Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.(from Wikipedia)

A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens’s great historical novel, set against the violent upheaval of the French Revolution. The most famous and perhaps the most popular of his works, it compresses an event of immense complexity to the scale of a family history, with a cast of characters that includes a bloodthirsty ogress and an antihero as believably flawed as any in modern fiction. Though the least typical of the author’s novels, A Tale of Two Cities still underscores many of his enduring themes—imprisonment, injustice, social anarchy, resurrection, and the renunciation that fosters renewal.

Great Expectations

Charles Dickens

Great Expectations charts the progress of Pip from childhood through often painful experiences to adulthood, as he moves from the Kent marshes to busy, commercial London, encountering a variety of extraordinary characters ranging from Magwitch, the escaped convict, to Miss Havisham, locked up with her unhappy past and living with her ward, the arrogant, beautiful Estella. Pip must discover his true self, and his own set of values and priorities. Whether such values allow one to prosper in the complex world of early Victorian England is the major question posed by Great Expectations, one of Dickens's most fascinating, and disturbing, novels. This edition includes the original, discarded ending, Dickens's brief working notes, and the serial instalments and chapter divisions in different editions. It also uses the definitive Clarendon text.

A Tale of Two Cities / Great Expectations

Charles Dickens

Two of the most beloved novels in all of English literature-together in one extraordinary volume. A TALE OF TWO CITIES After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the ageing Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of the two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror, and they soon fall under the lethal shadow of the guillotine. GREAT EXPECTATIONS A terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor- these form a series of events that changes the orphaned Pip's life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman. Dickens's haunting late novel depicts Pip's education and development through adversity as he discovers the true nature of his "great expectations." This deluxe paperback edition features *French flaps *rough-cut high-quality paper *complimentary front- and back-cover designs highlighting each novel and including foil and debossing

A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings

Charles Dickens

An alternate cover for this isbn can be found here. 'Merry Christmas!...every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas" on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding' Dickens' story of solitary miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught the true meaning of Christmas by a series of ghostly visitors, has proved one of his most well-loved works. Ever since it was published in 1843 it has had an enduring influence on the way we think about the traditions of Christmas. Dickens' other Christmas writings collected here include 'The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton', the short story from The Pickwick Papers on which A Christmas Carol was based; The Haunted Man, a tale of a man tormented by painful memories; along with shorter pieces, some drawn from the 'Christmas Stories' that Dickens wrote annually for his weekly journals. In all of them Dickens celebrates the season as one of geniality, charity and remembrance. This new selection contains an introduction by distinguished Dickens scholar Michael Slater discussing how the author has shaped ideas about the Christmas spirit, an appendix on Dickens' use of The Arabian Nights, a further reading list and explanatory notes.

Bleak House

Charles Dickens

The complex story of a notorious law-suit in which love and inheritance are set against the classic urban background of 19th-century London, where fog on the river, seeping into the very bones of the characters, symbolizes the corruption of the legal system and the society which supports it. “Jarndyce and Jarndyce” is an infamous lawsuit that has been in process for generations. Nobody can remember exactly how the case started but many different individuals have found their fortunes caught up in it. Esther Summerson watches as her friends and neighbours are consumed by their hopes and disappointments with the proceedings. But while the intricate puzzles of the lawsuit are being debated by lawyers, other more dramatic mysteries are unfolding that involve heartbreak, lost children, blackmail and murder. The fog and cold that permeate Bleak House mirror a Victorian England mired in spiritual insolvency. Dickens brought all his passion, brilliance, and narrative verve to this huge novel of lives entangled in a multi-generational lawsuit—and through it, he achieved, at age 41, a stature almost Shakespearean.

David Copperfield

Charles Dickens

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 of literature's great comic creations. In David Copperfield - the novel he described as his 'favourite child' - Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of the most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure. This edition uses the text of the first volume publication of 1850, and includes updated suggestions for further reading, original illustrations by 'Phiz', a revised chronology and expanded notes. In his new introduction, Jeremy Tambling discusses the novel's autobiographical elements, and its central themes of memory and identity.

