Charles Dickens Books

Perhaps it's my lack of enthusiam for classic English literature, but I found this book dull and very unamusing. I purchased this because my English teacher wanted us to read it, and while I don't regret buying it, I highly doubt I'm going to read it again.

Though, keep in mind I'm but a teenager, and not a fan of the classics. I'm sure if the classics are your thing, then you'll love this book. The included appendix and notes help out a lot.

Charles Dickens is not a boring, old foagie author from times gone by, droning on and on in a language that cannot resonate with modern readers. Dickens was a great writer, a good man (flawed and human in his own life), and in "A Tale of Two Cities," he spins a story of the most terrible and wonderful, of profoundness and poignancy, of the best and the worst times and how people reacted to them.

I originally read "A Tale of Two Cities" as an assignment for high school English class. What a pleasant surprise I was in for. This book has every right to be called a classic. Its themes of political disillusion, cultural progress or regression, families torn apart and reconciled, love lost and gained, honorable sacrifice and religious confusion are true and timeless.

Dickens' characters speak to us today through Lucie's eternal love of a wife and mother and daughter, of Sydney Carton's rejected lover, of Charles Darnay's moral man trying to right the wrongs of his family's past. Carton, the tragic protagonist, is a wonderful, eventual hero, and a great study for theologians and psychologists. As an adult and now Christian, I have much greater appreciation for and understanding of Dickens' Biblical references, and of Carton's spiritual journey that occurs just before the end of Book the Third.

I highly recommend "A Tale of Two Cities" to young people, for a largely historically accurate and interesting account of the French Revolution, and the exploration of important psychological and religious topics. This is also quite enjoyable reading for lovers of classics, those interested in historical fiction, or even just a good novel. Do spend your money on an unabridged printing.

And, for fans of the new Doctor Who, check out the episode featuring Mr. Dickens, with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper, "The Unquiet Dead."

I started reading this before I would go to bed, so I think I was not fully conscious of stuff I read, so I missed alot of detail...I think. So after reading 25% of the book and being utterly confused, I looked it up on the computer and got a handle on the plot and then continued reading it with greater understanding. It was a good book...I enjoyed it in the end.

This is not the most entertaining book ever written, but I am so glad I read it. I've been reading 'literature' on my own, mainly because I no longer am forced to read it and do have a certain respect for some of the writers in which I have been previously forced to read. This review is intended for those of you who might be in the same position as myself - reading the book just for the sake of reading it.

Yes, the story is about the French revolution, blah, blah, blah. The point is, I did not know much about the revolution before I read it, nor was I truly interested in learning more. Regardless of your curiosity on that period of time, Dickens will teach you something about it.

For me, the more interesting aspects of the novel are his use of literary devices to create meaning and absolutely wonderful, fresh ways of looking at the world. Just for fun, imagine rain as the sound of hundreds of stampeding feet....

4 stars? While the language is great and the story interesting, I do not think the book is a very compulsive read. I was only able to read maybe 10 pages at a time, tasting it a little here and there to repair my deteriorated intellect. Don't go into the book expecting to finish it in a few hours, or you'll miss a lot of what makes this book worth the read!

Seriously, if have not read this you did not deserve to graduate high school. Buy it, read it, become smarter, sound smarter, buy more books like this, win at Trivial Pursuit...

Really though, this is a classic and should be read by every person in the free world at least once. Charles Dickens was the man!

Oh, this Penguin edition was a very good bargain, well worth the price.

(If you want to know what the book is about, there are dozens of other reviews as well as a synopsis)

This is an excellent coming-of-age book with which many people will be able to relate. I will admit, the beginning was rather grueling, but looking back, I am glad I finished the book. Dickens has a fabulous vocabulary and an excellent sense of people. The characters are dynamic and quite various. I would recommend this book to other scholars.

Great Expectations is an amazing novel that truly upholds the style of literature found during the Victorian period. Although some parts are the book were less adventuresome in comparison to other sections, the book over all was quite pleasant to read. If you like a little thrill and narratives that grasp your attention and have huge climactic endings, then Great Expectations is for you!

Without a doubt this has to be one of the greatest novels of all time. I won't say it's the best just because once a work of art attains greatness I find it quite incomparable to other great works. Great works are ones which have fully succeeded in expressing the emotions and convictions of the artist, and without a doubt Great Expectations acheives this. Unfortunately I only hold this view of the book containing the original ending, which was not the originally published ending. (spoiler) The original ending at first seems sad and frustrating, but one can't help but to feel satisfied in knowing that through suffering Estella had gained a heart, which is much more than she would have gained through a cold and heartless relationship with Pip. The happy ending which was published is almost a fairtale ending and it perverts the themes which make the novel so relevant to reality. I must admit, like Dickens' friends and publisher, the original ending was hard for me to swallow, but as I dwelt on it and how it related to the novel, no other ending seemed appropriate, especially not a happy one.

Well, i have read all of the previous reviews, and it is apparant that people either love this book or hate this book. I was 15 when i first read this book, and have since read it again and it is probably my favorite book of all time. Yes, it is rather boring at times, and yes, it has a long, involved, and confusing plot, and yes, Charles Dickens gives very tedious descriptions of everything. But the morals and meanings portrayed in this book far outshine the faults. If you cannot find them, then it will most likely be boring and dull. If you can, it will probably become one of your alltime favorites.

Each time that I read Great Expectations I'm left wondering whether or not Pip would have been happier if he had never been made the gift of "great expectations." More importantly, would he have been a better man if he had remained apprenticed to his blacksmith brother-in-law Joe rather than having been sent to London to be trained in the ways of a gentleman?

Great Expectations is a Dickens cautionary tale in which the author warns his readers of what can so easily happen to a person when given the opportunity to "better himself" by leaving his home, family and friends behind for education and fortune-seeking in the big city. As soon as word reached the local townspeople around whom Pip had spent his early years that a fortune was soon to be his, Pip found himself treated with respect and awe by the very people who had had little time for him in the past other than to chastise his behavior and relationship with the sister who was raising him "by hand." Their "boy" became "sir" overnight it seemed.

