Charles Dickens
1) Oliver Twist
One of Dickens’s earlier novels, dating from 1839, it charts the fortunes of an honourable young man, Nicholas Nickleby, who has set out to make his way in the world.
Dickens presents his remarkably vivid display of Victorian characters and the life they lead, from the generous to the fated to the crushed. Hope springs eternal, however, and righteous persistence brings rewards.
Anton Lesser, the outstanding Dickens interpreter, brings all
...7) Hard times
Originally written for Dickens' weekly magazine, Household Words, this short novel follows the fate of Sissy Jupe, a warm-hearted circus child, and the family that adopts her. Deserted by her ailing father, Sissy is taken into the cold household of the Gradgrind family, which operates a school. The "eminently practical" Thomas Gradgrind believes only in facts and figures and has raised his children accordingly, thoroughly suppressing the imaginative
...Written in the last decade of his life, Great Expectations reveals Dickens's dark attitudes toward Victorian society, its inherent class structure, and its materialism. Yet this novel persists as one of Dickens's most popular. Richly comic and immensely readable, Great Expectations overspills with vividly drawn characters, moral maelstroms, and the sorrow and pity of love. In an overgrown churchyard, a grizzled convict springs upon
..."It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair"
Set in the year 1775, between the cities of London and Paris, we are thrown into the turmoils of the time, where love, intrigue and self-sacrifice all lead up to the guillotine. A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens' unforgettable story of love and ultimate sacrifice.
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