Charles Dickens

Notes and critical essays accompany the tale of Pip, an orphan boy who is educated as a gentleman, and snobbishly neglects his childhood friends

Following the adventures of its eponymous hero from birth through three decades, this acclaimed stage adaptation presents a plethora of brilliant characters from the original novel: the Peggottys; 'umble Heep; eccentric Aunt Betsey and Steerforth, young David's champion. Two actors play David Copperfield: one the young David, the other David's older self, each interacting throughout.10 women, 13 men

In this classic social commentary from Dickens, Mr. Samuel Pickwick, retired business man and confirmed bachelor, is determined that after a quiet life of enterprise the time has come to go out into the world. Together with the other members of the Pickwick Club: Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass and Nathaniel Winkle, the portly innocent embarks on a series of hilariously comic adventures. But can Pickwick retain his good will towards his fellow humans once he discovers the evils of the world? Charles Dickens's satirical masterpiece, The Pickwick Papers, catapulted the young writer into literary fame when it was first serialized in 1836-37. It recounts the rollicking adventures of the members of the Pickwick Club as they travel about England getting into all sorts of mischief. Laugh-out-loud funny and endlessly entertaining, the book also reveals Dickens's burgeoning interest in the parliamentary system, lawyers, the Poor Laws, and the ills of debtors' prisons. As G. K. Chesterton noted, "Before Dickens] wrote a single real story, he had a kind of vision . . . a map full of fantastic towns, thundering coaches, clamorous market-places, uproarious inns, strange and swaggering figures. That vision was Pickwick."

One of Dickens' most popular novels, Oliver Twist tells the story of a young workhouse orphan who escapes into the mean backstreets of Victorian London. There, he is thrust into a den of thieves where some of Dickens' most depraved villains preside: the incorrigible Artful Dodger, the barbarous bully Bill Sikes, and the terrible Fagin, whose knavery threatens to send them all to the gallows. A novel with autobiographical overtones, this was the first of Dickens' works to realistically portray London's impoverished underworld and to illustrate his belief that poverty leads to crime. At the heart of the drama, however, is Oliver, the orphan whose unsullied goodness leads him to salvation, and who represents Dickens' belief in the principle of good triumphing at last.

When young Charles Dickens was commissioned to write the text for a series of sporting illustrations in 1836, no one could have suspected that this journeyman task was to turn in to one of the great comic novels in English literature. After the premature death of the original illustrator, Dickens took charge of the project, which was published in monthly parts. The result is a brilliant panorama of English life in the 1830s, a cornucopia of stories and vignettes featuring dozens of vividly drawn characters. Chief among them are Mr Pickwick himself, a later day Don Quixote travelling about the country righting wrongs; and his Sancho Panza, Sam Weller, whose pithy sayings and bizarre anecdotes immediately became and remained part of national mythology. With The Pickwick Papers Dickens established himself at a single stroke as a major creative artist, revealing the depth of his human sympathies, the breadth of his interests and his extraordinary linguistic virtuosity.

Illustrations by Hablot K. Browne (Phiz) and George Cattermole, with a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, Research Professor of English, University of Sussex. This vivid historical and political novel by Dickens is centred on the infamous 'No Popery' riots, instigated by Lord George Gordon, which terrorised London in 1780. Dickens' targets are prejudice, intolerance, religious bigotry and nationalistic fervour, together with the villains who exploit these for selfish ends. His intense account of the riots is interwoven with the mysterious tale of a long-unsolved murder and with a romance involving forbidden love, treachery and heroism. Barnaby Rudge abounds in memorably strange, comic and grotesque characters. Furthermore, recent historical events have renewed its political topicality.

The third in the Modern Library's series of original compilations, The Raven and the Monkey's Paw is a collection of classic tales and poems to engage our fear-seeking senses. The beauty of these stories and poems lies in their readability: ideal for sharing aloud around the campfire or for a quick, thrilling dip . . . under the covers with a flashlight. The writing itself sends as many awe-inspired shivers down the spine as do the ghosts and goblins on these pages. Edgar Allan Poe, the master of the horror story and the chiming lyric poem, opens the volume with his best-loved stories: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Black Cat," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Premature Burial," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "Berenice," and "Ligeia." Every bit as chilling now as on the day they were written, these tales retain their power to stir the reader again and again. Poe, who was as well known for his poems as for his stories, is also represented by such verse standards as "The Raven," "Lenore," "To Helen," "Ulalume," and "Annabel Lee," among others. Numerous other practitioners of the supernatural story are included: Edith Wharton, with her gripping "Afterward"; Charles Dickens and his famed ghost story "The Signalman"; W. W. Jacobs, with this compilation's inspiration, "The Monkey's Paw." Also here are Saki's engrossing "Sredni Vashtar"; O. Henry's story of love lost and hopes dashed, "The Furnished Room"; Wilkie Collins's lively "A Terribly Strange Bed"; and "The Boarded Window," Ambrose Bierce's tale of the bizarre. A year-round collection for reading aloud--and frightening your friends--The Raven and the Monkey's Paw will gratify all manner of thrill-seekers.

Originally published in serial form from December 1860 to August 1861, Great Expectations is the 'autobiography' of Pip, as he transformed from apprentice village blacksmith to a London gentleman. Unlike many of Dickens's earlier works, the novel is not so much a protest against social evils as a sustained meditation upon the process of social reform in Victorian England. It is this which gives such importance to the book's handling of the theme of the gentleman, a theme central both to Dickens's society and to his own life story.

With an Introduction and Notes by Peter Preston, University of Nottingham. Illustrations by S. L. Fildes and Hablot K. Browne (Phiz). Dickens’s final novel, left unfinished at his death, is a tale of mystery whose fast-paced action takes place in an ancient cathedral city and in some of the darkest places in nineteenth-century London. Drugs, sexual obsession, colonial adventuring and puzzles about identity are among the novel’s themes. At the centre of the plot lie the baffling disappearance of Edwin Drood and the many explanations of his whereabouts. A sombre and menacing atmosphere, a fascinating range of characters and Dickens’s usual superb command of language combine to make this an exciting and tantalising story. Also included in this volume are a number of unjustly neglected stories and sketches, with subjects as different as murder and guilt and childhood romance. This unusual selection illustrates Dickens’s immense creativity and versatility.

"Bah!" said Scrooge." Humbug!" With those famous words unfolds a tale that renews the joy and caring that are Christmas. Whether we read it aloud with our family and friends or open the pages on a chill winter evening to savor the story in solitiude. Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol is a very special holiday experience. It is the one book that every year will warm hour hearts with favorite memories of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future -- and will remind us with laughter and tears how the true Christmas spirit comes from giving with love.

Born in a workhouse in the eighteenth-century England, Oliver Twist, the novel's orphaned protagonist, spends first nine years of his life Facing constant humiliation, mistreatment, and malnourishment. Yet everything changes after he flees to London embarking on a risky adventure that will introduce him to a group of juvenile thieves, lead him to both his allies and his enemies, and, eventually, show him the truth about his roots. Charles Dickens's second major work, Oliver Twist is not merely a children's story. This is a social novel, in which the author satirizes the society of his time. Oliver Twist sheds light on the dark consequences of the industrialism, such as the creation of the poorly managed workhouses and widely practiced chil

With an Introduction and Notes by Deborah Wynne, Chester College. Illustrated by Marcus Stone. Our Mutual Friend, Dickens' last complete novel, gives one of his most comprehensive and penetrating accounts of Victorian society. Its vision of a culture stifled by materialistic values emerges not just through its central narratives, but through its apparently incidental characters and scenes. The chief of its several plots centres on John Harmon who returns to England as his father's heir. He is believed drowned under suspicious circumstances - a situation convenient to his wish for anonymity until he can evaluate Bella Wilfer whom he must marry to secure his inheritance. The story is filled with colourful characters and incidents - the faded aristocrats and parvenus gathered at the Veneering's dinner table, Betty Higden and her terror of the workhouse and the greedy plottings of Silas Wegg.

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.

Kein Weihnachten ohne Charles Dickens! In seinen Geschichten, die er als einer der ersten Autoren termingerecht für das buchhändlerische Saisongeschäft schrieb, hat er den Zauber dieses Festes, seine verwandelnde Wirkung auf den Menschen unvergleichlich eingefangen. Die berühmteste der fünf Erzählungen, ,Ein Weihnachtslied in Prosa', schildert die Bekehrung des herzlosen Egoisten Ebenezer Scrooge zum echten Menschenfreund. In den ,Glocken' bringt das Silvesterläuten einem alten, an der Ungerechtigkeit der Mitwelt verzweifelnden Dienstmann neue Hoffnung. Liebe und Einfalt eines blinden Mädchens triumphieren über das Mißtrauen der Menschen in ,Das Heimchen am Herd', einer der schönsten Idyllen der Weltliteratur. Eine märchenhafte Liebesgeschichte ist ,Der Kampf des Lebens', und in ,Der verwünschte Mann' beschreibt Dickens die innere Wandlung eines berühmten Gelehrten durch eine einfache Frau. Übrigens: "Scrooge" steht in der englischen Umgangssprache bis heute für niederträchtige Gesinnung und krankhaften Geiz - ein Zeichen, wie sehr Dickens' ,Weihnachtserzählungen' zum Volksgut geworden sind.

One of Dicken's most renowned and enjoyable novels, Great Expectations tells the story of pip, an orphan boy who wishes to transcend his humble origins and finds himself unexpectedly given the opportunity to live a life of wealth and respectability. Over the course of the tale, in which pip encounters such famous characters as Miss Havisham, Herbert Pocket and Joe Gargery, he comes to realize that his money is tainted and the girl he loves will not return his affections;happiness must be found in the things he gave up in pursuit of a more sophisticated life.

A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry, demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries towards the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same period. It follows the lives of several characters through these events. With sales of over 200 million copies, A tale of two Cities is the biggest selling novel in history

This adaptation of Dicken's famous epic novel of the French revolution tells the story of English lawyer Sydney Carton and French aristocrat Charles Darnay, both caught up in the bloodshed of the French Revolution. The dramatization attempts to stay close to the atmosphere of the original text, by utilizing a simple set, with numerous lighting changes and sound effects, minimal props and vivid stage images.