'One of my life's greatest tragedies is to have already read Pickwick Papers - I can't go back and read it for the first time' Fernando Pessoa Few first novels have created as much popular excitement as The Pickwick Papers - a comic masterpiece that catapulted its twenty-four-year-old author to immediate fame. Readers were captivated by the adventures of the poet Snodgrass, the lover Tupman, the sportsman Winkle and, above all, by that quintessentially English Quixote, Mr Pickwick, and his cockney Sancho Panza, Sam Weller. From the hallowed turf of Dingley Dell...
'One of my life's greatest tragedies is to have already read Pickwick Papers - I can't go back and read it for the first time' Fernando Pess...
Charles Dickens's powerful black comedy of of hypocrisy and greed The greed of his family has led wealthy old Martin Chuzzlewit to become suspicious and misanthropic, leaving his grandson and namesake to make his own way in the world. And so young Martin sets out from the Wiltshire home of his supposed champion, the scheming architect Pecksniff, to seek his fortune in America. In depicting Martin's journey - an experience that teaches him to question his inherited self-interest and egotism - Dickens created many vividly realized figures: the brutish lout Jonas Chuzzlewit, plotting...
Charles Dickens's powerful black comedy of of hypocrisy and greed The greed of his family has led wealthy old Martin Chuzzlewit to become ...
A fascinating account of nineteenth-century America sketched with Charles Dickens's characteristic wit and charm When Charles Dickens set out for America in 1842 he was the most famous man of his day to travel there - curious about the revolutionary new civilization that had captured the English imagination. His frank and often humorous descriptions cover everything from his comically wretched sea voyage to his sheer astonishment at the magnificence of the Niagara Falls, while he also visited hospitals, prisons and law courts and found them exemplary. But Dickens's opinion of...
A fascinating account of nineteenth-century America sketched with Charles Dickens's characteristic wit and charm When Charles Dickens set ...
'One of Dickens' most neglected, but most rewarding, novels' Peter Ackroyd Charles Dickens's Barnaby Rudge is a vivid portrait of London's descent into anarchy, where 'King Mob' rules the streets, and innocent lives are swept up in the chaos. Set against the backdrop of the Gordon Riots of 1780, Barnaby Rudge is a story of mystery and suspense which begins with an unsolved double murder and goes on to involve conspiracy, blackmail, abduction and retribution. Through the course of the novel fathers and sons become opposed, apprentices plot against their masters and...
'One of Dickens' most neglected, but most rewarding, novels' Peter Ackroyd Charles Dickens's Barnaby Rudge is a vivid portrait of Lo...
The story of Little Nell and her "tragedy of sorrows," told in a blend of realism and fairy-tale The sensational bestselling story of Little Nell, the beautiful child thrown into a shadowy, terrifying world, seems to belong less to the history of the Victorian novel than to folklore, fairy tale, or myth. The sorrows of Nell and her grandfather are offset by Dickens's creation of a dazzling contemporary world inhabited by some of his most brilliantly drawn characters-the eloquent ne'er-do-well Dick Swiveller; the hungry maid known as the "Marchioness"; the mannish lawyer Sally...
The story of Little Nell and her "tragedy of sorrows," told in a blend of realism and fairy-tale The sensational bestselling story of Littl...
A collection of stories of matchless charm and enduring popularity that enchanted listeners at Charles Dickens's public readings
Since it was first published in 1843 A Christmas Carol has had an enduring influence on the way we think about the traditions of Christmas. Dickens's story of solitary miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught the true meaning of Christmas by the three ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, has been adapted into countless film and stage versions since it was first published. Dickens's other Christmas writings collected here include 'The...
A collection of stories of matchless charm and enduring popularity that enchanted listeners at Charles Dickens's public readings
Charles Dickens's final, unfinished novel, and one that has puzzled readers and inspired writers since its publication Edwin Drood is contracted to marry orphan Rosa Bud when he comes of age, but when they find that duty has gradually replaced affection, they agree to break off the engagement. Shortly afterwards, in the middle of a storm on Christmas Eve, Edwin disappears, leaving nothing behind but some personal belongings and the suspicion that his jealous uncle John Jasper, madly in love with Rosa, is the killer. And beyond this presumed crime there are further intrigues: the...
Charles Dickens's final, unfinished novel, and one that has puzzled readers and inspired writers since its publication Edwin Drood is cont...
'The most perfect of all the Dickens novels' Virginia Woolf " David Copperfield" is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr Murdstone; his brilliant, but ultimately unworthy school-friend James Steerforth; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble, yet treacherous Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora Spenlow; and the magnificently impecunious Wilkins Micawber, one...
'The most perfect of all the Dickens novels' Virginia Woolf " David Copperfield" is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an u...
His sister makes it clear that her orphaned little brother is nothing but a burden on her. But suddenly things begin to change. Pip's narrow existence is blown apart when he finds an escaped criminal, is summoned to visit a mysterious old woman and meets the icy beauty Estella. Most astoundingly of all, an anonymous person gives him money to begin a new life in London.
Are these events as random as they seem? Or does Pip's fate hang on a series of coincidences he could never have expected?
Pip doesn't expect much from life...
His sister makes it clear that her orphaned little brother is nothing but a burden on her. But suddenly thin...
Features "Christmas Carol" that had a significant influence upon our ideas about the Christmas spirit, and about the season as a time for celebration, charity, and memory.
Features "Christmas Carol" that had a significant influence upon our ideas about the Christmas spirit, and about the season as a time for celebration,...
