Published: 31 December 2011
ISBN: 9781448128419
Imprint: Vintage Digital
Format: EBook
Pages: 720

Categories:

Literature: history & criticism

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The Old Curiosity Shop

Charles Dickens

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Apple Books

'I bought it, read and loved it' Derek Jacobi

Gentle Nell Trent lives a simple, if solitary life with her doting grandfather in his curiosity shop. Her parents died in poverty and unbeknownst to Nell her grandfather is obsessed with winning her an inheritance through gambling, but is forced to borrow heavily from malicious money-lender Quilp. As their debts mount up Nell and her grandfather are forced to flee London, pursued by the vindictive Quilp and others who seek to exploit them, in Dicken's classic tale of pathos and villainy.

'His characters are marvellous, his insights wonderful... Dickens is the father of magic realism. You don't expect reality but you get something bigger and better' Ruth Rendell

'It could be argued that The Old Curiosity Shop changed the expression of grief in the English-speaking world' Peter Ackroyd

Published: 31 December 2011
ISBN: 9781448128419
Imprint: Vintage Digital
Format: EBook
Pages: 720

Categories:

Literature: history & criticism

Share…

About the author

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was born in Hampshire on February 7, 1812. His father was a clerk in the navy pay office, who was well paid but often ended up in financial troubles. When Dickens was twelve years old he was send to work in a shoe polish factory because his family had been taken to the debtors' prison. Fagin is named after a boy Dickens disliked at the factory. His career as a writer of fiction started in 1833 when his short stories and essays began to appear in periodicals. The Pickwick Papers, his first commercial success, was published in 1836. In the same year he married the daughter of his friend George Hogarth, Catherine Hogarth. The serialisation of Oliver Twist began in 1837 while The Pickwick Papers was still running. Many other novels followed and The Old Curiosity Shop brought Dickens international fame and he became a celebrity in America as well as Britain. He separated from his wife in 1858. Charles Dickens died on 9 June 1870, leaving his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

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Praise for The Old Curiosity Shop

I am reading The Old Curiosity Shop by Dickens for the first time. His characters are marvellous, his insights wonderful and I'm astonished that I managed to miss this one before. Quilp and his wife and Kit confirm my view that Dickens is the father of magic realism. You don't expect reality but you get something bigger and better
Ruth Rendell

I bought it, read and loved it.
Derek Jacobi

I have read so much Dickens that I can almost predict where a story is leading from the beginning. But The Old Curiosity Shop is more mysterious. This Christmas I read it again didn't get out of bed for two days as I followed the adventures of Little Nell and the evil dwarf Quilp
Pete Waterman