But sadly, after arriving in London and seeking to impress his new friends and colleagues, Pip decided that those who loved him most were an embarrassment to his future prospects and he only occasionally felt any guilt about his lack of contact with them. It is only when Pip's future prospects shockingly take a turn for the worse that he seeks the comfort of the family that he left behind.

Along the way, Dickens fills Great Expectations with some of the most memorable characters in British literature history. There are Miss Havisham, the spinster who never recovered from being jilted at the altar; Joe, the blacksmith and Pip's brother-in-law who never stopped loving Pip as a son no matter how much Pip neglected him over the years; Estella, the beautiful young woman whom Pip has loved since they were small children but who has been raised by Miss Havisham to give her heart to no man; Herbert, Pip's best London friend, a truly good man who both benefits from Pip's help and who eventually offers Pip a new future of his own; and, of course, Magwitch, the colorful escaped criminal whom Pip meets in the first pages of the book.

This is one of those books that I read every few years because re-reading it is like visiting an old friend after too long an absence. As the old memories come back, it's like I've never been away.

Little Nell is the protagonist of Charles Dickens's _The Old Curiosity Shop_. This sweet, angelic, beautiful, almost godly young adolescent, travels throughout England with her beloved grandfather to escape the clutches of the evil, money-hungry dwarf, Quilp. Like many of the child heroes/heroine of his books, Nell lives in dire circumstances. Everyone seems to love her and she often repays these kindnesses, not monetarily, by performing little acts of goodness towards these individuals. There is nothing Nell or grandfather would not do for each other, including engaging in gambling at cards so that he could win enough money to support Nell. Unfortunately, her grandfather is an inept card player.

Other children in the book include Kit (Christopher), a friend of Little Nell's, and his younger brother. Kit is a good and honest young adolescent, who is falsely set up by several dishonest and venial adults in the novel as a thief. Dickens goes into some detail about Kit's travails, as well as the suffering of Kit's loving mother and of his innocent little brother. As usual, Dickens is very strong in character development and the reader must bear the ghastly way Kit, his mother, and even Quilp's wife are treated. Assisting Quilp in the intended ruination of Kit are the completely slimy lawyers, Sampson Brass and his "lovely," equally corrupt sister, Sarah. Other decent characters in the novel include Richard Swiveller and his woman friend, whom Richard lends the sobriquet, the Marchioness. Her tininess of stature stands in contrast to her worthiness.

Although many avid fans of Charles Dickens's works know of the fate of Little Nell, I will not ruin this part for those who intend to read this novel by revealing it. Also, unlike Oscar Wilde, I cannot be as blithely cruel as Mr. Wilde by stating that a certain section of the novel made me laugh. I loved Nell as much as the other people who knew her did, and found her to be one of the most unforgettable characters in all of literature.

This is among the bottom four novels by Dickens and it ranks a mediocre #25 in sales among the Dickens novels and short story collections. There is a reason. Unfortunately, this is a poorly planned and executed novel, partially saved by a few interesting characters including little Nell and Kit. It is not one of his great ones; and, if you are new to Dickens be encouraged because the others are mostly better.

After reading many of Dickens's novels and short stories in the last year or two, my pick for the best is the 750 page David Copperfield. It is both entertaining and it is a literary masterpiece, or close to it. There is a degree of charm and enthusiasm that is better the other novels. Oliver Twist is a close second, and I like the sleeper that is less well known: Nicholas Nickleby. Great Expectations is one of the lighter and fast moving novels, and it is very popular with many readers. It is a shorter work, about 400 pages. The novel does have a few interesting and famous Dickens characters such as the protagonist, Pip, Miss Havisham, and Abel Magwitch. Tale of Two Cities is a good read as well, and Edwin Drood is the worst book. Skip that one.

Now, back to the present book. Dickens only real writing failure was the Master Humphrey's Clock series which was stopped due to readership rejection after approximately six serial publications, and the readers had mostly gone after the first story. It followed his third and wildly popular novel, Nicholas Nickleby. In short, he departed from his popular themes and got ahead of the readers. As a result, he found himself with no audience. In his next novel, "The Old Curiosity Shop," he refers in the forward to the Humphrey series as "desultory" and was obviously not content with his own efforts there. But he carries some of the problems of that failed series into the present novel. He searched for a literary mechanism to get the readers back for his fourth novel, the present novel, and he decided that a small vulnerable girl surrounded by grotesque characters would make a good theme, hence we have the present novel.

The first few chapters of The Old Curiosity Shop follow the narrative style of Humphrey's Clock. But then after three chapters he switches gears. There is a feeling of darkness or foreboding in the novel that is not offset with positive characters, and instead it is dominated by the negative the character named Quilp, who is a wife beater and nasty character. His impact on the story is very negative. There are few sympathetic characters here, unlike say Oliver Twist where we have an array of nasty people offset by good characters. Also, the novel contains two parallel plots which leaves the reader somewhat scratching their head and wondering why?

Overall, I thought the read was just average or worse. It is not a difficult read. The reading experience is smooth and sometimes interesting. I read the book then read the analysis and found that I agreed almost completely with the critical analysis: it is was a problem novel. It contains many signature elements of a Dickens novel, but also includes many problems and poor planning for the story. Dickens tried to save it using a highly dramatic ending in the last few chapters. But is it enough? I think not: too little too late.

As background information, I am in the process of reading most of Dickens's 22 novels and longer short stories, and set up a Listmania list. As a suggestion, avoid the Penguin Popular Classics with the plain green covers (I bought two). They fall apart and do not stand up to a read, especially books over 500 pages in length. The Regular Penguin Classics with the photo or painting on the front are excellent and some have maps and illustrations (drawings). The Wordsworth Classics are not as good, and some are illustrated.

