Here is the complete list of books published by Charles Dickens, a social critic, British author, and regarded as the most celebrated novelist of the Victorian era.
Dickens is known as one of the most influential and significant writers of the 19th century. Among his achievements, he has been praised for giving an unmistakable representation of the Victorian-era underclass, assisting with realizing social change.
Who Is Charles Dickens?
Born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, on the southern coast of England, Charles Dickens was the second out of eight children.
He grew up in poverty along with his family, but his most defining moment came when he was just 12 years old. His father, who is known for spending more than his means, was imprisoned in the Marshalsea debtor’s prison in 1824.
Because of this, Charles was forced to drop out of school and worked in a factory that made ‘blacking’ or shoe polish so he could help support his family.
This horror ended a few months after Charles’ dad was able to get out of the prison and pay off his family’s debt. Charles was able to go back to school after the ordeal, but his formal education ended when he was 15.
He worked as an office boy at an attorney’s office but rose in the ranks a few years later, working as a newspaper and parliamentary reporter. That point in his life launched Charles’ writing career.
Oliver Twist was Charles’ first novel, followed by other great classics such as A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, and The Tale of Two Cities.
Charles Dickens passed away at his home on June 9, 1870, after suffering a stroke. The inscription on his tomb reads: “He was a sympathizer to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England’s greatest writers is lost to the world.”
Charles Dickens Complete Booklist & Summary
Here is Charles Dicken’s list of books along with a short summary:
1) A Dinner at Poplar Walk – 1833
Book Summary: Complete and unabridged paperback edition.First Published 1833
2) The Bloomsbury Christening – 1834
Book Summary: “The Bloomsbury Christening” is a short story written by English author Charles Dickens (1812-1870). It was first published in 1834.This edition also contains the beautiful biography “Charles Dickens” written by English writer Gilbert K. Chesterton (1874-1936) in 1906.
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3) Sketches by Boz – 1836
Book Summary: The Definitive Edition of SKETCHES BY BOZ
-Including the original illustrations by George Cruikshank and Phiz (over 50 illustrations).
-Complete, unabridged, and formatted for kindle to improve your reading experience
-Linked table of contents to reach your chapter quickly“Read in the order they were written, the Sketches give off the terrific air of a newly minted talent discovering what it can do. While the opening tranche of “tales” derive from the work of forgotten contemporary humorists, the pieces of London reportage that he began to contribute to the Morning Chronicle in autumn 1834 are like nothing else in pre-Victorian journalism: bantering and hard-headed by turns, hectic and profuse, falling over themselves to convey every last detail of the metropolitan front-line from which Dickens sent back his dispatches.” D.J. Taylor, The Guardian“Dickens’ earliest published pieces are gems—well-written, insightful, bursting with energy, and, most importantly, absolutely hilarious. I’ve always said I can forgive anyone anything if they can make me laugh. I will forgive Dickens whatever needs forgiving because no other writer makes me laugh out loud (I mean milk-spurting-through-the-nose laugh out loud) the way he can. Even in these earliest works his sarcastic observational humor is spot-on. The sketches are exactly what the young Dickens wrote them to be—individual pieces that were either short stories or come-as-you-are journalism. That’s all. If we take them at face value then we can appreciate the first glimmers of literary genius in a man who was so very young when he started.” Meredith Allard , Copperfield Review“This is a collection of Dickens’ earliest writing in the form of short sketches and tales. Written in the 1830s, they focus on early 19th-century London and include depictions of both the impoverished (and the difficulties they face) and the newly prosperous middle class just beginning to take shape. Also included about 50 original illustrations.” Bucket“Sketches by Boz is the earliest work of Dickens, contains of sketches of everyday life in London the 19th century. It can be categorized as literary journalism, although there are several fictional stories too. Dickens wrote from his own observations on people’s characters, habits and cultures, as well as streets and amusement places. The sketches are thorough, and the illustrations by George Cruikshank sharpen them.” FandaSKETCHES BY BOZ features the classic collection of short pieces by Charles Dickens in a specially designed edition for kindle. Dickens’ first book will intrigue and delight you. Read it as it’s meant to be read: complete, and unabridged with all the original illustrations.
