Great expectations (revisited...)

Hmmm. Every now and then I find myself reading Great Expectations. Dickens' greatest work, in my opinion. The amount of observation and human interaction within the tale is huge. Colossal. I do wonder if this is my prop for my latest work. It must be - I can't think of any reason for doing it.
Of course, I can't write in the same way - I'd be laughed at, for sure, as the moderness I'm trying to create would jar with the ancient-speak of Dickens' time. Funny, but I rarely think of Sword, now, where the ancient-speak, the cod-mediaeval language, was so apparent. I had thought of myself as the new Tolkien, but was writing a mixture of Peter Pan and King Arthur - a heady mix that, perhaps, was always destined for failure! The sense of failure was acute, so maybe it's no wonder I rarely think of it - it hurts too much to keep dipping into it.
Now, writing about Newcastle and some of the happenings I've discovered/created, I've become quite divorced from writing anything other than my version of a modern English tale. Not even Dickens can get me to write in ancient-speak. Except, of course, where it is called for as part of the story's own ancient history. Failure, which is so easily attainable in the publishing world for an unpublished writer, will cut me hard. As tough as I am on myself, I'm pretty soft when it comes to the failure of rejection. I really don't want to place hurdles in front of myself, when I don't need to.
No, I'm actually looking at Dickens as part of my human interaction education. Newcastle, after all, does feel like a Dickens setting. But it's not just Dickens, though - Banks and Koontz have their own charming wizardry when it comes to conversation and perceptive observation. I know what I like, and these three authors are/were at the top of the tree. Great teachers all.
Hopefully, I've been paying attention...