Charles Dickens Books

I'm a fan of Stephen King and I had just started reading H.P. Lovecraft's classic horror stories when I came across this unusual novel and decided to give it a try. First I'm going to warn readers who don't like completely crazy humor that they will not like Kelly's book. I do like crazy nut humor so I loved "Rastus Reilly." It's well written it's insane and it's a hoot. Knowing a little Lovecraft will help you enjoy this horror and mystery satire. In some parts of the book Kelly satires the Lovecraft writing style very well and obviously with affection. But you don't really have to know Lovecraft. You do have to be a little crazy like me to enjoy a novel as plain silly as this one. I liked it enough to write my first Amazon review and give this book the top rating but only for nutty humor fans.

I've just read this book a second time and am making a point of recommending it to my friends and to everybody reading here. This is a very crazy novel. In fact it's not so much a novel as a satire of novels. The author gets you interested in the story but there's some kind of gag on every page, so Kelly's book manages to mock every novel-writing convention, in the process of mocking itself. "The Maltese Falcon" is lampooned, as are H.P. Lovecraft's, and to a lesser extent Dickens's work specifically, but the humor ranges widely beyond just these targets. It's sharp but underlyingly good-natured humor. I'll never forget these patently ripe characters: a Sam Spade type, Jake Stalker, who seems to be coming out of the closet, Lucretia Faversham, elderly dowager, in search of rejuvenation while revelling in all the common vices, Veronica Volupturini, globe-trotting golddigger, Haggie the gin-swilling receptionist, Rastus Reilly himself, whose mere description is hilariously unforgettable, and a larger congregation of strangely loveable misfits Kelly describes bluntly as "lowlife swine." They're rather sweet swine, though, and that's part of what makes them funny. One character's impossibly long surname evokes conversational byplay that puts Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First" to shame: this alone would make the book worth its price, but the laughs keep coming, from every direction. Bizarre characterization is certainly a strong point. The setting is Boston, Massachusetts, and a treasure-hunting cruise from there to the Caribbean, in the 1930s. Pacing is leisurely at first but the story builds to an adventurous conclusion. The tone can best be described as ridiculous. The writing style parodies numerous styles, as suggested by the subtitle, and manages to do this not just effectively, but fluidly as well: Kelly is a genuinely talented writer. The plot is simply a framework for laughter. The good guys, led by old lady Faversham and her hired gun Jake Stalker, have found out there is an ancient Secret of Eternal Youth, and they're chasing after it, hotly pursued by a fat and skinny pair of archly evil bad guys. I said this was a very crazy book. So if you like Crazy you'll love it. I did, enough to read it all over again, six months after my first reading, and I picked up on jokes I'd missed the first time. A+ for humor.

I was *beyond* pleasantly surprised by Rastus Reilly. Steve takes no prisoners when he parodies Laural and Hardy, Mark Twain, Stephen King, HP Lovecraft, and countless others. This book is funny from page one through the end, and I found myself wishing for more once it was finished! Of course, I drink a lot of beer, so what do I know?

I'll be watching for future releases from Steve Kelly, hope he lives for awhile and doesn't die of liver disorder.

I have to say this book is one of the funniest things I have ever read. It's very naughty but in a nice way. It is also the most utterly absurd thing I have ever read. I think everybody who loves funny things has to read Rastus Reilly. I give this book five stars.

I was fortunate enough to have been able to borrow this book from a friend, He suggested it for research use into the figure of Marley's Ghost which I am playing in a local production. This book is full of everything you might want to know about "Christmas Carol". It is broken into five chapter's, four of which deal with each of the spirits contained in the story. Picture's and drawing abound in this text, making it invaluable to me as an actor trying to create a character. Right down to an original drawing of Dicken's on his death bed and re-prints of sketches from the very first printing of the book, it's all there and by the author himself...what could be more diffinitive? If you can procure a copy I highly recommend it.