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4) The Ivy Green – 1994
Book Summary: The Ivy Green by Charles Dickens
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5) Pickwick Papers – 1836
Book Summary: Charles Dickens’s first novel, “The Pickwick Papers” was originally published in serial form between March 1836 and October 1837. Drawing on Dickens’s experience as a journalist and reporter in London and the surrounding countryside, the novel is a series of loosely related comical adventures of the members of the Pickwick Club, founded by the novel’s main character, Mr. Samuel Pickwick. Mr. Pickwick is a wealthy and bored old gentleman who suggests that he and the club members, Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass, and Nathaniel Winkle, venture outside London and report on their experiences to each other. From encounters with highwaymen, a duel, romantic escapades, and a brief stay in Fleet Prison, these wild and hilarious adventures form the basis of the novel’s plot. “The Pickwick Papers” gained immense popularity and became one of the first publishing successes of the pre-Victorian era when the character of Sam Weller was introduced in Chapter Ten. Sam is hired on as Mr. Pickwick’s valet and his wise Cockney observations and advice stand in contrast to the naïve and unworldly Mr. Pickwick. Through its numerous well-loved characters and settings, the novel affords the reader a fascinating and entertaining glimpse into 19th century England. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper and includes an introduction by Edwin Percy Whipple.
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6) Sunday Under Three Heads – 1836
Book Summary: This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
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7) The Mudfog Papers – 1837
Book Summary: The Mudfog Papers, a collection of sketches by Dickens published in Bentley’s Miscellany between 1837 and 1838, describes the local politics of the fictional town of Mudfog – such as the delusions of grandeur of its mayor Nicholas Tulrumble and his disastrous attempts at putting on a public show – and the meetings of its Society for the Advancement of Everything, during which the town is overrun by illustrious scientists and professors conducting ostensibly pointless research. Written at the same time as Oliver Twist – indeed the serialized version of the novel referred to Mudfog as the protagonist’s home town – The Mudfog Papers lampoons all manner of journalistic and scientific writing of the time and showcases the young Dickens at his satirical best.
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8) Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi – 1838
Book Summary: In 1837 Charles Dickens, then twenty-five years old, was asked to ‘tidy up’ Joseph Grimaldi’s autobiography – he ended up re-writing most of it. Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837), one of the greatest English clowns and pantomimes of all time, was born in London to an Italian ballet-master and a dancer in the theatre’s corps-de-ballet. The death of Grimaldi’s father when he was nine plunged the family into debt. He was introduced to the stage at the age of two and began performing at the Sadler’s Wells theatre at the age of three. Grimaldi’s fame as a pantomime clown was unequalled and he is credited as an innovator. He introduced the tradition of audience participation, of poking fun at spectators, and generally the modern concept of the clown as such. He died a poor and physically crippled man.Pushkin Collection editions feature a spare, elegant series style and superior, durable components. The Collection is typeset in Monotype Baskerville, litho-printed on Munken Premium White Paper and notch-bound by the independently owned printer TJ International in Padstow. The covers, with French flaps, are printed on Colorplan Pristine White Paper. Both paper and cover board are acid-free and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified.
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9) Oliver Twist – 1839
Book Summary: A gripping portrayal of London’s dark criminal underbelly, published in Penguin Classics with an introduction by Philip Horne.The story of Oliver Twist – orphaned, and set upon by evil and adversity from his first breath – shocked readers when it was published. After running away from the workhouse and pompous beadle Mr Bumble, Oliver finds himself lured into a den of thieves peopled by vivid and memorable characters – the Artful Dodger, vicious burglar Bill Sikes, his dog Bull’s Eye, and prostitute Nancy, all watched over by cunning master-thief Fagin. Combining elements of Gothic Romance, the Newgate Novel and popular melodrama, Dickens created an entirely new kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society, and pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery.This Penguin Classics edition of Oliver Twist is the first critical edition to faithfully reproduce the text as its earliest readers would have encountered it from its serialisation in Bentley’s Miscellany, and includes an introduction by Philip Horne, a glossary of Victorian thieves’ slang, a chronology of Dickens’s life, a map of contemporary London and all of George Cruikshank’s original illustrations.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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10) Master Humphrey’s Clock – 1840
Book Summary: Master Humphrey, a kindly old gentleman, gathers with his friends to read stories, and Dickens offers his sardonic comments on British history
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11) The Old Curiosity Shop – 1840