The Old Curiosity Shop appeared in 1840-1841 in monthly installments in
a magazine edited by the young Charles Dickens (1812-1870). The novel was an instant success winning the author of "The Pickwick Papers" and "Oliver Twist" great fame and riches.
The long novel deals with Little Nell Trent. She lives in the Old Curiostiy Shop with her granfather. He is an alcoholic old man who is weak and has a dangerous gambling addiction. Due to this vice he loses his shop which is taken over by the evil dwarf Quilp. Quilp delights in evil and is one of Dickens most malevolently grotesque creations.
Nell and her granfather flee London encountering many adventures and meet many characters on their peregrinations throughout England. Among the most interesting characters are the kindly schoolmaster who befriends the hapless pair; Mrs. Jarley who owns a waxworks employing in a time of dire need and the old church sexton who shares advice on eternity with Nell.
Back in London we meet the man about town Dick Swiveller and Nell's wild brother Fred Trent. Swiveller becomes a clerk at the notorious lawfirm of Sampson Brass and his mannish sister Sally Brass who is also an attorney.
Here in this law office we meet the little servant the Marchioness who falls in love with Swiveller.
Kit Nubbles works for Quilp and is accused of theft by Brass. He is an endearing simpleminded young man who cares for Nell. He and his mother and family are delightful.
Nell dies as the novel concludes. She is modelled on Dickens' 17 year old sister-in-law Mary Hogarth who died in that year of her short life.
Dickens mourned for her all of his days. Nell is an etheral angelic girl who lacks realism but does make one love her. A New York mob awaited the arrival of the installment dealing with her demise by crying out "Does Little Nell live?" Alas, the answer is no regarding the charcter but yes in literary annals. She will always live as long as Dickensians savor this fine novel.
"The Old Curiosity Shop" is episodic but does contain scense of great comicality and wit. Dickens also writes a good mystery story and this novel is no exception as we learn who the solitary gentleman is! This is a good novel to begin your reading of the immense corpus of works left by
Dickens. I enjoyed it very much. The period illustrations in the Penguin edition are also an enhanced pleasure to the total experience of this
journey back to the days when Victoria ruled the British Empire.
Excellent!

i have never read Dickens before, and I found this book intriging. I love his characters, and the way he intertwined all of them, and brought them all together in the end.

A Curiosity, indeed, that Dickens should still be read today when most of his then-popular contemporaries are long forgotten. His stories are rambling, with little action, and sometimes don't even make sense. They take place in a mystical early Victorian age that exists only in Dickens's imagination, and the characters are placed like chess pieces in their places to be manipulated.

But what characters! Little Nell, Daniel Quilp, Dick Swiveller and the Marchioness, Sally Brass - just the names bring a fully detailed picture to life with all their delicious idiosyncrasies.
It's in them that Dickens's appeal lives on.

This book was written in installments for a magazine, and the chapters don't always follow one another logically, so that's the way I read it, a chapter or two at a time, without worrying too much about continuity. It's a strange mix of sentimentality and sexual perversity, innocence and evil sometimes repelling one another and sometimes attracting one another.

It's not a good introduction to Dickens, but a definite recommendation for the Dickens veteran.

I have nothing bad to say about anything that John Irving has written, and this is no exception. His short stories and memoirs are as intriguing and captivating as his novels and I enjoyed every minute of this compilation

Although certainly not Irving's best work, PIGGY SNEED is definitely a great vacation book to bring with you. The stories are faily quick to go through, and if you stop in the middle of one of them, it is pretty easy to pcik it back up again. Some of the stories are rather interesting, while others are a throwback to his days as a wrestler/wrestling coach, which doesn't particularly interest me, but might interest another reader.

How in the world I discovered this book at the local Dollar Tree for a mere buck is beyond me. This is some good reading from John Irving's life including his childhood. I did enjoy Vonnegut's memoir "A Man Without A Country" a little better. I still recommend this as much as any for anyone looking for a laugh out loud myriad of stories, observations, and tragic events. Yes - you might come to tears laughing, but also from some sad events as well.

This is a fine collection of short stories, the only problem being that most people don't like short stories.

This is a particular problem for Irving since readers associate him with huge, emotional roller-coaster novels such as A Prayer for Owen Meany or The World According to Garp.

Also the selection here is a little odd: a mixture of the kind of fiction you might find in The New Yorker plus some non-fiction: autobiographical essays of childhood plus an introduction to a Dickens novel. Since I always thought Irving was more of a Hardy fan, I found this a little bemusing.

Overall, fans of Irving's longer work will tend to a little disappointed with this outing, though this is perhaps no fault of the author.

I love John Irving. When I first read Garp 25 years ago it knocked me out. Mr. Irving was truly an original voice. In "Piggy Sneed" he has given us a memoir, some short stories and essays. The memoir, "The Imaginary Girlfriend", is the best piece in the book. I enjoyed the fusion of his wrestling career and his writing career. I enjoyed the short stories and his attempt to share with us his some of the craft of writing. The homage to Dickens was enlightening and inspiring. I found the final piece of the collection (the one on Gunter Grass) the most difficult to read (perhaps because I haven't read any of his work but the piece has not inspired me). All in all if you love John Irving, you will find this book an excellent companion.

We've been wanting to start a home library with matched sets of classics novels. This book and all of the Leatherbound Classics are beautiful. The text is clear and the books open wide for ease of reading. The leather bindings look beautiful in our little library nook. Make more!!!

Beautiful book. Everyone in our home is fighting over who gets to read it next. Maybe I should have ordered more than one...

Let's face it, there are better editions of Dickens out there. You get what you pay for. This is not a top of the line leather edition. For the price, though, you can't beat it. It is what it is, a reasonably priced leather edition of four of his novels. At five dollars apiece, the price can not be beat.

Buying books because they look good on your shelf is pretentious and phony - and this book capitalizes on that. I got this as a gift and was amazed when I read it at the number of typos in it. There is simply no way this collection was proofed by an editor - that or the editing company is one of the worst in the world.

Buy these fantastic books, but not this edition, unless you just want people to think you read Dickens.

You would do better off buying these books individually from a different publisher.
It sounds impressive, leather bound, gilded edges, but it is very cheaply done. On the plus side, it does have a ribbon book mark so you don't have to buy your own.
But this book was poorly edited, filled with needless typos, and with all four of these books available from numerous other publishers, I would suggest to just buy it from them.

Having left Dickens until later in life, I just completed Barnaby Rudge as part of my attempt to go through his novels in chronological order, starting with Pickwick. Barnaby Rudge is a very different animal from the 4 prior novels, patterned after it was on the swashbuckling historical style of Scott. It's so different from Old Curiosity Shop, which he was writing at the same time as Barnaby Rudge, that it's hard to believe it's the work of the same author, except for the quality of exceptionally vivid characterizations that pervade all the books.

I knew nothing of the historical events upon which the book is based, that, at the time of original publication, were well known to most Londoners, almost as well known as 9/11 is known by contemporary New Yorkers. Dickens seemed to have anticipated this problem, as the historical recreation is so beautifully folded into the melodrama that I never felt left behind. DON'T READ THE INTRODUCTION as too many plot points were given away and spoiled some of the dramatic impact for this reader. Save the introduction for afterward.

The characters are so memorable, it is painful to have to complete the book and say goodbye to them. Especially John Willet, and his double-chin, which almost deserves billing as a character in and of itself, Sir John Chester, a poetic achievement to whom Oscar Wilde and Shaw owed enormous debts, Maypole Hugh, and Grip the Raven (from whom Poe got his idea for the poem "The Raven), are high water marks of achievement.

While I preferred some of the intensely personal, experimental style of the latter half of Oliver Twist and much of Old Curiosity Shop, the confident and bold tone of the narration in Barnaby is a shot of adrenaline in every chapter, and the power of description in Dicken's cinematic viewpoint is incredibly powerful and pulse-poundingly entertaining, while the whole time maintaing a savvy, but never cynical outlook when it comes to the socio-political themes.

Don't miss it.

Barnaby Rudge is one of Charles Dickens' lesser known and read novels--and that's a pity. The book is interesting, full of the kind of characters that Dickens is noted for, and full of action and exciting scenes. More significantly, it is one of his most thought provoking works, with a relevance that is applicable to today's world. It will leave you cheering for the good guys and grateful to see that the bad guys (and gals) get what coming to them. The book is divided cleanly into two parts, the first taking place in 1775, depicts the comings and goings of four families and their assorted relations and friends. The second occurs five years later and focuses on an historical event, the riots which shook London to oppose rights for Catholics.

The book begins at the Maypole, an inn located just outside London and presided over by John Willet, a pompous know-it-all who intimidates his friends and dominates his son, Joe, to the point that he leaves to join the army by the end of this part. Hugh, an uneducated and violent man works for Willet handling animals. Down the road is the residence of Geoffrey Haredale, a country gentleman, and his niece Emma, a beautiful and gracious girl. Her father was mysteriously killed 22 years previously and the mystery runs through the book. Haredale is a Catholic and an antagonist to John Chester, an oily, Machiavellian, highly ambitious character. The only thing the two men have in common is their mutual desire to keep Chester's son Edward from a romance with Emma. In this they succeed and Edward, too, leaves at the end of part 1. The third household contains the Varden family. Gabriel, the father, is a locksmith kindly and a moderating influence throughout the book. Ultimately he plays a hero's role. His wife, Martha, constants nags him, aided and abetted by their servant, Miss Miggs, a comical character given to hysterics. Their daughter, Dolly, is beautiful and vivacious, but flirtatious and at this point does not return the love that Joe Willet shows for her. Simon Tappertit, an apprentice to Mr. Varden, also resides there. He is a ridiculous person with an exaggerated sense of himself and the clandestine leader of a group of similar apprentices with designs on engaging in violence against their masters. Finally there is the residence of the title character, Barnaby Rudge, who is a mentally deficient but happy and charming young man. He lives in genteel poverty with his mother. Mr. Rudge, who was the steward to the murdered Mr. Haredale, was also allegedly a victim. The cast of characters interacts in typical Dickens fashion for the first 33 (of 80) chapters.

The scene and mood shifts abruptly in the second part which gives a detailed and graphic account of the so-called "anti-popery" riots that took place in London in 1780. The reader would do well to read an independent account of these events before reading Dickens' version. The above cast of characters is joined in part two by an additional group including some from actual life (Lord George Gordon, the instigator of the riots and Ned Dennis, one of the ringleaders to name but two). The riots bring out the best and the worst of all the characters. Barnaby is conned into joining the rioters and ends up in prison condemned to be hanged, the Maypole Inn is sacked and John Willet, humiliated, bound and gagged, the Haredale residence is set ablaze and Emma and Dolly taken prisoner, many houses are burned, people killed, Newgate prison is broken into, destroyed and all the prisoners released. The riots end with a harrowing scene is which dozens of people are burned to death by flaming alcohol.

The execution scene, where three of the "ringleaders" are to be hanged is one of the most powerful parts of the book. Dickens gives a vivid account of the conditions and circus atmosphere that surrounds this event. In Hugh's powerful and eloquent speech Dickens also gives a condemnation of British society that creates such persons. Hugh at this point is the most moral person in the book and goes to his death with bravery and courage. This scene alone is well worth reading the book for.

In the end, of course, everything is sorted out, justice is delayed but not denied and we have a happy ending.

If the book can be said to suffer it is from the lack of a strong central character around whom the plot revolves. There is no real hero here or even a singular villain. Joe and Edward, either of whom might have filled the former role are largely absent from much of the book and only show up again after the riots have ended. Gabriel Varden comes closest to that role but is more acted upon than actor until the closing chapters. The most likely candidate for villain, John Chester, likewise disappears at the end of part one. Hugh, Simon and Dennis emerge as a trio of rouges joined by Gashford, secretary to Lord Gordon and a blind man who cries plaintively, why must I be good just because I am blind? The murderer, of course, is also lurking around. But none of these individuals stands apart from the rest and the hero versus villain theme is muted. The book is really about events and how these events shape and change the life of the characters for better or worse.

In the end you will find yourself thinking about Barnaby Rudge for days afterward and it will leave a mark on your life. Nothing more positive can be said about any book.

This is the last of all the Dickens's novels (including the five shorter Christmas Books) that I have either read or attempted. I had saved it until the last because it has not been held in very high esteem either by the critics or the reading public. I was pleasantly surprised.

Whereas there are several Dickens novels that I was unable to finish (namely, The Old Curiosity Shop, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, Little Dorrit, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and all the Christmas Books except A Christmas Carol), Barnaby Rudge never dragged even though it is one of Dickens's longer novels. Barnaby Rudge is as filled with memorable characters (especially the secondary ones - Miss Miggs, the Vardens, the Chesters, Hugh, Mr. Tapperttit, Dennis the hangman, etc.); places (the Maypole Inn, the locksmith's shop) and incident (the Gordon Riots) as any of his greater novels.

Stylistically, Barnaby Rudge is akin to Dickens's earlier picaresque novels (Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby). After those early successes of the 1830s, Dickens was struggling to find his mature style in my opinion. Most of the longer and shorter novels I was unable to finish come from the 1840s. (The Mystery of Edwin Drood is Dickens's last novel, but it was only half-finished at his death so it is really not fair to blame Dickens for my failure to respond to it.) Even though The Old Curiosity Shop comes between Nicholas Nickelby and Barnaby Rudge, Barnaby Rudge demonstrates all the strengths of Nicholas Nickelby and avoids the weaknesses of The Old Curiosity Shop. Barnaby Rudge is still early Dickens in my opinion.

G. K. Chesterton described a taste for early Dickens as similar to a taste for new potatoes as opposed to mature potatoes. Some people prefer new potatoes. Barnaby Rudge is not Dickens at his greatest. (I reserve that description for David Copperfield, Great Expectations and Bleak House. Along with the three novels of the 1830s already mentioned, I place Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities and Our Mutual Friend and now, Barnaby Rudge, on the second tier of Dickens's novels.) We must remember, that Dickens at his worst is better than most writers at their best. If Barnaby Rudge were a newly discovered work by an otherwise unknown author, or by one of Dickens's contemporaries, it would be hailed as a masterpiece. As it is, Barnaby Rudge is an eminently enjoyable and readable effort by a great writer.

This is a review of the BBC Radio dramatization version of this book.

The story is a good one, filled with politics of religion, sympathetic characters and Dicken's inimitable prose.

However, this audio version is WAY over produced, with blaring, overly-dramatic music that seemed reminiscent of the worst grade B silent films.

The actors screamed, ranted, raved and wept hysterically more than they spoke. Unless someone already knows the basic plot and characters, they may have difficulty following the action (particularly, as a previous reviewer pointed out, the thick accents will be hard for Americans to decipher.).

The entire production needed to be toned down quite a bit for Dicken's voice to be heard above the clamor.

It might be better to read the book in this case.

Barnaby Rudge (1841)originally appeared as a weekly serial in Dickens'
weekly newspaper Master Humphrey's Clock. The novel is the most obscure work by the master. The story is well worth reading. It is an exciting story of the Anti-Roman Catholic riots of 1780 led by the eccentric George Gordon a member of Parliament. The second half of the book focuses on the riots in a cinematic depiction of the mobs who ran amok in London during a hot summer of hatred, prejudice and murder.
Character rather than complicated Victorian plot is why we read Dickens. This book adds many memorable folks to the gallery of Dickens
characters. In this long novel we meet:
Barnaby Rudge-the title character is a feeble witted lad whose pet is the famed raven Grip. He lives with his mother. We later learn his evil father Rudge Sr. murdered Lord Haredale's brother. The father is hanged but Barnaby lives to spend time at the Maypole Inn. Years before Dostoevsky's novel "The Idiot" Dickens took a mentally ill person as his hero. Barnaby is pardoned for his participation in the Gordon riots.
Gabriel Varden, his shrewish wife and buxom daughter Dolly live in London where Mr. Varden is a locksmith. After Joe Willet leaves England to fight in the American Revolution he returns home to wed Dolly. A charming love story.
The Haredale family tells us of the love of Mr. Haredale's beautiful niece
Emma for Edward the son of John Chester. Chester is a Protestant and a sworn enemy of the Catholic Haredales.
Minor charactes such as Hugh (the illegitimate son of Chester); Dennis the hangman; Miss Miggs the man crazy maid to Mrs. Varden and others populate the pages of this fast paced tale of murder,mystery and intrigue.
Barnaby Rudge is a fine book which deserves to be better known. It is not Dickens best novel,his longest novel or his most famous novel. Yet it still appeals in its exciting look at the events of 1780. It and the much more famous Tale of Two Cities were the two historical novels the author produced.
YOu will never forget Grip the Raven (said to be the inspiration for Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Raven") or Barnaby and his friends and enemies. Curl up with this good book and let your mind and heart wander back to the year of our Lord 1775 when the novel begins.
The book is well illustrated by George Cattermole and Hablot K. Browne
in charming art work.

Oddly refreshing. Though I am familiar with Gorey's cartoon art, this is the first of his books that I've stumbled into and I suddenly understand his cultish popularity. TEA COSY is a re-make of Dicken's CHRISTMAS CAROL involving wallpaper thieves, ghosts of never-were holidays and a Bahum Bug who battles didacticism. The whole adventure ends at "the very edge of the unseemly." Don't wait until Christmas.

I really enjoy most of Gorey's works, usually because the pictures are wonderfully creepy. In this book, the images lack teh detail that you find in so many of Gorey's other works. The story, a strange "Christmas Carol"-like thing, doesn't make the book worth getting, without better pictures to back it up.

This story gave me a happy warm fuzzy feeling about a holiday that tries to kill us all with stress. It made me giggle my way through the holidays...

