The Gases Of The Atmosphere - The History Of Their Discovery Book

Read as part of The Infinite Variety Reading Challenge, based on the BBC's Big Read Poll of 2003.

Charles Dickens can do no wrong, except perhaps keep around 100 pages of rather irrelevant tangents in this book.

It was such a powerhouse of characterisation and world-building that I barely know where to begin. All of the characters were utterly divine, even the detestable Uriah Heep and the unbelievably pathetic Dora, and most especially the wonderful early Feminist icon that is Betsy Trotwood. I often have my doubts on first-person narrative, but Dickens is one of the few who can do it so well without losing many of the great advantages of reading with an omnipotent narrator. David Copperfield is unreliable in many fields-mostly his blind-spot for falling in love-but he is in-tune with his surroundings and can express what he feels other characters around him are feeling so suitably that it matters not that we are seeing the world through his young eyes only.

The world was fantastic: I am always immediately transported to these places when I read 19th Century fiction and this was no exception. The strife of the poor and the decadence of the indifferent rich is interwoven here like smoke billowing in to pure oxygen. There were so many nooks and crannies to be explored that it took me a while to get through this nigh-on 900 page book, but it was worth it.

Aside from one or two tangents which meant the story-line stalled ever so slightly, it flowed magnificently and I don't remember laughing so much at a book that wasn't a straight humour novel. Dickens has a way of writing with such endearment about his characters and society, but also tearing them apart at the same time. It was a beautiful ride through the English countryside and a nice run through the heavy streets of London and I don't think Thackeray was wrong when he said, "Bravo Dickens."