Book Summary: The story of Little Nell and her “tragedy of sorrows,” told in a blend of realism and fairy-taleThe sensational bestselling 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 Sally Brass; Quilp’s brow-beaten mother-in-law; and Quilp himself, the lustful, vengeful dwarf, whose demonic energy makes a vivid counterpoint to Nell’s purity.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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12) Barnaby Rudge – 1841
Book Summary: ‘One of Dickens’ most neglected, but most rewarding, novels’ Peter AckroydCharles Dickens’s Barnaby Rudge is a vivid portrait of London’s descent into anarchy, where ‘King Mob’ rules the streets, and innocent lives are swept up in the chaos. Set against the backdrop of the Gordon Riots of 1780, Barnaby Rudge is a story of mystery and suspense which begins with an unsolved double murder and goes on to involve conspiracy, blackmail, abduction and retribution. Through the course of the novel fathers and sons become opposed, apprentices plot against their masters and Protestants clash with Catholics on the streets. And, as London erupts into riot, Barnaby Rudge himself struggles to escape the curse of his own past. With its dramatic descriptions of public violence and private horror, its strange secrets and ghostly doublings, Barnaby Rudge is a powerful, disturbing blend of historical realism and Gothic melodrama. This edition is based on the one-volume publication of Barnaby Rudge, reproducing all the original illustrations by ‘Phiz’ and George Cattermole. Appendices include a map of London at the time of the Gordon Riots and the preface to the 1868 edition.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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13) American Notes – 1842
Book Summary: A fascinating account of nineteenth-century America sketched with Charles Dickens’s characteristic wit and charmWhen Charles Dickens set out for America in 1842 he was the most famous man of his day to travel there – curious about the revolutionary new civilization that had captured the English imagination. His frank and often humorous descriptions cover everything from his comically wretched sea voyage to his sheer astonishment at the magnificence of the Niagara Falls, while he also visited hospitals, prisons and law courts and found them exemplary. But Dickens’s opinion of America as a land ruled by money, built on slavery, with a corrupt press and unsavoury manners, provoked a hostile reaction on both sides of the Atlantic. American Notes is an illuminating account of a great writer’s revelatory encounter with the New World. In her introduction, Patricia Ingham examines the response the book received when it was published, and compares it with similar travel writings of the period and with Dickens’s fiction, in particular Martin Chuzzlewit. This edition includes an updated chronology, appendices and notes.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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14) Christmas Books – 1843
Book Summary: This edition has a linked “Table of Contents” and has been beautifully formatted (searchable and interlinked) to work on your Amazon e-book reader, iPad e-book reader, iPhone e-book reader, iPod e-book reader, and your Amazon Desktop Reader.Between the years 1843 and 1848, every Christmas (except 1847), Dickens released a “Christmas Book”.Until the start of the 20th century, “The Cricket on the Hearth” was even more popular than “A Christmas Carol.”In this volume:Book One: A Christmas Carol (first published in 1843)
Book Two: The Chimes (first published in 1844)
Book Three: The Cricket on the Hearth (first published in 1845)
Book Four: The Battle of Life (first published in 1846)
Book Five: The Haunted Man (first published in 1848)A must-read for all fans of Christmas and Dickens…
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15) The Christmas Stories of Charles Dickens – 1843
Book Summary: Cosy up for a festive reading bonanza with these heart-warming seasonal tales of Christmas by Charles Dickens. As well as the universally loved ‘A Christmas Carol’, the collection also includes lesser known treasures such as ‘The Chimes’, ‘The Battle of Life’, ‘The Haunted Man’ and ‘The Cricket on the Hearth’ all packaged in a beautiful hardback edition with jacket. Dickens was a tireless campaigner for social justice and his empathy with the deserving poor shines through in these stories, which often culminate in the change of heart of a misanthrope.
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16) A Christmas Carol / A Christmas Tree – 1843
Book Summary: A Christmas Carol is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. Carol tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation into a gentler, kindlier man after visitations by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come.The book was written at a time when the British were examining and exploring Christmas traditions from the past as well as new customs such as Christmas cards and Christmas trees. Carol singing took a new lease on life during this time. Dickens’ sources for the tale appear to be many and varied, but are, principally, the humiliating experiences of his childhood, his sympathy for the poor, and various Christmas stories and fairy tales.Dickens’ Carol was one of the greatest influences in rejuvenating the old Christmas traditions of England, but, while it brings to the reader images of light, joy, warmth and life, it also brings strong and unforgettable images of darkness, despair, coldness, sadness, and death. Scrooge himself is the embodiment of winter, and, just as winter is followed by spring and the renewal of life, so too is Scrooge’s cold, pinched heart restored to the innocent goodwill he had known in his childhood and youth. A Christmas Carol remains popular—having never been out of print—and has been adapted many times to film, stage, opera, and other media.