Oliver Twist

Charles Dickens

A gripping portrayal of London's dark criminal underbelly, published in Penguin Classics with an introduction by Philip Horne. The story of Oliver Twist - orphaned, and set upon by evil and adversity from his first breath - shocked readers when it was published. After running away from the workhouse and pompous beadle Mr Bumble, Oliver finds himself lured into a den of thieves peopled by vivid and memorable characters - the Artful Dodger, vicious burglar Bill Sikes, his dog Bull's Eye, and prostitute Nancy, all watched over by cunning master-thief Fagin. Combining elements of Gothic Romance, the Newgate Novel and popular melodrama, Dickens created an entirely new kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society, and pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery. This Penguin Classics edition of Oliver Twist is the first critical edition to faithfully reproduce the text as its earliest readers would have encountered it from its serialisation in Bentley's Miscellany, and includes an introduction by Philip Horne, a glossary of Victorian thieves' slang, a chronology of Dickens's life, a map of contemporary London and all of George Cruikshank's original illustrations. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Dombey and Son

Charles Dickens

Paul Dombey is a wealthy shipping merchant whose wife dies giving birth to their second child, a long-hoped-for son and heir. Young Paul's health is fragile and he dies aged six, dashing his father's hopes...

The Old Curiosity Shop

Charles Dickens

The archetypal Victorian melodrama, as heartfelt and moving today as when it was first published, Charles Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop is edited with notes and an introduction by Norman Page in Penguin Classics. Little Nell Trent lives in the quiet gloom of the old curiosity shop with her ailing grandfather, for whom she cares with selfless devotion. But when they are unable to pay their debts to the stunted, lecherous and demonic money-lender Daniel Quilp, the shop is seized and they are forced to flee, thrown into a shadowy world in which there seems to be no safe haven. Dickens's portrayal of the innocent, tragic Nell made The Old Curiosity Shop an instant bestseller that captured the hearts of the nation, even as it was criticised for its sentimentality by figures such as Oscar Wilde. Yet alongside the story's pathos are some of Dickens's greatest comic and grotesque creations: the ne'er-do-well Dick Swiveller, the mannish lawyer Sally Brass, the half-starved 'Marchioness' and the lustful, loathsome Quilp himself. This edition, based on the original text of 1841, contains an introduction by Norman Page discussing the various contrasting themes of the novel and its roots in Dickens's own personal tragedy, with prefaces to the 1841 and 1848 editions, a chronology, notes and original illustrations produced for the serial version. Charles Dickens is one of the best-loved novelists in the English language, whose 200th anniversary was celebrated in 2012. His most famous books, including Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield and The Pickwick Papers, have been adapted for stage and screen and read by millions. If you enjoyed The Old Curiosity Shop, you might like Dickens's Hard Times, also available in Penguin Classics.

Barnaby Rudge

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens’s first historical novel–set during the anti-Catholic riots of 1780–is an unparalleled portrayal of the terror of a rampaging mob, seen through the eyes of the individuals swept up in the chaos. Those individuals include Emma, a Catholic, and Edward, a Protestant, whose forbidden love weaves through the heart of the story; and the simpleminded Barnaby, one of the riot leaders, whose fate is tied to a mysterious murder and whose beloved pet raven, Grip, embodies the mystical power of innocence. The story encompasses both the rarified aristocratic world and the volatile streets and nightmarish underbelly of London, which Dickens characteristically portrays in vivid, pulsating detail. But the real focus of the book is on the riots themselves, depicted with an extraordinary energy and redolent of the dangers, the mindlessness, and the possibilities–both beneficial and brutal–of the mob. One of the lesser-known novels, Barnaby Rudge is nonetheless among the most brilliant–and most terrifying–in Dickens’s oeuvre.

The Chimes

Charles Dickens

"The Chimes" is Charles Dickens 1844 novella that concerns the disillusionment of Toby "Trotty" Veck, a poor working-class man. When Trotty has lost his faith in Humanity and believes that his poverty is the result of his unworthiness he is visited on New Year's Eve by spirits to help restore his faith and show him that nobody is born evil, but rather that crime and poverty are things created by man.

Martin Chuzzlewit

Charles Dickens

While writing Martin Chuzzlewit - his sixth novel - Dickens declared it 'immeasurably the best of my stories.' He was already famous as the author of The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist. Set partly in America, which Dickens had visited in 1842, the novel includes a searing satire on the United States. Martin Chuzzlewit is the story of two Chuzzlewits, Martin and Jonas, who have inherited the characteristic Chuzzlewit selfishness. It contrasts their diverse fates of moral redemption and worldly success for one, with increasingly desperate crime for the other. This powerful black comedy involves hypocrisy, greed and blackmail, as well as the most famous of Dickens's grotesques, Mrs Gamp.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens's final, unfinished novel, and one that has puzzled readers and inspired writers since its publication, The Mystery of Edwin Drood is edited with an introduction by David Paroissien in Penguin Classics. 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 dark opium dens of the sleepy cathedral town of Cloisterham, and the sinister double life of Choirmaster Jasper, whose drug-fuelled fantasy life belies his respectable appearance. Dickens died before completing The Mystery of Edwin Drood, leaving its tantalising mystery unsolved and encouraging successive generations of readers to turn detective. This edition contains an introduction by David Paroissien, discussing the novel's ending, with a chronology, notes, original illustrations by Samuel Luke Fildes, appendices on opium use in the nineteenth century, the 'Sapsea Fragment' and Dickens's plans for the story's conclusion. Charles Dickens is one of the best-loved novelists in the English language, whose 200th anniversary was celebrated in 2012. His most famous books, including Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield and The Pickwick Papers, have been adapted for stage and screen and read by millions. If you enjoyed The Mystery of Edwin Drood, you might like Dickens's Little Dorrit, also available in Penguin Classics.

