O’Neill’s masterwork—worthy of its parallels to Dickens.

John Irving is a great novelist in his own right. He’s also on the record as being a Dickens fan, with Irving’s previous novels having thematic connections to those of Dickens’s works. THE LAST CHAIRLIFT is no different. While at a competition in Aspen, Colorado, slalom skier Rachel Brewster is impregnated. She decides to raise her son, Adam, back in her native New England, where she marries a local teacher in an effort to avoid suspicions. Rachel (“Little Ray” as she’s known) is gay and spends half of her time with Molly, her secret partner. Adam assumes growing up around women is normal and treats it as a blessing. But he often wonders who his real father is. Haunted—literally, in the form of ghosts that appear throughout the novel—by the question, Adam travels to Aspen, to the hotel his mother left pregnant all those years ago. Like any great Dickens work, Irving’s latest is wonderfully imaginative and shines a light on sexual politics.

Speaking of sexual politics, social reform is one of the mainstays of a Dickens novel. And Kate Manning’s MY NOTORIOUS LIFE explores the actions often taken when there is a severe lack of legislation, especially regarding women’s health. Axie Muldoon is back in New York City. Despite an attempt to save her from the slums, Axie is back and forced to reunite with her mother. Though it isn’t long before her mom passes while attempting to give birth—doing so in the home of a midwife. Out of options, Axie becomes an apprentice to that midwife, learning all the tricks of the trade, including how to terminate a pregnancy if need be. As she becomes a skilled midwife herself, she and her husband, Charlie, start a business that defies the law in support of women’s rights. A business that leads her to serve all manner of clientele, from poor pregnant women to the city’s wealthiest. Eventually, Axie is branded as a child murderer and forced on the run, but her story, and this book, epitomizes the reproductive health controversies that have been ongoing for centuries.

DAUGHTER IN EXILE is Bisi Adjapon’s triumphant work about one Ghanaian woman’s journey to America. Working at an embassy in Senegal in the late nineties, Lola takes up a relationship with an American Marine. But when she unexpectedly becomes pregnant, she elects to travel to the United States in order to secure American citizenship for her child. Originally planning on traveling with the Marine, Lola is forced to make the voyage alone when he disavows her and their unborn baby. Against her own mother’s wishes, she boards a plane and lands in the US as an undocumented immigrant. Much like a character of Dickens’s creation, Lola is subjected to terrible challenges as a result of her undocumented status, including exploitative employers, cruel landlords, and communities that alienate her completely. And yet, despite the burdens she must endure on the streets, she continuously inspires readers with her tenacity and resourcefulness, offering us a picaresque story of resilience straight from a Dickens novel.