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17) Martin Chuzzlewit – 1844
Book Summary: At the center of Martin Chuzzlewit–the novel Angus Wilson called “one of the most sheerly exciting of all Dickens stories”–is Martin himself, very old, very rich, very much on his guard. What he suspects (with good reason) is that every one of Iris close and distant relations, now converging in droves on the country inn where they believe he is dying, will stop at nothing to become the inheritor of Iris great fortune.The distinctive combination of manic comedy, bitter satire and fierce melodrama separates this novel from its author’s other works. Published in 1844 after Dickens returned from America, the action moves between Britain and United States in ways which highlight the failing of both societies.
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18) The Chimes – 1844
Book Summary: This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
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19) The Cricket on the Hearth – 1845
Book Summary: A beautiful, illustrated edition of the classic The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens.SeaWolf Press is proud to offer another book in its collection of illustrated classic literature. Each book in the collection contains the text, illustrations, and cover from the first or early edition (but it is not a photocopy.) Use Amazon’s Lookinside feature to compare this edition with others. You’ll be impressed by the differences. If you like our book, be sure to leave a review! Our version has:
- 30 original illustrations. Don’t be fooled by other versions with missing or made-up pictures.
- Text that has been proofread to avoid errors common in other versions.
- A beautiful cover that replicates a vintage painting.
- The complete text in an easy-to-read font similar to the original.
- Properly formatted text complete with correct indenting, spacing, footnotes, italics, and tables.
The Cricket on the Hearth was published in 1845 in a version with illustrations by 5 artists. This edition uses illustrations from a 1900 version. It was one of Dickens’ five Christmas books. It is divided into chapters called “Chirps”, similar to the “Staves” of A Christmas Carol. It is the story of John Peerybingle, a carrier, who lives with his young wife Dot, their baby boy and their nanny Tilly Slowboy. A cricket chirps on the hearth and acts as a guardian angel to the family.
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20) The Battle of Life – 1846
Book Summary: This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
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21) Pictures from Italy – 1846
Book Summary: A delightful travelogue in the unique style of one of the greatest writers in the English languageIn 1844, Charles Dickens took a break from novel writing to travel through Italy for almost a year and Pictures from Italy is an illuminating account of his experiences there. He presents the country like a magic-lantern show, as vivid images ceaselessly appear before his – and his readers’ – eyes. Italy’s most famous sights are all to be found here – St Peter’s in Rome, Naples with Vesuvius smouldering in the background, the fairytale buildings and canals of Venice – but Dickens’s chronicle is not simply that of a tourist. Avoiding preconceptions and stereotypes, he portrays a nation of great contrasts: between grandiose buildings and squalid poverty, and between past and present, as he observes everyday life beside ancient monuments. Combining thrilling travelogue with piercing social commentary, Pictures from Italy is a revealing depiction of an exciting and disquieting journey. In her introduction, Kate Flint discusses nineteenth-century travel writing, and Dickens’s ideas about perception, memory and Italian politics. This edition also includes a chronology, further reading, notes and an appendix.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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22) Dombey and Son – 1848
Book Summary: A darkly witty tale of two siblings’ struggle to achieve happiness in the shadow of their father’s pride
To Paul Dombey, business is all and money can do anything. He runs his family life as he runs his firm: coldly, calculatingly and commercially. The only person he cares for is his frail son, grooming him for entry into the family business; his daughter Florence, abandoned and ignored, craves affection from her unloving father, who sees her only as a ‘base coin that couldn’t be invested’. As Dombey’s callousness extends to others – from his defiant second wife Edith, to Florence’s admirer Walter Gay – he sows the seeds of his own destruction. Can this heartless businessman be redeemed? A compelling depiction of a man imprisoned by his own pride, Dombey and Son explores the devastating effects of emotional deprivation on a dysfunctional family and on society as a whole. In his introduction, Andrew Sanders discusses the character of Paul Dombey, business and family relationships in Dombey and Son and their similarities to Dickens’s own childhood. This edition also includes a chronology, further reading, appendices, notes and the original illustrations by ‘Phiz’.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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23) The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain – 1848
Book Summary: THE HAUNTED MAN & GHOST BARGAINS
Redlaw is a teacher of chemistry who often broods over wrongs done him and grief from his past.He is haunted by a spirit, who is not so much a ghost as Redlaw’s phantom twin and is “an awful likeness of himself…with his features, and his bright eyes, and his grizzled hair, and dressed in the gloomy shadow of his dress…” This spectre appears and proposes to Redlaw that he can allow him to “forget the sorrow, wrong, and trouble you have known…to cancel their remembrance…” Redlaw is hesitant at first, but finally agrees.As a consequence of the ghost’s intervention, Redlaw is without memories of the painful incidents from his past. He experiences a universal anger that he cannot explain. His bitterness spreads to the Swidgers, the Tetterbys and his student. All become as wrathful as Redlaw himself. The only one who is able to avoid the bitterness is Milly.With this realization, the novel concludes with everyone back to normal and Redlaw, like Ebenezer Scrooge, a changed, more loving man. Now a whole person, Redlaw learns to be humble at Christmas.
