Charles Dickens

I give Pirrip as my father's family name, on the authority of his tombstone and my sister, -Mrs. Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith. As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like were unreasonably derived from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my father's, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair. From the character and turn of the inscription, "Also Georgiana Wife of the Above," I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly. To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine, -who gave up trying to get a living, exceedingly early in that universal struggle, -I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of existen

The tale begins on a "cold, bleak, biting" Christmas Eve exactly seven years after the death of Scrooge's business partner Jacob Marley. Scrooge, an old miser, is established within the first stave as "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner " He hates Christmas, calling it "humbug"; he refuses his nephew Fred's Christmas dinner invitation, and rudely turns away two gentlemen who seek a donation from him to provide a Christmas dinner for the poor. His only "Christmas gift" is allowing his overworked, underpaid clerk Bob Cratchit Christmas Day off with pay - which he does only to keep with social custom, Scrooge considering it "a poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every 25th of December " At home that night, Scrooge is visited by Marley's ghost, who is forever cursed to wander the earth dragging a network of heavy chains, forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness. Dickens describes the apparition thus: "Marley's face ... had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar." Marley has a bandage under his chin, tied at the top of his head; "... how much greater was his horror, when the phantom taking off the bandage round its head, as if it were too warm to wear indoors, its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast "

Charles Dickens’s second novel is the tale of a young orphan who faces the gruelling conditions of a Victorian workhouse before finding himself sucked into the criminal underworld of London. Teeming with unforgettable characters such as the villainous Fagin, the virtuous Nancy and the brutal Bill Sikes, Oliver Twist combines dark humour, elements of melodrama and social polemic. At once a ferocious indictment of the author’s era and a timeless story of coming of age, this classic has enthralled readers and inspired countless adaptations and imitations since it was first published in 1838.

Ce recueil comprend les contes suivants: (1) Cantique de No l (2) Les conteurs la ronde (3) Le signaleur (4) Le grillon du foyer

Une fois adulte, David Copperfield nous raconte l'histoire de sa jeunesse. Jeune gar on, il m ne une existence heureuse avec sa m re et sa nourrice, Peggotty, puisque son p re est mort avant sa naissance. Au cours de sa petite enfance, sa m re se remarie avec le violent M. Murdstone, qui am ne avec lui sa soeur, la s v re Melle Murdstone, lorsqu'il emm nage. Les Murdstone traitent cruellement David, et un jour celui-ci, lors d'une dispute violente, mord la main de son beau-p re. Les Murdstone se d barrassent alors de lui en l'envoyant l' cole...

Le magasin d'antiquit s raconte l'histoire de Nell Trent, belle et vertueuse jeune fille de pas tout fait quatorze ans . Orpheline, elle vit avec son grand-p re maternel, rest sans nom, au milieu du bric- -brac de son magasin d'antiquit s. Son existence est solitaire, presque uniquement consacr e l'amour du vieillard et aux soins qu'elle lui prodigue; sans v ritable compagne ou compagnon de son ge, son seul ami est Kit, le jeune employ de la boutique qui elle tente d'enseigner l' criture.

Le magasin d'antiquit s raconte l'histoire de Nell Trent, belle et vertueuse jeune fille de pas tout fait quatorze ans . Orpheline, elle vit avec son grand-p re maternel, rest sans nom, au milieu du bric- -brac de son magasin d'antiquit s. Son existence est solitaire, presque uniquement consacr e l'amour du vieillard et aux soins qu'elle lui prodigue; sans v ritable compagne ou compagnon de son ge, son seul ami est Kit, le jeune employ de la boutique qui elle tente d'enseigner l' criture.

Ce roman social de Charles Dickens se d roule dans la ville fictive de Coketown (image de Manchester, le grand centre textile, et de Preston o Dickens a s journ durant la gr ve de janvier 1854) et montre les difficult s d'adaptation des deux classes sociales (la bourgeoisie d'affaire et les ouvriers) la nouvelle conomie issue de la r volution industrielle. L'auteur y d peint avec un r alisme d nonciateur une classe ouvri re asservie, mis rable et moutonni re, abrutie par le travail r p titif, livr e aux d magogues professionnels, que domine une bourgeoisie pragmatique et utilitariste, avide de profits et de pouvoir, persuad e de la nature quasi divine de ses droits et forte de la bonne conscience qu'elle puise dans les lois de l' conomie de march , mais dont il analyse les alibis et pr sente les travers avec une ironie mordante...

Original by Charles Dickens Adapted for the stage by Charles Way Dominated by Gradgrind and Bounderby, Coketown's prosperity is built on the cotton mills where thousands of men and women slave away for long hours and little pay. Gradgrind's obsession with material progress damages his children Louisa and Tom, leading to scandal and disaster. Hard Times celebrates the importance of the human heart in an age obsessed with materialism. Circus, music, and dark comedy all go into the rich mix of this truly Dickensian theatrical tale.

Oliver Twist, promis une vie de pauvret et de malheur, est n dans l'hospice d'une ville sans nom, encore que, dans les premi res parutions, elle apparaisse comme tant Mulfrog, situ e quelque soixante-dix milles au nord de Londres, sans doute Northampton. Orphelin d s son premier souffle, sa m re, inconnue et trouv e dans la rue sans alliance, d c dant en couches et son p re n' tant m me pas mentionn . Faute d'ant c dents, il re oit son nom de Mr Bumble, le pompeux bedeau de la paroisse et g rant de l'hospice. Oliver tombe sous la protection de la Loi sur les pauvres (Poor Law) selon laquelle il a droit une maigre pitance...