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 (whose name is never revealed) in his shop of odds and ends. Her grandfather loves her dearly, and Nell does not complain, but she lives a lonely existence with almost no friends her own age. Her only friend is Kit, an honest boy employed at the shop, whom she is teaching to write.

L'histoire concerne un orphelin, Oliver Twist, soumis a des privations et des vexations dans l'hospice paroissial (workhouse) ou il est ne. Choisi par tirage au sort par ses camarades affames, il ose demander une portion supplementaire de gruau et il est alors place chez un croque-mort, d'ou il s'echappe pour prendre la route de Londres; des son arrivee, il rencontre l'un des personnages les plus celebres de Dickens, The Artful Dodger - nom traduit par Ruse matois pour Alfred Gerardin en 1893 et Le Renard dans la collection Pleiade - chef d'une bande de jeunes pickpockets. Naivement confiant...

Philip Pirrip, mas conocido como -Pip-, un nino que tras la muerte de sus padres vive con su hermana y su cunado, conoce, mientras visitaba la tumba de sus progenitores, a un convicto que habia escapado de un barco-prision. El preso le pide al nino colaboracion, asustandolo y amenazandolo, para que este le consiga comida y un instrumento para que pueda liberarse de sus grilletes. Pip decide ayudarlo a escondidas de su rigurosa hermana, que acostumbra a castigarlo con una vara de madera llamada -Tickler-, robando una torta y una lima para el convicto. Despues de varios dias el convicto es...

Pip, orphelin eleve par une soeur reveche, vit ronge par la honte: celle d'etre a la charge de son beau-pere, le forgeron Joe Garnery - celle d'avoir aide, dans les marais, un forcat evade, Magwitch, et celle, enfin, de sa pauvrete devant Estella, la pupille de la riche Melle Havisham. Il reve de devenir digne de la conquerir quand on lui annonce que de grandes esperances lui sont permises grace a un mysterieux mecene. Il part alors pour Londres ou il acquiert le vernis social, et aussi le snobisme, du gentilhomme.

Il Canto di Natale e suddiviso in cinque parti con un protagonista aiutato da spiriti: nella prima parte si descrive il protagonista Ebenezer Scrooge, un ricco, avaro ed egoista vecchio finanziere della Londra del 1843, che non spende nulla nemmeno per se e per il quale il Natale e una perdita di tempo (rimprovera Dio stesso per il riposo domenicale che intralcia il commercio e il guadagno). Talmente infastidito dalle festivita, costringe il suo umile impiegato Bob Cratchit, al quale da uno stipendio da fame, a presentarsi al lavoro anche il giorno della Vigilia di Natale. Per strada risponde...

Un soir de Noel, Scrooge, vieil homme d'affaires avare et cupide, a une hallucination en rentrant chez lui: il voit le fantome de Jacob Marley, son associe decede des annees auparavant, dans le marteau de la porte. Sans s'inquieter outre mesure de cette sottise, Scrooge s'apprete a se mettre au lit lorsque la sonnette qui servait autrefois a appeler les domestiques se met a tinter. Or, cette sonnette aboutit a une piece condamnee depuis bien longtemps, et personne n'a donc pu en tirer la ficelle... Voici le conte de Noel le plus connu de l'auteur, une belle histoire a lire au coin du feu,...

Redlaw is a teacher of chemistry who often broods over wrongs done him and grief from his past. He is haunted by a spirit, who is not so much a ghost as Redlaw's phantom twin and is -an awful likeness of himself...with his features, and his bright eyes, and his grizzled hair, and dressed in the gloomy shadow of his dress...- This spectre appears and proposes to Redlaw that he can allow him to -forget the sorrow, wrong, and trouble you have known...to cancel their remembrance...- Redlaw is hesitant at first, but finally agrees.

John Peerybingle, a carrier, lives with his young wife Dot, their baby boy and their nanny Tilly Slowboy. A cricket chirps on the hearth and acts as a guardian angel to the family. One day a mysterious elderly stranger comes to visit and takes up lodging at Peerybingle's house for a few days. The life of the Peerybingles intersects with that of Caleb Plummer, a poor toymaker employed by the miser Mr. Tackleton. Caleb has a blind daughter Bertha, and a son Edward, who travelled to South America and is thought to be dead.

One New Year's Eve, Trotty, a poor elderly -ticket-porter- or casual messenger, is filled with gloom at the reports of crime and immorality in the newspapers, and wonders whether the working classes are simply wicked by nature. His daughter Meg and her long-time fiance Richard arrive and announce their decision to marry next day. Trotty hides his misgivings, but their happiness is dispelled by an encounter with the pompous Alderman Cute, plus a political economist and a young gentleman with a nostalgia, all of whom make Trotty, Meg and Richard feel they hardly have a right to exist, let alone...

The novel begins as John Jasper leaves a London opium den. The next evening, Edwin Drood visits Jasper, who is the choirmaster at Cloisterham Cathedral. Edwin confides that he has misgivings about his betrothal to Rosa Bud. The next day, Edwin visits Rosa at the Nuns' House, the boarding school where she lives. They quarrel good-naturedly, which they apparently do frequently during his visits. Meanwhile, Jasper, having an interest in the cathedral crypt, seeks the company of Durdles, a man who knows more about the crypt than anyone else.