Our Mutual Friend discussion

Just curious to hear some opinions on the following idea which just struck me: How much conversation do you usually encounter in contemporary books?

I was just reading a chapter of Charles Dickens and nearly the entire chapter--10 pages--was given entirely over to a conversation between three characters. It was quite a feat; (as usual Dickens makes it look easy).

Are modern books keeping up this level of depiction; or do you feel they are more about actions--events--incidents? Do you come across long conversations in whatever novel you're reading lately?

Is it possible that current authors shy away from burdening their "txt msg"-acclimated readers with long passages like this? Will life influence art?

I've been particularly conscious of how much dialogue is involved with plots since I had a reader critique some of my earliest efforts at writing with having too little dialogue.

I think that, for the most part, authors are aware that dialogue is generally necessary to good prose writing. Though the give and take, the rhythm of conversation has changed over the decades. Modern conversation seems to me to be filled with more frequent burst of shorter length than what was common in days past.