Charles Dickens almost singlehandedly rescued what we in the early 21st Century consider "traditional" Christmas celebrations from extinction. His crusade against the Industrial Revolution's Utilitarianism, and Mammonism (Scrooge is the archetypal Utilitarian) is part of the reason behind this story. Some folks who know something of early Victorian England see that when they read this classic. But for most of us this underlying theme, plus the colloquial 19th Century English are a mystery.
The "Annotated Christmas Carol" neatly solves this issue by fully explaining the story behind the story, and defining some of the more obscure contemporary references. Dickens basically wrote the story because he needed money quickly: his previous novel was only lukewarmly received by the public. Additionally, his desire to awaken a social consciousness in the British upper-class led him to a short story format. Given his long standing committment to keeping the celebrationsn of Christmas alive, the result is, for the English-speaking world anyway, as much a tradition as a tree and presents.
The format is exactly as that for the first edition published in 1843, along with reproductions of Leech's original illustrations. Well researched and written notes in the columns allow the reader to follow along with explanations of terms, identification of likely locations, and the development of the ongoing theme. The book could likely benefit with a new edition, as the commentary seems to be written around 1975 or so. Even so, this is a book that any Dickens enthusiast will want to own, any Christmas Carol enthusiast for that matter...
Highly Recommended.

A Christmas Carol is one of the greatest works of the 19th Century and is easier for most Americans to read then most of his novels. However, American English of today is vastly different from the English prose of Dickens. Also Dickens often makes references to events or historical figures that most Americans are ignorant of. Open up the first page of one of CD's most brillant works, MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT, and see if annotated Dickens isn't a product whose time has come. Well, there was one product out there under this category and it is now longer in print -- THE ANNOTATED CHRISTMAS CAROL. The book unlocks the brillance and reality of CHRISTMAS CAROL almost as well as The ghost of Christmast Past unlocks Scrooge's long supressed childhood memories. I am not much of a writer and sometimes am not much of a reader, but I recognize the value of annotated Dickens and am amazed that this wonderful edition of A CHRISTMAS CAROL is no longer in print. Please, let's get this out in paperback, along with annotations of all of the novels of CD. I am currently struggling through DOMBEY AND SON, and the footnotes that PENGUIN provides are just not enough. Please let's make the great literature more accessible to everyone. MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT and A CHRISTMAS CAROL should be read and UNDERSTOOD by every member of Modern Civilization.

I had read Bleak House in college. My book at the time was a used version with pages falling out. Since I decided to reread the book this summer, I wanted to get a newer edition. I chose Modern Library Classics because it preserved a lot of the original illustrations when the work was first published. Of course, Dickens' opus is marvelous, and I recommend you read his story on the never-ending lawsuit and its repercussions on the characters involved. Rather than focusing on the merits of the story and why should should read the book, I think it's more helpful to recommend what edition to buy because there are a lot. I chose Modern Library Classics for its illustrations, its readable typeface, and strong binding. Overall, they have created beautiful edition Dickens' book deserves.

It's hard to pick the best Dickens novel. Dickens himself favored David Copperfield and there is a lot to recommend that. But the novel of his that I most admire is Bleak House. It has a great range of characters, a personal mystery at its core, and the first detective in fiction. Dickens alternates the story-telling between the voice of the all-knowing author and that of the naive female lead character. From street sweepers to the lords and everyone in between, the dark theme of an impersonal social order and system grinding people up is remarkably like Kafka.

I've read most everything from Dickens but happend to pick this up in a book store, craving some good British literature. Though this book was some what predictable, it was a page turner and suspensful. This is one of my favorite Dickens works, and will keep you entertained for hours.

I'll not insult you all by describing the action of this classic novella, nor belabor the lesson taught. I'm sure even Mowgli the Jungle Boy must have heard this story once a year growing up in the jungle. But with all the TV and movie and cartoon and Muppet iterations (the best of which remains the 1951 Alastair Sim movie version), when's the last time you went back and actually read the original book?

