Charles Dickens

"Set in Victorian London, Great Expectations is the cautionary tale of a young man raised high above his station by a mysterious benefactor. Its remarkable characters and compelling story about wealth and poverty, crime and social anxiety, and the bitterness of unrequited love are as relevant today as when the novel was first serialized in 1860-1861. Charles Dickens's tale begins with young, orphaned Philip Pirrip, "Pip," running afoul of an escaped...

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....

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...

Bleak House defies a single description. It is a mystery story, in which Esther Summerson discovers the truth about her birth and her unknown mother's tragic life. It is a murder story, which comes to a climax in a thrilling chase, led by one of the earliest detectives in English fiction, Inspector Bucket.

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.

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.