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24) The Works of Charles Dickens – 1850
Book Summary: This carefully crafted ebook: “The Complete Works of Charles Dickens” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents:
Novels
Oliver Twist
The Pickwick Papers
Nicholas Nickleby
The Old Curiosity Shop
Barnaby Rudge
Martin Chuzzlewit
Dombey and Son
David Copperfield
Bleak House
Hard Times
Little Dorrit
A Tale of Two Cities
Great Expectations
Our Mutual Friend
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Christmas Novellas
A Christmas Carol
The Chimes
The Cricket on the Hearth
The Battle of Life
The Haunted Man
Short Story Collections
Sketches by Boz
Sketches of Young Gentlemen
Sketches of Young Couples
Master Humphrey’ Clock
Reprinted Pieces
The Mudfog Papers
Pearl-Fishing (First Series)
Pearl-Fishing (Second Series)
Christmas Stories
Other Stories
Children’s Books
Child’s Dream of a Star
Holiday Romance
Stories About Children Every Child Can Read
Dickens’s Children
Plays
The Village Coquettes
The Strange Gentleman
The Lamplighter
Is She His Wife
Mr. Nightingale’s Diary
No Thoroughfare
The Frozen Deep
Poetry
The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman
The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens
Travel Books
American Notes
Pictures From Italy
The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices
Other Works
Sunday Under Three Heads
A Child’s History of England
Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi
The Life of Our Lord
The Uncommercial Traveller
Contributions to “All The Year Round”
Contributions to “The Examiner”
Miscellaneous Papers
Essays & Articles
A Coal Miner’s Evidence
The Lost Arctic Voyagers
Frauds on the Fairies
Adelaide Anne Procter
In Memoriam W. M. Thackeray
Speeches of Charles Dickens: Literary and Social
Letters of Charles Dickens
Criticism
CHARLES DICKENS by G. K. Chesterton
DICKENS by Sir Adolphus William Ward
THE LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS by John Forster
MY FATHER AS I RECALL HIM by Mamie D.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870), an English writer and social critic, created some of the world’s best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era
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25) A Child’s Dream of a Star – 1850
Book Summary: A Child’s Dream of a Star was written in 1850 by Charles Dickens. This book is one of the most popular novels of Charles Dickens;There was once a child, and he strolled about a good deal, and thought of a number of things. He had a sister, who was a child too, and his constant companion. These two used to wonder all day long. They wondered at the beauty of the flowers; they wondered at the height and blueness of the sky; they wondered at the depth of the bright water;…
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26) David Copperfield – 1850
Book Summary: ‘The most perfect of all the Dickens novels’ Virginia WoolfDavid Copperfield is the story of a young man’s adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr Murdstone; his brilliant, but ultimately unworthy school-friend James Steerforth; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble, yet treacherous Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora Spenlow; and the magnificently impecunious Wilkins Micawber, one of literature’s great comic creations. In David Copperfield – the novel he described as his ‘favourite child’ – Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of the most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure. This edition uses the text of the first volume publication of 1850, and includes updated suggestions for further reading, original illustrations by ‘Phiz’, a revised chronology and expanded notes. In his new introduction, Jeremy Tambling discusses the novel’s autobiographical elements, and its central themes of memory and identity.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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27) What Christmas Is As We Grow Older – 1851
Book Summary: “What Christmas is as we Grow Older” is a Christmas novella by Charles Dickens.Charles Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic.