There is a curious subgenre of psedo-Victorian British macabre writing penned by Americans with little or no ties to Mother England. Lemony Snicket is the most recent example, though the patron saint of the style is the indelible Edward Gorey. In Gorey's "The Haunted Tea-Cosy", we find a very oddly written story made with more than its fair share of humor. Even the title is funny. How many Americans own tea-cosies today, I wonder. And is the plural of cosy "cosies" or "cosys"? Such answers will not be found in this book. It is still worth a gander.

The plot, such as it is, follows a somewhat "Christmas Carol"ish venue. In it Edmund Gravel is enjoying his yearly fruitcake and letter-writing when a large Bahhum Bug leaps from under Gravel's tea-cosy to proclaim, "I am here to diffuse the interests of didacticism". I wish more characters in books would say this. The bug and Gravel are joined by three spirits that show him (in this order) Affecting Scenes, Distressing Scenes, and Heart-Rending Scenes. These scene include things like Alberta Stipple returning home to find the wallpaper in her drawing room gone. In the end Gravel decides to throw a party (yay) and the show ends with some suggested pornographic dealings (possibly leading into Gorey's more disturbing story "The Curious Sofa").

Gorey is very much an adult's picture book author. Kids will probably not be too terribly entranced by his fine pen-and-ink drawings or his cumbersome words. But he's the best, Gorey is. No one writes of disaffected despair more lightly or amusingly. This book won't exactly become a Christmas classic, but its worth a perusal when you find yourself on a overcast Sunday in your home with nothing to do.

Edmund Gravel traverses through this quick but enjoyable read by Edward Gorey, including his great illustrations. A bug-like creature leaps from Edmunds tea-cozy and takes him on a Dickens-like "Christmas Carol"-like journey. The stories are sad, depressing, and amusing all in one. Great holiday entertainment, and a great gift for the scrooge who has everything but this book.

I would tend to think of this like historical fiction, but more accurately biographical fiction with a great story based around actual events. But it could still be considered of some historical fiction value as Dicken's work was so influential, particularly through the classic this story is about. This book make a very good holidaze season read as it is fairly short and easy to follow. It imitates in some ways the kind of writing reminiscent in the classic Christmas Carol, so one gets the feel of Dicken's thinking and surroundings at the time he crafted the classic tale. I enjoy reading this after the classic every Christmas season.

Almost everyone would agree that Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is a holiday favorite. The book is a big seller during the holiday season and the movie versions practically equal the number of times It's a Wonderful Life is shown each year. But how did Dickens come to write this classic Christmas tale?

In her first novel, A Midnight Carol: A Novel of How Charles Dickens Saved Christmas, Patricia K. Davis gives readers a "who, what, where, when, how" scenario on the creation of this classic tale. In Davis' rendering, the well-known author has been experiencing a bit of a slump in his book sales and a smidgen of writer's block. He and his wife, Catherine, and their four children are about to be evicted from their stately home at the fashionable address: One Devonshire Terrace. And only to add to his troubles, Catherine announces that child number five is on its way.

The food becomes scarcer, the servants haven't been paid in weeks, and holidays are fast approaching. Dickens has a dream about the long-dead Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, and the man who took the "merry" out of "merry ol' England." Coincide the dream with the meeting of a very poor boy with a limp and a crutch, and voile! The Tale begins to perk in the writer's head.

Davis recounts an excellent tale with an old-fashioned 19th century feel to it that would make Dickens proud. It's even published in with a time-era feel. But Davis never really gets into the writing of the piece. All the reader gets to see is a glimpse of what is going around Dickens and then, suddenly, the manuscript is at the printer, destined to become one of the greatest books of all time. But wait! Dickens' rather unscrupulous publisher, Ledbook and Squid, try to deter the selling of the novel so that Dickens will be forced to turn over all rights to the story to them.

A Midnight Carol will never achieve classic status, but it is a fun holiday read, a charming feel-good tale that is sure to put the reader into the holiday spirit.

Can't get enought Christmas Carol? Then you must read Midnight Carol the fact based story of how Charley Dickens wrote the book that became a Christmas classic. Right before he penned Carol Dicken's life was not great. His bills were out of control. His wife was pregnant. His father was a Fagin like character who leeched off him and even his best friend thought he had no future as a writer. The book is written in a style that reminded me of Dickens's and it's completely charming. Amazingly this was the author's first book. It succeeds on every level.

I really didn't know if I would enjoy this book or not, seeing that it was part fact - part fiction. But enjoy it I did! Written in a Dickensesque style, the book reads almost like an original 19th century novel, the manuscript lost in a musty basement for over a century, only to be found and printed for the first time. The other reviews of this book have done a wonderful job in their storyline description, so I won't bother going there. I will say that this is an excellent book to read in October or November - kind of a precursor of the holidays to come. Enjoy!

Patricia Davis has done a suitable job of capturing the genius and spirit of Charles Dickens--his fears, hopes, and ideals. Davis also has a talent for portraying the mood of a scene without a lot of detailed description of setting. Unfortunately, as the book progresses, I found that this strength became a weakness-there are times when more description and context would have been helpful and appropriate.

I would have liked to have seen more of the private Dickens, wrestling with the development of his story and it's characters. Charles Dickens wrote that as the tale unfolded he "wept and laughed, and wept again" but in Midnight Carol, we get only a tantalizing glimpse of that. While the use of the ghost of Oliver Cromwell was a clever device, I thought the book could have used more of him as the principal foil to Dickens' muse. Also, I must agree with a previous reviewer that the ending was badly rushed. In the last two chapters, important plot questions are resolved in far too much of an "offhand manner." (And, yes, the lack of an historical afterword is a very serious flaw).

All in all, If you love Dickens' Christmas Carol-I mean, REALLY love it (as I do)-then Midnight Carol is required reading. It's brevity means that you can finish it in a single evening. Its brevity (combined with the author's demonstrated talent with the English language) also makes you wish for more substance.

