Charles Dickens

The Old Curiosity Shop tells the story of Nell Trent, a beautiful and virtuous young girl of “not quite fourteen.” An orphan, she lives with her maternal grandfather in his shop of odds and ends.

In David Copperfield we follow the life of the titular character as he makes a life for himself in England. He finds himself in the care of a cold stepfather who sends him to boarding school, and from there embarks on a journey filled with characters and events that can only be called “Dickensian” in their colorful and just-barely-probable portrayals.

In this fascinating story, Dickens shows the dangers of being driven by a desire for wealth and social status. Pip must establish a sense of self against the plans which others seem to have for him — and somehow discover a firm set of values and priorities.

Three classic short ghost stories include The Signal-Man, a story about a railway signalman haunted by ghosts that are harbingers of terrible rail crashes. Dickens himself was involved in the Staplehurst rail crash on 9 June 1865, and undoubtedly based some part of the story on his experience, as well as the Clayton Tunnel crash that occurred in 1861.

"A Tale of Two Cities" is set in the late 18th Century in London and Paris, before and during the French Revolution. It was a time when injustice was met by a lust for vengeance, and rarely was a distinction made between the innocent and the guilty. It was published in weekly installments from April 1859 to November 1859 in Dickens's new literary periodical titled 'All the Year Round'. This novel is regarded as one of Dickens's most popular and most innovative works.

Based around the Gordon riots of 1780 as seen through the eyes of the simple but good-hearted Barnaby Rudge. The fanatical anti-Catholic Lord George Gordon is treated with some sympathy in the novel, which concludes with a panoramic description of the riots. One of two works that Dickens published in his short-lived weekly serial Master Humphrey's Clock, this was Dickens' first attempt at a historical novel.

A fascinating selection of Dickens' detective stories about the law officers and the circumstances in which they work.

Left penniless by the death of his improvident father, young Nicholas Nickleby assumes responsibility for his mother and sister and seeks help from his Scrooge-like Uncle Ralph. Instantly disliking Nicholas, Ralph sends him to teach in a school run by the stupidly sadistic Wackford Squeers. Nicholas decides to escape, taking with him the orphan Smike, one of Squeers’s most abused young charges, and the two embark on a series of adventurous encounters with an array of humanity’s worst and best—greedy fools, corrupt lechers, cheery innocents, and selfless benefactors.

A Christmas Carol tells the story of a greedy money-lender, Ebeneezer Scrooge, who is first visited by the ghost of his former business partner and then by three spirits⁠—the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. They show Scrooge’s lack of compassion to him, compelling him to act more compassionately in the future and to honor Christmas in his heart.

The final novel by Charles Dickens. The novel was unfinished at the time of Dickens's death on 9 June 1870. Though the novel is named after the character Edwin Drood, it focuses more on Drood's uncle, John Jasper, a precentor, choirmaster, and opium addict, who is in love with his pupil, Rosa Bud. Miss Bud, Edwin Drood's fiancée, has also caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless. Landless and Edwin Drood take an instant dislike to one another. Later Drood disappears under mysterious circumstances.

“Some Christmas Stories” is a collection of six short stories all revolving around the Christmas spirit. But these stories are first and foremost essays about life and about its struggles. Don’t expect a Christmas Carol-type of atmosphere, instead expect some experimental Charles Dickens’ story creation.

A satiric masterpiece about the allure and peril of money, Our Mutual Friend revolves around the inheritance of a dust-heap where the rich throw their trash. When the body of John Harmon, the dust-heap’s expected heir, is found in the Thames, fortunes change hands surprisingly, raising to new heights “Noddy” Boffin, a low-born but kindly clerk who becomes “the Golden Dustman.”

Charles Dickens's first novel. Written for publication as a serial, The Pickwick Papers is a sequence of loosely-related adventures. The action is given as occurring 1827–8. The novel's main character, Samuel Pickwick, Esquire, is a kind and wealthy old gentleman, and the founder and perpetual president of the Pickwick Club. To extend his researches into the quaint and curious phenomena of life, he suggests that he and three other “Pickwickians” should make journeys to places remote from London and report on their findings to the other members of the club.

In this charming series of short stories from Victorian author nonpareil Charles Dickens, four pairs of lovebirds offer up a detailed account of their courtships. There's just one catch — none of the besotted have yet reached the ripe old age of 10. Displaying his usual knack for uncannily accurate characterization, Dickens gives readers a glimpse into the triumphs and trials of schoolyard romance.

Abandoned at an early age, Oliver Twist is forced to live in a dark and dismal London workhouse lorded over by awful Mr. Bumble who cheats the boys of their meager rations. Desperate but determined, Oliver makes his escape. But what he discovers in the harsh streets of London’s underworld makes the workhouse look like a picnic.

Sketches of Young Gentlemen scrutinizes in a very witty and humorous fashion certain familiar characteristics of Victorian men and women.

The only novella of the five Christmas Books that has no supernatural or explicitly religious elements. The setting is an English village that stands on the site of a historic battle. Some characters refer to the battle as a metaphor for the struggles of life, hence the title.

Dickens dedicated the book to "My own dear children, whom I hope it may help, bye and bye, to read with interest larger and better books on the same subject". The history covered the period between 50 BC and 1689, ending with a chapter summarising events from then until the accession of Queen Victoria.