riley

I first read this as a tween and I honestly didn't remember much of it at all.

Though I kind of have a love/hate relationship with Dickens, it's pretty tough to say anything bad about this story. It's so unbelievably canonical I have trouble putting it into words. List off a mystery / horror cliche and it probably originated with this story. I exaggerate, but the arc of so many mysteries and horror tales follow a very similar pattern. Dickens may have not been the first to use so many of these tropes, but he was likely the first to achieve so much success with them, and to put them in a package so accessible. And at the same time, he includes his usual social comment. It's when he's brief like this, and when he still thinks about suspense, that I can appreciate it him. A true classic.