Charles Dickens

In tracing the parish boy's progress, Dickens did not write a topical satire on the workhouse system and the role of the 1834 New Poor Law in fostering criminality, he created a story about the survival of good, and the exploitation of violence.

"Barnes & Noble Classics "pulls together a constellation of influences--biographical, historical, and literary--to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Left penniless by the death of his improvident father, young Nicholas Nickleby assumes responsibility for his mother and sister and seeks help from his Scrooge-like Uncle Ralph. Instantly disliking Nicholas, Ralph sends him to teach in a school run by the stupidly sadistic Wackford...

Presents a reprint of Dickens's 1843 novel depicting the greed and selfishness in England and America through the story of suspicious and misanthropic old Martin Chuzzlewit.

A collection of Christmas stories written by Charles Dickens.

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby is closely modelled on the eighteenth-century novels that Charles Dickens loved as a child, such as Robinson Crusoe, in which the fortunes of a hero shape the plot. The likeable young Nicholas, left penniless on the death of his father, sets off in search of better prospects. His meandering route to happiness includes work as a teacher at Dotheboys Hall, where the brutal Wackford Squeers ill-treats his...

A distraught mother is forced to abandon her baby to a foundling hospital and begs to know the name that the authorities have given her child. She's told that his name is Walter Wilding, and upon her returns a dozen years later, it's Walter Wilding she adopts. Young Walter becomes a successful wine merchant and is content in his good fortune until his new housekeeper, a former nurse at the foundling hospital, confides a dark secret that brings his...

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...

First published in 1859, "The Haunted House" is a trio of short stories written ("conducted") by Charles Dickens for the weekly periodical "All the Year Round". Originally, a "portmanteau" story, Dickens wrote the opening and closing stories of a collection that included contributions by Wilkie Collins and Elizabeth Gaskell, among others. Each story has an element of the strange, scary or supernatural, making it perfect for reading on winter nights...

In "Somebody's Luggage", an 1862 short story by Charles Dickens, the narrator stumbles upon some luggage left behind in the hotel where he works. Searching through it to help identify the owner, the workers find evidence of a wide variety of high-quality stories hidden away inside the luggage. When these stories are then published the mysterious author finally steps up to claim them.

Exploration of the twisted relationship between Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley.