High on Studies,Low on score

This year is the bicentenary year of Charles Dickens, the famous English novelist of the Victorian age , known for his masterpieces like “A Tale of Two Cities” , “ Pickwick Papers , ‘A Christmas Carol “& “Great Expectations”. He is considered a chronicler of contemporary England- London in particular- and portrayed immortal characters like Pip,, Miss Havisham , Estella , Uncle Scrooge etc, etc .His novel “Great Expectations” was prescribed in our M.A. syllabus , in the seventies, under Victorian literature. Both Dickens and Hardy caught my fancy and are to this day my favourite authors. Hardy’s novel “Tess of the d’Urbervilles “, also prescribed in the syllabus, interested me so much that , it was only Hardy and Dickens that I concentrated on. I hoped to score well in the paper, ironically, Victorian literature was the only paper in which I fell short of fifty , which fact rankles me today even after 36-37 years . After finishing my studies, I went on to read more works by these two authors and became their. ardent admirer. Later I also learnt that the story of Hindi movie “ Dulhan Ek Raat Ki “ was based on “Tess”. The Victorian ‘justice’ meted out to Tess sets one thinking about the ironies, life is made up of.