Dickens is, of course, a wonderful author and earlier generations read everything that he wrote. Today, however, you read an obligatory novel or two in High School, breath a sigh of relief that's over and then blithely ignore him along with the rest of the ancients. But, as a reacquaintance with A Christmas Carol will remind you, he remains pretty accessible and his novels are often quite fun. What's more, there's even a Reading Version (available online) of the story that Dickens condensed himself for his numerous public readings of the tale. It's perfect for reading aloud to the family.

Here's just a sample of the prose to entice you:

On Scrooge before: Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge. a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.

and Scrooge after: Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!

We, all of us, have a tendency to let the classics become so encrusted that we take them for granted and forget how good they really are; if this has happened for you with A Christmas Carol, do yourself a favor and dig out a copy and reread it this Holiday Season. I bet it becomes an annual tradition.

GRADE: A+

This version of the Dicken's classic is magnificently illustrated by one of America's foremost artists.

This edition of Charles Dickens classic is doubly wonderful in its timeless tale of redemption as well as the wonderful illustrations executed by American artist Everett Shinn. In no way either slick or modern, when one is handed the book, it seems as you are holding an artifact from another time; a time of coal fires, slate roofs, horses in the streets, a time that predates the sad state of comercialism that permeates contemporary Christmas season. In its simplicity of story and its fine nostalgic illustrations it becomes a treasure to be handed down through one generation to the next.Hope dwells here.

This edition keeps all the music of Charles Dickens' language but the illustrations make it more accessible for kids. That said, the language is still very challenging so expect to do a lot of explaining. The exposure to classic literature is well worth the effort tho!

There is something for everyone in this book. It contains the story of a mean man who receives redemption. Ebeneezer is able to change only with the intervention of three ghostly visitors. They come to him and show his past, present, and future. Throughout the journey, the reader has a chance to see possible mistakes that Scrooge made and how he has suffered from it. This is not only a Christmas classic, but a human nature classic.

I just really love Charles Dickens old tale. And this young readers edition is perfect, the drawings are beautiful. This is the story of the old miser Scrooge, who on Christmas Eve are visited by the gost of Christmas past, present and yet to come. And so he finally discovers the real meaning of Christmas.

This is Dickens's best and it is on par with other great novels such as Anna Karenina, Pride and Prejudice, Madame Bovary, etc. In short, it is a masterpiece that brings together all of Dickens's writing skills with a great story.

As background information, I am in the process of reading most of Dickens 22 novels. I bought the Penguin Popular Classics version of the novel. It is very basic and comes in a simple green cover. It contains no introduction or analysis, just the text plus a very brief historical sketch of Dickens. It seems to be an excellent value for the money and I bought three Dickens novels in the series. I was a bit disappointed in that the book seemed to fall apart as I read it: the binding seemed very weak and cheaply made. After this bad experience, I bought other versions of Dickens's works - Wordsworth Classic versions, the regular Penguin Classic versions, the ones with the photo on the covers, and others.

Charles Dickens, who lived from 1812 to 1870, is the best know male English writer of the 19th century. He authored 22 novels plus numerous short pieces. Most of his writing was first written in serialized form, later published as single novels.

A young Dickens at the age of 12 had the unenviable job of attaching labels 10 hours a day at the Warren's boot blacking factory. That experience shaped much of his writing career. Still in his teens he became a law clerk, then later in his twenties a journalist. The last job as a reporter led to the serialized writing of his novels. His works were social commentaries with larger than life characters, or colorful caricatures, living in the slums of London. He was a critic of poverty, social injustice, and the slow moving court system.

All of Dickens's experiences come together in David Copperfield. The story has many biographical elements in it: a young man forced to take a job in a factory, attendance at a difficult school, working in a law firm, being a reporter, etc. The book was the author's favorite because of all of these biographical elements. The novel is twice as long as Great Expectations and has a wonderful set of characters, a good story, and it is a compelling read. It is clear from reading the novel that Dickens has put a lot of enthusiasm and creativity into writing the novel and into the creation of many memorable characters such as Edward and Jane Murdstone, Wilkins Micawber, Uriah Heep, Tommy Traddles, Mrs Trotwood, etc. Readers will not be disappointed.

