Charles Dickens

Adapted for Intermediate level readers, this story is about Nell and her grandfather, who live in The Old Curiosity Shop. They are very poor, and when disaster strikes, Nell must protect herself and her grandfather from people who wish them harm.

This is Dickens' most famous story about the orphaned boy, Oliver Twist, who grows up in a workhouse unloved and abused. He runs away to London where he finds his first taste of happiness living with thieves. But will Oliver ever find someone who really takes care of him?

During the long black hours of Christmas Eve, the old penny-pincher Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by four ghosts. Between them, these ghosts show Mr Scrooge what Christmas can do for him, if only he will loosen the strings of his purse and do something for others. Easy Readers er bearbejdede og forkortede udgaver af romaner og noveller. De findes på niveau A, B, C og D, hvor A er lettest. Niveauerne relaterer til Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (level A2 til B2).

Bleak House is a novel by Charles Dickens, published in 20 monthly instalments between March 1852 and September 1853. It is held to be one of Dickens's finest novels, containing one of the most vast, complex and engaging arrays of minor characters and sub-plots in his entire canon. The story is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and partly by a mostly omniscient narrator. Memorable characters include the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn, the friendly but depressive John Jarndyce, and the childish and disingenuous Harold Skimpole, as well as the likeable but imprudent Richard Carstone. At the novel's core is long-running litigation in England's Court of Chancery, Jarndyce v Jarndyce, which has far-reaching consequences for all involved. This case revolves around a testator who apparently made several wills. The litigation, which already has taken many years and consumed between 60,000 and 70,000 in court costs, is emblematic of the failure of Chancery. Dickens's assault on the flaws of the British judicial system is based in part on his own experiences as a law clerk, and in part on his experiences as a Chancery litigant seeking to enforce copyright on his earlier books. His harsh characterisation of the slow, arcane Chancery law process gave memorable form to pre-existing widespread frustration with the system. Though Chancery lawyers and judges criticised Dickens's portrait of Chancery as exaggerated and unmerited, his novel helped to spur an ongoing movement that culminated in the enactment of legal reform in the 1870s. In fact, Dickens was writing just as Chancery was reforming itself, with the Six Clerks and Masters mentioned in Chapter One abolished in 1842 and 1852 respectively: the need for further reform was being widely debated. These facts raise an issue as to when Bleak House is actually set. Technically it must be before 1842, and at least some of his readers at the time would have been aware of this. However, there is some question as to whether this timeframe is consistent with the themes of the novel. The English legal historian Sir William Holdsworth set the action in 1827.

Dickens is widely known for his masterpiece "A Christmas Carol." Yet it was only the first in a series of five short novels set in the Christmas season, composed by Dickens over six years. Each is a unique classic, and a profound celebration of Christmas, in its own right. The entire series of Christmas Books is here collected in a single volume, including: "A Christmas Carol" Ebeneezer Scrooge's contempt for Christmas is confronted by four spirits who reveal the value of Christmas and the nature of a good life. "The Chimes" A pitiless man who has lost his belief in human goodness and nay higher calling for humanity is gifted with a Christmas vision of his loved ones' lives after his death. "The Cricket on the Hearth" A magical cricket plays the role of guardian angel to a small family through many trials, tribulations, and joys. "The Battle of Life" A young woman's suspicious disappearance leaves her family in doubt of her good character. "The Haunted Man" A man tormented by brooding upon wrongs done to him accepts a spirit's offer to lose his memory of past harms, only to find that a deeper conversion is needed to relieve his feelings of anger.

Ebeneezer Scrooge is a mean miser who lives alone and is nice to no one. One Christmas Eve, however, he is visited by the ghost of his old business partner, Marley, and is given a very important warning. Is it enough to persuade Scrooge to change his ways?