A gift for my grand daughter, it seems to be a good book. I haven't heard her comments yet (it was a Xmas gift and she's still working through the rest of the gift pile)

I understand that for people who only see the Disney's movie this book can seem dangerous, but this is the REAL STORY of Pinocchio.
For me (I live in Italy) the story is familiar and I remember to have read it when I was 6 or 7, without any danger of my "child psicology".
Unfortunately, English speaking people haven't seen the wonderful Italian film of Pinocchio of the 70s (directed for the Italian TV by Comencini with Nino Manfredi, Gina Lollobrigida, Franco Franchi, Ciccio Ingrassia and others), that could help people who haven'e read the original book to have another perspective of the story...

My children and I have just completed this book, with beautiful illustrations by Innocenti, as a read-aloud. I have never been acquainted with any Pinocchio other than the anemic, sanitized Disney versions reflected also in the Little Golden Books. The cautions by others to be careful with young children are worthy of consideration, for this book has terrors aplenty, both in words and illustrations, but I find both words and illustrations to be marvelous.

I am beginning to "open the door" to the difficult realities of the world for my children, and find beautiful allegorical literature to be just the ticket. The illustrations are beautifully rendered, but some are also quite scarey. Frequently, a following page will have a small cameo of a detail from the full illustration of a preceding page which draws the attention to that moral heart of a complex picture. I prefer this introduction to the reality of wickedness in the world (in words and illustrations) to the soul-numbing introductions to wickedness rampant in television and movies which give no time for concern for reflection.

Some of my favorite themes are emphasized also - the redeeming power of love and forgiveness, the association of both forgiveness AND repentance prior to the resolution of relationship, the surpassing value of wisdom and the often difficult trials that must come before the heart is ready to embrace it.

I am especially struck by Pinocchio's occasional recounting of his adventures as the tale unfolds. In the beginning of the tale, his recounting is filled with blaring examples of falsehood and complete lack of self-examination or evaluation. Everything that happens to him is someone else's fault and there is little association of cause and event. As the tale unfolds, however, Pinocchio's self-examination increases in accuracy, and his self-examination also becomes more accurate.

I think this allegorical tale has much value for young children, as does Hinds' Feet on High Places and The Pilgrim's Progress.

First off, to clear things up, this page contains a few reviews of other editions of Pinocchio, which should be seperated out by their proper ISBN numbers. This review refers to the 2005 hardcover from Creative Editions. This is a revised version, first published in 1998, this edition features a new translation of the full, unabridged text, more lyrical than some older translations, and quite faithful to the original Italian text. Also, this edition has several additional illustrations, and has been handsomely re-designed. Altogether, I find this to be my absolute favorite edition of Pinnocchio, and I even bought it again, to replace my much-loved earlier edition. I prefer the new translation to the older translation used before, and the addition of more illustrations and the re-design make this a superior edition.

I first found this book in a thrift store, and the inscription indicated it was a misguided gift to a young child from his grand-parents... Don't make this mistake, this version of Pinocchio is definitely not intended for young children. Parents may want to look elsewhere if they are expecting a tame children's book. This is a sophisticated and somewhat graphically illustrated edition, and it is not the Disney-fied version of Pinocchio that many people expect. If you are unfamiliar with the differences between the original story, and the popular sanitized versions, you might be shocked at first. The story is actually very dark, brutal, & surreal, and the illustrations of, say, Pinocchio getting hung in a tree, are really too dark for very young children.

That being said, I still whole-heartedly recommend this edition for older readers wanting an artistic and unexpurgated version of this incredible tale. This is one of the best modern translations of the text I've read, so I would recommend it to literature students and people interested in Italian folklore over most of the other versions available.

The artwork is what drew me to this book when I first saw it. You simply must see these illustrations to appreciate them. The detailed, large-scale, and subtlely colored drawings are a moody and perfect accompaniment to this version of the text. I pick this book up often, just to look at the amazing pictures and re-read some of my favorite parts.

Overall, I am thrilled with this revised edition of a book I already considered a classic among illustrated books. I recommend it to scholars of folklore, lovers of sophisticated illustrated books, and curious readers looking for a dark, surreal and wondrous book.

I own several copies of Pinocchio both English and Italian texts, and this is one of my favorite translations as Ms. Lucas takes great care with conveying the original intent of Collodi's story and characters -- (even down to the translated names used for the characters). I'm not sure what the previous reviewer was referencing, (it may be the review from the library school journal--which may have been an abridgement for grade-schoolers, no longer in print)(???). If you find a copy of this book, I'd recommend buying it. It has the full 36 chapters, the original illustrations by Mazzanti, and extensive notes at the end. A lot of care went into this project, better than most other unabridged translations currnently available.

. . . but no adjective, or string of adjectives, can do Ackroyd's massive, majestic biography justice. Dickens is, with Victoria, the archetypical Victorian, and he is here fully realized, in all his contradictory dimensions: the best-known and best-loved writer of his day, but perpetually insecure and ashamed of his "ungentlemanly" background; wealthy yet financially ever insecure and working feverishly for material advancement; outgoing and flamboyantly dramatic, yet profoundly interior and haunted by irrepressible demons; the great celebrator of hearth and home who sired 10 children but who abandoned his wife of 22 years for a curious relationship with an actress more than half his age; the man who toasted Shakespeare's birthday as the anniversary also of the Bard's gallery of immortal characters, who saw himself as a similar progenitor but who would "write" his friends, compulsively objectifying them, family, and acquaintances into manipulable, construed, understandable "characters" - indeed, the most capacious literary imagination since Shakespeare but a jittery control addict for whom everything, and everybody, had to be in its right place.

Ackroyd has read every word Dickens wrote - the novels, stories, journalism, letters, inscriptions - and apparently, and more astonishingly, everything ever written ABOUT Dickens - by his circle of literary and profession friends, rivals, reviewers and critics, acquaintances, memoirists who encountered him but once, otherwise unknown British, Scottish, Continental, or American diarists who happened to note a Dickens "sighting" whether or not words were exchanged. All these gleanings Ackroyd shapes convincingly into cumulative aspects of character, incidents that inform Dickens's work, information about the author's public bearing, mannerisms, speech, likes, dislikes, behavior in almost every imaginable range of situations - "in short" - to call on Micawber - a full portrait. And with remarkable efficiency and literary felicity, Ackroyd situates Dickens within his rapidly changing era, as long-distance horse-drawn coaches give way to rail travel, as the stench and filth of pre-Reform London yields to reformist impulses of every stripe, as the Empire advances and London is transformed into a great capital of monuments and squares and Imperial architecture. (And, as with his engrossing biography of Thomas More, Ackroyd introduces London as a major character and influence on his subject, a conceit Ackroyd, himself the author of a knowing, loving "biography" of London, pulls off beautifully.)