Our Mutual Friend

Charles Dickens

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 last complete novel, Our Mutual Friend encompasses the great themes of his earlier works: the pretensions of the nouveaux riches, the ingenuousness of the aspiring poor, and the unfailing power of wealth to corrupt all who crave it. With its flavorful cast of characters and numerous subplots, Our Mutual Friend is one of Dickens’s most complex—and satisfying—novels.

The Pickwick Papers

Charles Dickens

Few first novels have created as much popular excitement as The Pickwick Papers–-a comic masterpiece that catapulted its 24-year-old author to immediate fame. Readers were captivated by the adventures of the poet Snodgrass, the lover Tupman, the sportsman Winkle &, above all, by that quintessentially English Quixote, Mr Pickwick, & his cockney Sancho Panza, Sam Weller. From the hallowed turf of Dingley Dell Cricket Club to the unholy fracas of the Eatanswill election, via the Fleet debtor’s prison, characters & incidents sprang to life from Dickens’s pen, to form an enduringly popular work of ebullient humour & literary invention.

Little Dorrit

Charles Dickens

A novel of serendipity, of fortunes won and lost, and of the spectre of imprisonment that hangs over all aspects of Victorian society, Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit is edited with an introduction by Stephen Wall in Penguin Classics. When Arthur Clennam returns to England after many years abroad, he takes a kindly interest in Amy Dorrit, his mother's seamstress, and in the affairs of Amy's father, William Dorrit, a man of shabby grandeur, long imprisoned for debt in Marshalsea prison. As Arthur soon discovers, the dark shadow of the prison stretches far beyond its walls to affect the lives of many, from the kindly Mr Panks, the reluctant rent-collector of Bleeding Heart Yard, and the tipsily garrulous Flora Finching, to Merdle, an unscrupulous financier, and the bureaucratic Barnacles in the Circumlocution Office. A masterly evocation of the state and psychology of imprisonment, Little Dorrit is one of the supreme works of Dickens's maturity.

Nicholas Nickleby

Charles Dickens

When Nicholas Nickleby is left penniless after his father's death, he appeals to his wealthy uncle to help him find work and to protect his mother and sister. But Ralph Nickleby proves both hard-hearted and unscrupulous, and Nicholas finds himself forced to make his own way in the world. His adventures gave Dickens the opportunity to portray an extraordinary gallery of rogues and Wackford Squeers, the tyrannical headmaster of Dotheboys Hall, a school for unwanted boys; the slow-witted orphan Smike, rescued by Nicholas; and the gloriously theatrical Mr and Mrs Crummles and their daughter, the 'infant phenonenon'. Like many of Dickens's novels, Nicholas Nickleby is characterised by his outrage at cruelty and social injustice, but it is also a flamboyantly exuberant work, revealing his comic genius at its most unerring.

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens

'If I had my way, every idiot who goes around with Merry Christmas on his lips, would be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. Merry Christmas? Bah humbug!' Introduction and Afterword by Joe Wheeler To bitter, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, Christmas is just another day. But all that changes when the ghost of his long-dead business partner appears, warning Scrooge to change his ways before it's too late. Part of the Focus on the Family Great Stories collection, this abridged edition features an in-depth introduction and discussion questions by Joe Wheeler to provide greater understanding for today's reader. "A Christmas Carol" captures the heart of the holidays like no other novel.