Having read many of Dickens's novels I still rate David Copperfield as best as a work of literature and for entertainment value.

This book never became quite as popular as "Oliver Twist," "A Christmas Carol," or "A Tale of Two Cities." Nevertheless, it is easy to see why Charles Dickens felt that this was his best creation. David Copperfield is born. His widowed mother is nice enough, but she becomes involved with the cruel Murderstone. (Murderstone feels that beatings are acceptable if David does not learn his lessons well enough.) David's mother dies, and Murderstone sends David off to work where he encounters the eccentric but benevolent Mr. Micawber. (Mr. Micawber is somewhat of a combination of Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Brownlow. And he is largely based on Charles Dickens's father.) David and Mr. Micawber become fast friends, but Mr. Micawber is arrested for debt. David (for obvious reasons) does not want to return to his wicked stepfather Mr. Murderstone. So he runs away to his Aunt Betsey. The eccentric but kind Aunt Betsey takes David in, and he soon meets Mr. Wickfield, his daughter Agnes, and the diabolical Uriah Heep. It is not long before we realize that as kind as Mr. Wickfield is, he is an alcoholic. And the evil Uriah Heep will use that to his advantage. Up until now, David Copperfield has been kind of an Oliver Twist. But David Copperfield (unlike Oliver) reaches adult hood in the story. We then come to the matter of marriage. Even before David meets his eventual wife Dora, he is preoccupied with Agnes. Interestingly, Aunt Betsey loses her property and David must take her in as she took him in some time ago. Well, Dora and David get married, but the relationship is more of a father-daughter relationship. If we wish to partially excuse Dora, we can argue that her father and aunts kind of sheltered her too much. (While Dora's father was not so happy about the thought of them getting married, we may argue that it is not going to be a good marriage.) Moving on, Mr. Micawber starts to work for Uriah Heep. He speaks well of Uriah, but of course, Dickens is preparing a big reversal. Uriah Heep continues to increase his power as he manipulates Agnes's father worse and worse. However, Uriah crosses the line when he expresses a desire for Agnes, and both Agnes's father and David fly into a rage. In a comical (but somewhat disturbing scene), Dora shows herself incapable of even preparing a dinner. While David knows he should not have married Dora, he stays with her, even though Dora is getting ill. In a dramtic, but really comical scene, Mr. Micawber exposes HEEP and Agnes's father is freed from the corrupt hold Uriah Heep has over him. Sadly, Dora dies leaving David a widower. But all is not lost. Agnes's father overcomes his alcoholism, and David and Agnes marry. Overall, this is a great book that shows the world through the eyes of a child and then a man. If you like this book, be sure to see the excellent 1935 movie where Frank Lawton does the grown up David, Edna May Oliver does Aunt Betsey, and W.C. Fields does Mr. Micawber.

This book excels marvelously on two fronts - style and story. Dickens has a masterful style that uses to good effect the best elements of English. His prose is simply wonderful.

The story is also tremendous. Its wraps up a little too tidy, but that is the Dicken's style. The characters are vividly painted and the failures and triumphs feel as real as can be.

It is a masterpiece I recommend to everyone.

Dr. Lawrence Frank's exploration of the social, ethical, psychological, and philosophical diminsions of Dicken's work is utterly delightful and highly readable -- a must for any Dickens affcianado or burgeoning scholar! You'll find a whole new level of meaning to all of Dicken's most endearing characters like Mr. Dick (from David Copperfield) and Master Bates (from Oliver Twist).

Egad! It's a pitiful reflection of the almost savage intellectual torpor that has settled upon academia and our nation as a whole that this fine work is out of print. I suggest you try Amazon's execellent out of print books search and order yourself a copy today!

As far as I am concerned, there was ne'er a book on Dickens penned prior to Mr. Frank's superb treatise. I have never been so proud of Mr. Chas. Dickens, a fellow Brit (and, I might add, a fellow writer)--or of Engerland, my home and native land. A true boon to mankind, Mr. Dickens was, and likewise this blessed text. I weep for joy.