Most important for devotees of Charles Dickens - and if you're searching for a 1200 page (scandalously) out-of-print biography, you are surely that - Ackroyd demonstrates convincingly how the work reflects the life, the personality, the influences, the environment, and all the contradictions of Dickens the man. Ackroyd carefully walks the line between reading too much into the life from the work, but draws careful correspondences between the tensions of the life and their realizations in fiction. The chapters devoted to Dickens in the throes, or ecstasies, of creation - for so does his creative moods and energies vary - are among the book's most compelling passages. Scarcely ever has the sinews of literary creativity been laid so believably bare, by a biographer who is himself a prolific, and highly imaginative, writer. The most powerful impression one draws from Ackroyd's matchless story is the extent to which a protean Dickens embodied to a great degree all his mightiest creations, the dark and the bright, and not merely the plainly autobiographical Nickeby, Pip, and David Copperfield.

When I finally closed Ackroyd's Dickens, I was nearly inconsolable at the loss of someone I felt I had come to know so well. A brilliant life, radiantly told, and a book that deserves to be - and, I pray, will soon be - back in print.

It's absolutely shocking Peter Ackroyd's magisterial and magical biography of Charles Dickens has fallen out of print: I think I had more pure readerly pleasure reading this work than just about any biography or novel I've read in the last fifteen years. This is really a one-of-a-kind work: Ackroyd writes his life of Dickens as if it were a Dickens novel, and the descriptions of Dickens's London and Rochester spill out in page after page of densely glorious prose. It's a long book, and it is not lightly undertaken, and Ackroyd does some very out-of-fashion gestures here (like profess his belief in Dickens' genius, as other reviewers have noted) very readily. But I can't think of a biography I would recommend more highly.

There are some oddities in the style of Mr. Ackroyd, and his book contains some, what might be called, experimental chapters, fantasies or dreams or prose poems on subjects the author associates with Dickens. Ordinarily, I would find these things a bit off-putting.

But Mr. Ackroyd succeeds in giving us an overwhelmingly animated and penetrating portrait of the great Victorian author. This huge book - and no smaller effort could capture Dickens' spirit - crackles with energy, the very kind of driving energy so characteristic of Dickens himself.

Dickens was a strange man with immense drives and desires going off in many directions and personal habits that might well at times be regarded as unbalanced. He was not the sentimental, storytelling Victorian father figure he is sometimes regarded, although he could be quite sentimental about family and friends and his storytelling ability had few equals.

He behaved at times as a petty tyrant and was highly opinionated, always a man of immense curiosity, a traveler, a political activist, a generous man, a workaholic, a man eager for every possible shred of success and acclaim, a talented actor and mimic, a man seemingly possessed at times, as when carrying on conversations with himself, imitating his own characters in a mirror or going for walks as long as twenty miles alone or living with the ghosts of his fractured childhood.

A whirlwind of experience and desires helped make this naturally talented man such a great novelist. There are similarities to the titanic storm that was Beethoven. In both cases, the young man in his first blush of success could be truly charming while the aging figure could be quite unsettling.

The book contains many interesting anecdotes and details of Dickens' England, as well as Dickens' America since he made two journeys to America, a place he both hated and was fascinated by.

Highly recommended to all lovers of good biography, all students of English literature, and all students of English history.

This is, quite simply, the finest biography I've ever read, bar none. I am, admittedly, a huge Dickens fan, but that is no guarantee that a biography of the man is going to be interesting or enjoyable. This biography is all that and much, much more. I am shocked that it is no longer in print. If I could rate it a six-star book, I certainly would. Grab it up while you can.
The greatest strength of Mr. Ackroyd's book (and there are many), is his exquisite prose, which rivals that of Dickens himself. I especially enjoyed the vignettes that begin many chapters -- scenes where we get to walk with Dickens, sit with him, or chat him up. I found this device to be most original and stimulating.
If you desire to get to know Charles Dickens some 140 years after his death, by all means read this book. I came away feeling as though I'd met the man.

As someone with a history degree, I find this biography infuriating. The author uses the phrase "no doubt" to launch almost every other sentence. Every use indicates a speculation rather than a fact; or at least something for which the author provides zero evidence. Usually it is lengthy speculation on Dickens' emotions (including during infancy), but sometimes his actions; and sometimes the feelings and actions of his family, friends, and colleagues.

Thus the author blithely--and firmly--attributes a miscarriage of Dickens' wife, after the sudden death of her teenage sister Mary Hogarth, to jealousy over Dickens' show of grief. He insists Dickens' feelings for Mary were purely fatherly. But he gives no evidence other than Dickens' own public declarations, and Dickens is unlikely to have been candid about adulterous longings for a virginal female relative. On the other hand, I myself would speculate that Catherine Dickens may herself have grieved over her sister's death. But the author gives absolutely no evidence for how she felt about the death or Dickens' grief--no letters, no conversations reported by friends, nothing. On yet another hand, I would speculate that the miscarriage may have been due to purely physical rather than emotional causes, and its occurence after a family tragedy a coincidence--but the author does not discuss this possibility either.

And this is one of many, many instances.

I also got tired of hearing the author assert often and at length that society was different in the mid 19th century than now, which is obvious.

The author is much too fond of showing off his own prose. He even includes lengthy, boring, and uninformative fictional vignettes using Dickens as a character.

Overall, I'd say that the author is unable to distinguish among literary criticism, fiction using a historical character, and biography. He should have stuck to one of the first two genres and not attempted the third.