Hard Times

Charles Dickens

"My satire is against those who see figures and averages, and nothing else," proclaimed Charles Dickens in explaining the theme of this classic novel. Published in 1854, the story concerns one Thomas Gradgrind, a "fanatic of the demonstrable fact," who raises his children, Tom and Louisa, in a stifling and arid atmosphere of grim practicality. Without a moral compass to guide them, the children sink into lives of desperation and despair, played out against the grim background of Coketown, a wretched community shadowed by an industrial behemoth. Louisa falls into a loveless marriage with Josiah Bouderby, a vulgar banker, while the unscrupulous Tom, totally lacking in principle, becomes a thief who frames an innocent man for his crime. Witnessing the degradation and downfall of his children, Gradgrind realizes that his own misguided principles have ruined their lives. Considered Dickens' harshest indictment of mid-19th-century industrial practices and their dehumanizing effects, this novel offers a fascinating tapestry of Victorian life, filled with the richness of detail, brilliant characterization, and passionate social concern that typify the novelist's finest creations. Of Dickens' work, the eminent Victorian critic John Ruskin had this to say: "He is entirely right in his main drift and purpose in every book he has written; and all of them, but especially Hard Times, should be studied with close and earnest care by persons interested in social questions."

Een kerstvertelling

Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens. It was first published by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. It tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation resulting from a supernatural visit by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. The book was written and published in early Victorian era Britain, a period when there was strong nostalgia for old Christmas traditions together with the introduction of new customs, such as Christmas trees and greeting cards. Dickens' sources for the tale appear to be many and varied, but are, principally, the humiliating experiences of his childhood, his sympathy for the poor, and various Christmas stories and fairy tales.

A Christmas Carol / The Chimes / The Cricket on the Hearth

Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, and The Cricket on the Hearth, by Charles Dickens, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Generations of readers have been enchanted by Dickens’s A Christmas Carol—the most cheerful ghost story ever written, and the unforgettable tale of Ebenezer Scrooge’s moral regeneration. Written in just a few weeks, A Christmas Carol famously recounts the plight of Bob Cratchit, whose family finds joy even in poverty, and the transformation of his miserly boss Scrooge as he is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.From Scrooge’s “Bah!” and “Humbug!” to Tiny Tim’s “God bless us every one!” A Christmas Carol shines with warmth, decency, kindness, humility, and the value of the holidays. But beneath its sentimental surface, A Christmas Carol offers another of Dickens’s sharply critical portraits of a brutal society, and an inspiring celebration of the possibility of spiritual, psychological, and social change.This new volume collects Dickens’s three most renowned “Christmas Books,” including The Chimes, a New Year’s tale, and The Cricket on the Hearth, whose eponymous creature remains silent during sorrow and chirps amid happiness.Katharine Kroeber Wiley, the daughter of a scholar and a sculptor, has a degree in English Literature from Occidental College. Her work has appeared in Boundary Two and the recent book, Lore of the Dolphin. She is currently working on a book on Victorian Christmas writings.

A Christmas Carol Hardcover Book | LitJoyCrate Special Edition | Illustrated and Displayable for Reading and Your Holiday Decor

Charles Dickens

Step into the enchanting world of Ebenezer Scrooge and the holiday spirit with "A Christmas Carol," a cherished masterpiece by Charles Dickens that has captivated hearts for generations. This beautifully crafted edition brings to life the magic of Christmas, making it the perfect addition to your holiday reading collection. 🎄 Immerse Yourself in the Spirit of Experience the magic of Christmas like never before as you follow the transformation of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge into a kind-hearted and generous soul, all within the backdrop of Victorian London. Dickens' vivid descriptions and memorable characters will transport you to a bygone era where compassion and redemption take center stage. 🎁 A Timeless Tale of Discover the timeless message of hope, redemption, and the true meaning of Christmas. Ebenezer Scrooge's overnight journey guided by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come serves as a powerful reminder that it's never too late to change and embrace the joy of the holiday season. 📚 A Must-Have Collector's This special edition of "A Christmas Carol" is exquisitely bound, making it an ideal gift for yourself or a loved one. Its sturdy hardcover, elegant design, and high-quality pages ensure that it will be a cherished keepsake for years to come.

David Copperfield [Audible]

Charles Dickens

Between his work on the 2014 Audible Audiobook of the Year, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Novel, and his performance of Classic Love Poems, narrator Richard Armitage (The Hobbit, Hannibal) has quickly become a listener favorite. Now, in this defining performance of Charles Dickens' classic David Copperfield, Armitage lends his unique voice and interpretation, truly inhabiting each character and bringing real energy to the life of one of Dickens' most famous characters. This epic, exuberant novel is one of the greatest coming-of-age stories in literature, chronicling David Copperfield's extraordinary journey through life as he encounters villains, saviors, eccentrics, and grotesques - including the wicked Mr. Murdstone, stouthearted Peggotty, formidable Betsey Trotwood, impecunious Micawber, and the odious Uriah Heep. Dickens' great novel (based, in part, on his own boyhood and which he described as a "favorite child") is a work filled with life, both comic and tragic. Listen to Richard Armitage bring Dickens' words to life, and you'll understand why Virginia Woolf called David Copperfield "the most perfect of all the Dickens novels".

Різдвяна пісня у прозі

Charles Dickens

Напередодні Різдва до скнари й відлюдника Ебенезера Скруджа навідуються чотири духи. Розповідаючи цю історію, Чарльз Дікенс хотів нагадати людям про справжню сутність і сенс цього чудового свята. Повість написано легко й водночас глибоко, з великою любов’ю. Тож не дивно, що ця книжка одразу стала сенсацією та справила неабиякий вплив на укріплення різдвяних традицій в XIX ст. Вона й досі залишається живою й актуальною, промовляючи до людських сердець.

Повесть о двух городах (Russian Edition)

Charles Dickens

Повествование о временах Французской революции, оставляющее у читателя ощущение, что он сам был свидетелем тех событий. «Это было самое прекрасное время, это было самое злосчастное время, — век мудрости, век безумия, дни веры, дни безверия, пора света, пора тьмы, весна надежд, стужа отчаяния, у нас было все впереди, у нас впереди ничего не было, мы то витали в небесах, то вдруг обрушивались в преисподнюю».

A Christmas Carol and Other Stories

Charles Dickens

This collectable series is the most comprehensive illustrated Dickens available. Each volume includes up to seventy-six early engravings, many of which appeared in the first editions of these works. This text is derived from the Charles Dickens Edition, revised by the author in the 1860s.

Quentin Blake's A Christmas Carol: 2015 Edition

Charles Dickens

A beautiful edition of Dickens's timeless Christmas classic. A Christmas Carol is the book that defines the Christmas spirit. Ebenezer Scrooge, a mean-spirited miser, is visited by three ghosts one Christmas Eve. The ghosts show Scrooge the true value of Christmas: charity, good humour and love for his fellow man. Quentin Blake's colourful illustrations guide the reader through Scrooge's lively journey to find the meaning of Christmas. This unabridged edition contains a foreword by the illustrator and is the ultimate Christmas gift book.

American Notes For General Circulation

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was the most famous of many travelers of his time who journeyed to America, curious about the revolutionary new civilization that had captured the English imagination. His frank, often humorous descriptions in his 1842 account cover everything from his uncomfortable sea voyage to an ecstatic narrative of his visit to Niagara Falls. Yet Dickens is also critical of American society, its preoccupation with money, and reliance on slavery, as well as the rude, unsavory manners of Americans and their corrupt press. Above all, American Notes is a lively chronicle of what was for Dickens an illuminating encounter with the New World. (Alternate cover edition of 9780140436495)

Sketches by Boz (Penguin Classics)

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens's first published book, Sketches by Boz (1836) heralded an exciting new voice in English literature. This richly varied collection of observation, fancy and fiction shows the London he knew so intimately at its best and worst - its streets, theatres, inns, pawnshops, law courts, prisons, omnibuses and the river Thames - in honest and visionary descriptions of everyday life and people. Through pen portraits that often anticipate characters from his great novels, we see the condemned man in his prison cell, garrulous matrons, vulgar young clerks and Scrooge-like bachelors, while Dickens's powers for social critique are never far from the surface, in unflinching depictions of the vast metropolis's forgotten citizens, from child workers to prostitutes. A startling mixture of humour and pathos, these Sketches reveal London as wonderful terrain for an extraordinary young writer.Sketches is a remarkable achievement, and looks towards Dickens's giant novels in its profusion of characters, its glimpses of surreal modernity and its limitless fund of pathos and comic invention.

Selected Short Fiction (Penguin Classics)

Charles Dickens

Stories of comedy and character from one of Britain's greatest novelists This witty and amusing collection of short pieces shows Dickens liberated from the more formal and sustained demands of the novel and experimenting with a diverse range of fictional techniques. In his tales of the supernatural, he creates frighteningly believable, spine-tingling stories of prophetic dreams and visions, as well as more fantastical adventures with goblins and apparitions. Impressionistic sketches combine imaginatively heightened travel journals with wry observations of home and abroad, while in his dramatic monologues, Dickens demonstrates his talent for exploring the secret workings of the human mind. These short works display Dickens's exuberant sense of comedy and character as his imagination is given free rein. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The Uncommercial Traveller

