Charles Dickens
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"Coketown is dominated by the figure of Mr Thomas Gradgrind, school owner and model of Utilitarian success. Feeding both his pupils and his family with facts, he bans fancy and wonder from young minds. As a consequence his young daughter Louisa marries the loveless businessman and “bully of humility” Mr Bounderby, and his son Tom rebels to become embroiled in gambling and robbery. And, as their fortunes cross with those of free-spirited circus...
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Gathered round the fire at the Maypole Inn, in the village of Chigwell, on a foul weather evening in the year 1775 were John Willet, proprietor of the Maypole, and his three cronies. One of the three, Soloman Daisy, tells a stranger at the inn a well-known local tale of the murder of Reuben Haredale which had occurred 22 years ago that very day. Reuben had been owner of the Warren, an estate in the area, now the residence of the deceased Reuben's...
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In the 1840s, Charles Dickens wrote 5 short stories with strong social and moral messages. The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home, is the third of these stories. Following the home life of John Peerybingle, the story introduces the many people in John's family and life along with a cricket that acts as the guardian angel of the family. Like its predecessors, this story also contains heavy social and moral implications. However, it differs...
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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...
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In "No Thoroughfare", a short work written by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, two orphan boys are given the same name, Walter Wilding. This coincidence has disastrous consequences when one of the boys, a wine merchant, dies and leaves a considerable estate. The executors must travel from the wine cellars of London to the sun soaked coasts of the Mediterranean. First published in the 1867 Christmas issue of "All the Year Round" it is one of Charles...
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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.
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Two of Dicken's novels are republished. The first follows a group from the tranquil roads of London to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror. The second follows the life of the orphaned Pip from the wild Kent marshes through a series of events as he abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman.
14) Oliver Twist
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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.
15) Marley: a novel
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2019.
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First Atria Books hardcover edition.
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"They meet as youths in the gloomy confines of Professor Drabb’s Academy for Boys, where Marley begins their twisted friendship by initiating the innocent Scrooge into the gentle art of extortion. Years later, in the dank heart of London, their shared ambition manifests itself in a fledgling shipping empire. Between Marley’s genius for deception and Scrooge’s brilliance with numbers, they amass a considerable fortune of dubious legality, all...
16) Fagin the Jew
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A graphic retelling of the novel "Oliver Twist" from the perspective of Fagin.
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1200L
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"A terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor-these form a series of events that change the orphan Pip's life forever, as he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman. Dickens's haunting novel depicts Pip's education and development...
20) Oliver Twist
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[2006]
Description
Director Roman Polanski offers a slightly darker version of the classic Charles Dickens tale. After living in poor conditions, Oliver runs away to the streets of London. There he meets a gang of pickpockets and soon Oliver's life is changed forever.