Catalog Search Results
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Charles Dickens was an English short story writer, dramatist, essayist, and the most popular novelist to come out of the Victorian era. Many of his novels, with their frequent concern for social reform, were first published in magazines in serial form under the pseudonym, Boz. Unlike authors who completed entire novels before serialization, Dickens often created the episodes as they were being serialized. The continuing popularity of his novels and...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
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";...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
Fully entitled "Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty," this novel was Dickens' first attempt at a historical novel. As such, it is the precursor to his more famous "A Tale of Two Cities", in which his exploration of mob violence, and especially the effect of public events on individual lives, becomes apparent. This work centers on Barnaby Rudge, a mentally simple son, and his loving mother, who are a part of the small village of Epping Forest,...
Author
Language
English
Description
Originally published as a 20-episode serial between March 1852 and September 1853, "Bleak House" is a novel by English author Charles Dickens. The story centres around Esther Summerson, the novel's heroine and omniscient narrator, and a long-running legal case in the Court of Chancery which arises as a result of conflicting wills. Though brimming with arguably exaggerated satire, "Bleak House" helped further a judicial reform movement which led to...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
The novel "Little Dorrit", published originally between 1855 and 1857, is a work of satire on the shortcomings of the government and society of the period. Much of Dickens' ire is focused upon the institutions of debtor's prisons-in which people who owed money were imprisoned, unable to work, until they have repaid their debts. The representative prison in this case is the Marshalsea where the author's own father had been imprisoned. Most of Dickens'...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
Regarded by Charles Dickens as his best novel upon publication, "Martin Chuzzlewit" relates a tale of familial selfishness and eventual moral redemption. First published serially from 1842 to 1844, it is the story of young Martin Chuzzlewit, who has been raised by his grandfather. He has fallen in love with his grandfather's ward and caretaker, the young orphan Mary Graham. Martin's grandfather does not approve and young Martin alienates himself from...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Three of Dickens's most compelling orphan protagonists-Oliver Twist, Pip, and Esther Summerson-in three of his greatest novels. Perhaps no writer in the English language is more closely associated with orphaned characters than Charles Dickens. The trials and dangers for children without parental protection play a significant part in nearly all his work, as both a source of highly entertaining melodrama and pointed social criticism. Oliver Twist: Having...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Originally published along with short stories in his weekly serial "Master Humphrey's Clock" from 1840 to 1841, "The Old Curiosity Shop" tells the tale of Nell Trent and her grandfather who both live in The Old Curiosity Shop in London. In an attempt to secure Nell's financial future, her grandfather dabbles with gambling but ends up losing it all. Convinced that Nell's grandfather has managed to save a small fortune for her, Nell's wastrel brother...
10) Hard times
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
Thomas Gradgrind destroys the spiritual and emotional lives of his children by denying the importance of human feelings.