Charles Dickens

'And O, Angelica, what has become of you, this present Sunday morning when I can't attend to the sermon; and, more difficult question than that, what has become of Me as I was when I sat by your side?' At the height of his career, around the time he was working on Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend , Charles Dickens wrote a series of sketches, mostly set in London, which he collected as The Uncommercial Traveller . In the persona of 'the Uncommercial', Dickens wanders the city streets and brings London, its inhabitants, commerce and entertainment vividly to life. Sometimes autobiographical, as childhood experiences are interwoven with adult memories, the sketches include visits to the Paris Morgue, the Liverpool docks, a workhouse, a school for poor children, and the theatre. They also describe the perils of travel, including seasickness, shipwreck, the coming of the railways, and the wretchedness of dining in English hotels and restaurants. The work is quintessential Dickens, with each piece showcasing his imaginative writing style, his keen observational powers, and his characteristic wit. In this edition Daniel Tyler explores Dickens's fascination with the city and the book's connections with concerns evident in his fiction: social injustice, human mortality, a fascination with death and the passing of time. Often funny, sometimes indignant, always exuberant, The Uncommercial Traveller is a revelatory encounter with Dickens, and the Victorian city he knew so well.

A Christmas Carol And The Cricket On The Hearth (Children's Classics Series)

Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol Renowned for his penny-pinching ways, Scrooge's magical encounters with the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future result in a delightful surprise for Tiny Tim and the whole Crachit family. The Cricket on the Hearth The fairy-like influence of the cricket helps solve a misunderstanding that threatens to upset the happiness of John Peerybingle, and his young wife Dot.

The Magic Fishbone

Charles Dickens

The books in the reprint series have been carefully selected for their contemporary usefulness as well as their historical importance within the intellectual. We reconstruct the book with slight enhancements made for better presentation, without affecting the contents of the original edition

Christmas Classics

Charles Dickens

The six volumes in the Penguin Christmas Classics are not only our most beloved Christmas tales, they also have given us much of what we love about the holiday itself. Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol revived in Victorian England such Christmas hallmarks as the Christmas tree, holiday cards, and caroling. The Yuletide yarns of Anthony Trollope, brought together in Christmas at Thompson Hall and Other Christmas Stories, popularized throughout the British Empire and around the world the trappings of Christmas in London. L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus created the origin story for the presiding spirit of Christmas as we know it. The holiday tales of Louisa May Alcott, collected in A Merry Christmas and Other Christmas Stories, shaped the ideal of an American Christmas. Nikolai Gogol's The Night Before Christmas brought forth some of our earliest Christmas traditions as passed down through folk tales. And E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Nutcracker inspired the most famous ballet in history, one seen by millions in the twilight of every year. Beautifully designed hardcovers-with foil-stamped jackets, decorative endpapers, and nameplates for personalization-in a small trim size that makes them perfect stocking stuffers, Penguin Christmas Classics embody the spirit of giving that is at the heart of our most time-honoured stories about the holiday.

Charles Dickens: Five Novels

Charles Dickens

This book, newly updated, contains now several HTML tables of contents that will make reading a real pleasure! The first table of contents (at the very beginning of the ebook) lists the titles of all novels included in this volume. By clicking on one of those titles you will be redirected to the beginning of that work, where you'll find a new TOC that lists all the chapters and sub-chapters of that specific work. This book contains the complete novels of Charles Dickens in the chronological order of their original publication. - The Pickwick Papers - Oliver Twist - Nicholas Nickleby - The Old Curiosity Shop . - Barnaby Rudge - Martin Chuzzlewit - Dombey and Son - David Copperfield - Bleak House - Hard Times - Little Dorrit - A Tale of Two Cities - Great Expectations - Our Mutual Friend - The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Grandes esperanzas

Charles Dickens

Pocas veces como en Grandes esperanzas se presenta la oportunidad de poder entregarse al placer de leer por leer. En efecto, las venturas y desventuras que desde su infancia y en las primeras líneas empieza a contarnos el huérfano Pip nos arrastran con la fuerza de un río hasta un final feliz, aunque teñido de normalidad y melancolía. A lo largo del relato que de su vida nos hace el protagonista, desfila ante nosotros una galería inolvidable de personajes la brutal hermana de Pip y su marido, el sencillo Joe Gargery; la dulce Biddy, la extravagante señorita Havisham, la desdeñosa y cruel Estella... sometidos a temores, culpas, amores contrariados, accidentes, golpes de fortuna, ilusiones y frustraciones, descubrimientos imprevistos y pequeñas aventuras en una de las novelas más redondas del autor.

Charles Dickens Supernatural Short Stories

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens is a much-loved author for his vast and important contributions to English literature. This collection brings together his supernatural short stories, some of which were included in his longer works, and others that originally featured in magazines, including ‘The Bagman’s Story’, ‘The Ghost in the Bride’s Chamber’ and ‘To Be Read at Dusk,’ among others. They are all fantastically gripping stories from one of the greatest writers of all-time.

