Charles Dickens

Born and raised in the appalling deprivation of a Victorian-era London workhouse, the orphan Oliver escapes the drudgery of apprenticeship only to fall into the hands of the notorious Fagin and his gang of child thieves. But Oliver is an innocent at heart and the attempts by Fagin and the impudently witty Artful Dodger to teach the boy the trick of the pick-pocket's trade lead only to his almost immediate capture. Oliver's rescue by the kindly Mr....

After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the aging Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained...

The story of Little Nell, the beautiful child thrown into a shadowy, terrifying world, seems to belong less to the history of the Victorian novel than to folklore, fairy tale, or myth. The sorrows of Nell and her grandfather are offset by Dickens's creation of a dazzling contemporary world inhabited by some of his most brilliantly drawn characters-the eloquent ne'er-do-well Dick Swiveller; the hungry maid known as the "Marchioness"; the mannish lawyer...

The classic story of Amy Dorrit, who lives much of her life at the Marshalsea prison where her father is imprisoned for debt, earning meager wages at jobs outside the prison walls, including seamstress work for Mrs. Clennam, whose son Arthur takes an interest in her plight.

Explores the perils, travels, and adventures of the Pickwick Club's members including Mr. Pickwick and his faithful companion, Sam Weller, the poet Snodgrass, and the lover, Tracy Tupman

The Mystery of Edwin Drood was left unsolved when Charles Dickens died the day after completing the sixth of twelve planned serial installments. Orphans Edwin Drood and Rosa Bud, who had been betrothed by their parents to marry when Edwin turned twenty-one, mutually agree to break the engagement. Edwin mysteriously disappears, and the story ends before we know his fate.--back cover.

Oliver Twist: Starved and mistreated, empty bowl in hand, the young hero musters the courage to approach his master, saying, "Please, sir, I want some more." Oliver Twist's famous cry of the heart has resounded with readers since the novel's initial appearance in 1837, and the book remains a popular favorite with fans of all ages. Dickens was no stranger to the pain of hunger and the degradation of poverty. He poured his own youthful experience of...

Tells the story of a poor orphan's adventures in the criminal underworld of mid-nineteenth-century London.