Have you tried reading the wordy parts aloud to yourself? Dickens was a born dramatist in a culture that didn't value drama itself very highly - writing, staging and acting plays was a passion with him. And he was also aware, I'm sure, that the serial parts of his novels were bought by one and then read aloud to multiple people in the poorer communities, in what no doubt became a bit of a dramatic event in itself. When I was an undergraduate, I did the same with "A Tale of Two Cities" with a small group of other students (mostly not English lit students) in my dorm; they came back faithfully every night, and I was astonished at the way the rhythms of the spoken language held their attention through the long-drawn-out bits, despite my shortcomings as a reader. It made me wish very much that I could have been in the audience when Dickens was doing his speaking/reading tours.