The Great Winglebury Duel (Penguin Little Black Classics, #37)

Charles Dickens

'Desperate-minded villain!' Two of Dickens' hilarious early stories from Sketches by Boz: 'The Great Winglebury Duel' and 'Bloomsbury Christening' Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Charles Dickens (1812-1870). All Dickens' novels and other major works are available in Penguin Classics.

Canto di Natale

Charles Dickens

To Be Read at Dusk

Charles Dickens

Three ghostly tales from a master of the form The Signalman The Trial for Murder and the title story To Be Read at Dusk One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946 Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics huge range and diversity with works from around the world and across the centuries including fables decadence heartbreak tall tales satire ghosts battles and elephants

Le campane

Charles Dickens

Londra, dicembre 1844: Toby Veck è un umile e onesto fattorino di strada che trova conforto e fiducia alla sua condizione di ”povero diavolo” nel lieto suono delle Campane sotto alle quali attende con pazienza qualche messaggio da recapitare, e quindi anche qualche scellino da guadagnare. Ma per Toby le Campane non suonano soltanto; per Toby le Campane mormorano, sussurrano e bisbigliano parole che lo portano a riflettere sull'importanza dell’amore, dell’amicizia e della fiducia nell'ingiusta e ipocrita società vittoriana che si limita a imporre una visione del mondo utilitaristica e senz'anima.

Charles Dickens: The Complete Novels

Charles Dickens

This book contains the complete novels of Charles Dickens in the chronological order of their original publication. - The Pickwick Papers - Oliver Twist - Nicholas Nickleby - The Old Curiosity Shop - Barnaby Rudge - Martin Chuzzlewit - Dombey and Son - David Copperfield - Bleak House - Hard Times - Little Dorrit - A Tale of Two Cities - Great Expectations - Our Mutual Friend - The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Grandes Esperanças

Charles Dickens

Se Charles John Huffman Dickens (1812-1870) foi um escritor irônico e contundente, com Grandes esperanças provou-se capaz também de ser contido e reflexivo, ao produzir o seu último romance. O livro mostra Dickens no auge da forma, produzindo uma história de desilusão que mais tarde seria saudada por autores como George Bernard Shaw e G. K. Chesterton pela perfeição narrativa.A grande característica de Grandes esperanças é ser uma história de redenção moral do protagonista, Pip, um órfão criado rigidamente pela irmã num lar humilde e disfuncional, que, após herdar inesperadamente uma fortuna, rejeita a família e os amigos por se envergonhar da própria origem.No começo conhecemos o infortúnio de Pip, o narrador que vive aterrorizado pela irmã mais velha que, após a morte dos pais, o criou “com a mão de ferro”, bordão para a maneira rígida e por vezes violenta com que trata o filho de criação e também o marido, o ferreiro Joe Gargery. Sua vida começa a mudar com o inesperado convite para que passe a visitar Miss Havisham, uma mulher rica da aldeia, e seja companhia de sua filha adotiva, Estella. Pip imediatamente tem uma queda pela garota, sentimento que se transformará em amor durante a vida adulta e o conduzirá à imoralidade.A vida de Pip sofre uma reviravolta ainda maior quando, já se preparando para o ofício de ferreiro, recebe a visita de um advogado, que anuncia que o jovem é herdeiro de uma fortuna. Após abandonar a família para viver em Londres, Pip passa a desprezar a sua vida anterior, tentando tornar-se digno de se casar com Estella, que, no entanto, não se interessa por seus sentimentos.Dividido em três partes, discutindo a bondade, a culpa e o desejo, o romance originalmente foi escrito como um folhetim e publicado na revista semanal All the Year Round, entre dezembro de 1860 e agosto de 1861, tornando-se um grande sucesso. Dickens toma o cuidado de não buscar a empatia fácil com o leitor, fazendo de Pip um personagem sincero em sua imoralidade e, quando se arrepende, na busca pela redenção.

Historia de dos ciudades

Charles Dickens

Christmas Carol (Wordsworth Collector's Editions)

Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol is the most famous, heart-warming and chilling festive story of them all. In these pages we meet Ebenezer Scrooge, whose name is synonymous with greed and parsimony: 'Every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas" on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart'. This attitude is soon challenged when the ghost of his old partner, Jacob Marley, returns from the grave to haunt him on Christmas Eve. Scrooge is then visited in turn by three spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future, each one revealing the error of his ways and gradually melting the frozen heart of this old miser, leading him towards his redemption. On the journey we take with Scrooge we encounter a rich array of Dickensian characters including the poor Cratchit family with the ailing Tiny Tim and the generous and jolly Fezziwig. When Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843 he fashioned an enduring gift to the world, capturing the essence of the love, kindness and generosity of the Christmas season. It is a timeless classic and the story's uplifting magic remains as potent today as when it was first published.