Who knew that Victorian science was populated with such unruly characters or that postmodernism could herald the convergence of the two cultures? Here is a critic who is unafraid to write with gusto about today's return to literature and who understands the ways of both novelists and hackers. I enjoyed the acount of Charles Babbage beside William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, Neal Stevenson with Charles Dickens.

This book shows such smarts and is such fun that I've been talking it up to every reader I know. Anyone interested in Cultural Studies or the nineteenth century novel will want this book (in fact, they might already have it, because the advance word on it has been good), but it will undoubtedly appeal to a larger audience, too. Jay Clayton demonstrates a familiarity with a wide array of further fields: communications technology, genetics, science fiction, film, and contemporary literature. Readers interested in any of these subjects will find that the historical parallels and hidden connections Clayton establishes between them are both unexpected and absorbing. What's more, Clayton can write. This is not a book choked by jargon or made ponderous by clumsy language. Here is a learned author who explains himself with gusto and grace.
Clayton's book combines several propositions. First, that contemporary studies of American culture are essentially amnesiac and could only benefit from some historical perspective. Second, that the tendency towards emotional affirmation and homemade mysticism which characterizes our multicultural age is in many ways analogous to the Romantic era's reaction against the hyper-rationality of the Enlightenment. Third, that the enormous divide between the Humanities and the Sciences, which originally opened in the early years of the Victorian era, is now closing again as today's Information Technology blurs disciplinary distinctions and promotes cross-pollination between discreet endeavors. Clayton argues convincingly on all three points, and he weaves his several theses together to reveal how our postmodern complexities have antecedents in an earlier age.
It is rare to find a thoroughly informed author who can anatomize an historical period in an accessible fashion. It's rarer still to find one with sufficient detachment to offer new analysis of his own times. Jay Clayton does both of these things, and he does them with an agreeable combination of persuasion and charm.
A pleasure. An education. Highly recommended.

This is quite a different take on what we might usually think of as typical Victorian sentimentality about children. The new readings of such classical works as Dickens's Dombey and Son and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights show that Lit Crit hasn't completely abandoned such all time favourites!

I bought this book to help me with my son Frank, who interest in Victorian novels has grown of late to unhealthy proportions. The other night I had to ask him seven times to come to the dinner table; while spooning down equal doses of butter rice in squash and pumpkin ice cream (the recipes for which are included in the index of this book!) he looked up only once from Wuthering Heights to announce that he wished he had tuberculosis.

Unfortunately, the book's excellent discussion of the development of the concept of "children" in the Victorian era is woefully short on advice. Last night Frank slipped a note under his door (he has been locked in his room for three days) announcing that he had become a poet, and to challenge me to a duel. This situation is not covered anywhere in Berry's book.

The surprise recipes included at the end of the text are delicious!

Dickens is considered a genius in the area of the macabre. And it makes one consider whether genius is born to one or developed/influenced at an early age. In any case, his classic stories will never be forgotten.

This collection includes all of Dickens's 20 ghost stories which include: Captain Murderer and the Devil's Bargain; The Lawyer and the Ghost; The Queer Chair; The Ghosts of the Mail; A Madman's Manuscript; The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton; Baron Koeldwethout's Apparition; A Christmas Carol; The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain; A Child's Dream of a Star; Christmas Ghosts; To Be Read At Dusk; The Ghost Chamber; The Haunted House; Mr. Testator's Visitation; The Trial for Murder; The Signal Man; Four Ghost Stories; The Portrait Painter's Story; and Well Authenticated Rappings.

I was never a huge fan of yesterday's classics. Sometimes they come off boring to me; who knows, maybe I don't have the intellectual ability or patience to read anything published before 1920. But after reading this collection from front to back I truley understood why Charles Dickens is considered by some to be a literary genius. Scary, Witty, Clownish, Entertaining. You can't go wrong, especially with characters like CAPTAIN MURDERER, who has kept fresh within my imagintation over handfuls of years and piles of novels, as one of the most devious fiends.