De grandes espérances

Charles Dickens

Elevé, à la mort de ses parents, par le redoutable dragon domestique que le Ciel lui a donné pour sœur, Pip (Philip Pirrip) semble promis à l’existence obscure d’un jeune villageois sans fortune. C’est compter sans la bienveillance des divinités tutélaires qui veillent sur son enfance. Car Pip a le privilège de vivre au milieu de créatures singulières dont l’existence seule accrédite la croyance au miracle : il y a tout d’abord le sourire débonnaire, l’amitié protectrice et complice de son beau-frère, le forgeron Joe Gargery, puis la rencontre terrifiante mais bientôt miraculeuse d’Abel Magwitch, forçat au grand cœur, émule de Jean Valjean, qui saura lui rendre au centuple son modeste bienfait. Mais il y a surtout la pittoresque Miss Havisham et son éblouissante protégée, Estella. Estella au nom prédestiné, dont la froide et fascinante beauté exalte et désespère tout à la fois le jeune Pip : « J’ai regardé les étoiles et j’ai pensé que ce serait affreux pour un homme en train de mourir de soif de tourner son visage vers elles et de ne trouver ni secours ni pitié dans cette multitude scintillante. » Car les « grandes espérances » qui portent le jeune Pip ne sont pas les aspirations prosaïques de l’Angleterre victorienne, sa recherche du confort ou de la respectabilité, mais bien les puissances du rêve qui nous font chercher le bonheur au-delà de la Sagesse.

A Child's Dream of a Star

Charles Dickens

This early work is Charles Dickens 1871 short children s story, A Child's Dream of a Star . It is the charming and heart-warming tale of a brother and sister s musings on life and death inspired by night-time star-gazing. This timeless and delightfully-illustrated story would make for a fantastic addition to any family collection, and is not to be missed by lovers of Dickens seminal work. Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812 1870) was an English author widely considered to be the most important novelist of the Victorian era. Many classic books such as this are becoming increasingly rare and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author."

The Signalman

Charles Dickens

Presents the tale of a young man who, after listening to an eccentric railroad signalman's predictions of disaster, must question whether the power to see into the future is worth the terrible price

Great Expectations: Abridged Edition (Puffin Classics)

Charles Dickens

As a small boy at Joe Gargery's forge, Pip meets two people who will affect his whole life - an escaped convict he is forced to help, and the eccentric Miss Haversham, whose beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella young Pip adores. But when a secret benefactor pays for him to go to London to become a gentleman, Pip never dreams he will meet the dreadful Magwitch again, nor just how wrong his expectations are.

Complete Ghost Stories

Charles Dickens

Interest in supernatural phenomena was high during Charles Dickens' lifetime. He had always loved a good ghost story himself, particularly at Christmas time, and was open-minded, willing to accept, and indeed put to the test, the existence of spirits. His natural inclinations toward drama and the macabre made him a brilliant teller of ghost tales, and in the twenty stories presented here, which include his celebrated A Christmas Carol, the full range of his gothic talents can be seen. Chilling as some of these stories are, Dickens has managed to inject characteristically grotesque comedy as he writes of revenge, insanity, pre-cognition and dream visions, he indulges also in some debunking of contemporary credulity.

O Natal dos Fantasmas

Charles Dickens

Em uma seleção especial com doze histórias de grandes mestres do suspense e fantasia, incluindo contos inéditos no Brasil, acompanhe fantasmas, moradores de mansões inadvertidos, antiquários recheados de vultos, festas de Natal com visitantes espectrais e outros enredos assombrados.

The Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens

Um Conto de Duas Cidades

Charles Dickens

Uma sociedade em mudança. Um povo brilhante a tentar ser realmente livre nos seus triunfos e derrotas. Uma pintura viva da Revolução Francesa. Uma novela histórica que nos chega com a frescura de toda a crítica social de Dickens.

A Christmas Carol: (Unabridged) The Complete 5 Staves, by Charles Dickens (Illustrated by John Leech), Prefaced by Dickens.: A Ghost Story of Christmas

Charles Dickens

The classic tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, a wealthy miser. A lesson about charity, overcoming hardship, and courage.This book The unabridged 5 staves version of the story* Beautifully illustrated by John Leech. * Prefaced by Dickens.This will be a timeless addition to your collection.N.B. Whilst this is a public domain work, this edition has been differentiated. Please respect the copyright of the publisher.