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28) A Child’s History of England – 1851
Book Summary: If you look at a Map of the World, you will see, in the left-hand upper corner of the Eastern Hemisphere, two Islands lying in the sea. They are England and Scotland, and Ireland. England and Scotland form the greater part of these Islands. Ireland is the next in size. The little neighbouring islands, which are so small upon the Map as to be mere dots, are chiefly little bits of Scotland,–broken off, I dare say, in the course of a great length of time, by the power of the restless water…childrenCharles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world’s best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors’ prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children’s rights, education, and other social reforms.A prolific 19th Century author of short stories, plays, novellas, novels, fiction and non-fiction; during his lifetime Dickens became known the world over for his remarkable characters, his mastery of prose in the telling of their lives, and his depictions of the social classes, morals and values of his times. Some considered him the spokesman for the poor, for he definitely brought much awareness to their plight, the downtrodden and the have-nots. He had his share of critics, like Virginia Woolf and Henry James, but also many admirers, even into the 21st Century.
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29) A Christmas Carol and Other Stories – 1852
Book Summary: An immediate bestseller when it was first published in December 1843, A Christmas Carol has endured ever since as a perennial Yuletide favorite. Charles Dickens’s beloved tale about the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, who comes to know the meaning of kindness, charity, and goodwill through a haunting Christmas Eve encounter with four ghosts, is a heartwarming celebration of the spirit of Christmas.This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition also includes two other popular Christmas stories by Dickens: The Chimes,in which a man, persuaded by hypocritical cant that the poor deserve their misery, is shown what his pessimistic resignation might lead to in a vision conjured by the pealing of bells, and The Haunted Man, Dickens’s last Christmas tale, which features one of his great comic families, the Tetterbys.
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30) The Child’s Story – 1852
Book Summary: Originally published in the 1852 Christmas edition of Dickens’ journal Household Words, The Child’s Story is the account of a man’s life from childhood to the present as told to his grandson in the form of a fairytale about a traveler and the people he meets. This version of The Child’s Story is part of Dreamscape’s The Christmas Stories of Charles Dickens.
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31) To Be Read at Dusk – 1852
Book Summary: “If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.”To Be Read at Dusk is a very short story by the celebrated Victorian novelist Charles Dickens. Amid the Swiss mountainous region of Saint Bernard, the first-person narrator starts to eavesdrop on a nearby group of men. The sun is setting, giving way to strange thoughts and memories. The group is composed of five couriers from different nationalities, including a stout and talkative German, a Swiss, a Genoese and a Neapolitan. It is the German courier who first makes a comment on the beautiful, yet eerie, scene of the setting sun and the blood-crimson horizon to start a conversation on weird happenings and apparitions. They talk about instances of déjà vu, of omens and visions that mysteriously come true. Other accounts follow telling about encounters with ghosts, revenants and various sorts of strange cases. When they all finish speaking and prepare themselves to depart in silence, a feeling of melancholy and fear prevails. The eavesdropping narrator “looked round, and the five couriers were gone: so noiselessly that the ghostly mountain might have absorbed them into its eternal snows.” By the very end of the narrative, the narrator admits to his readers that he has now become afraid of being left alone in such a place or in any other place.
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32) The Poor Relation’s Story – 1852
Book Summary: In this Christmas tale, we follow a poor man, Michael, who tells his life’s story to his relatives. He says that he still owns a business and earns enough to be independent. As his life is lonely and rather monotonous, he invents a different life where everything is the way he wants it to be.
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33) The History of England – 1853
Book Summary: This is a captivating history of England for children from one of the best-loved novelists of all time. Written just after David Copperfield, at the same time as “Bleak House”, and in the engaging and conversational style typical of his most celebrated fiction, Dickens’ “History of England for Children” is an undiscovered treasure trove of a book. This carefully selected, lightly abridged version shows traditional storytelling at its best. Dickens’ lovable theatricality, witty observations and compelling narrative give children access to one of England’s greatest writers, and to some of the most powerful stories from its past. For adults, it offers an engaging reminder of the English history we ought to know: who was Hereward the Wake, how was it that Thomas a Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral, and was Canute really trying to stop the tide? Interesting, informative and accessible, “A Child’s History of England” takes its reader on a fascinating journey, from Ancient England and the Romans to Victoria’s reign and Dickens’ own lifetime. Full of sensational plots, gallant heroes and brutal villains, high adventure and terrible tragedy, it will appeal to anyone who enjoys a good story and some horrible history!
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34) The Schoolboy’s Story Illustrated – 1853
Book Summary: The Schoolboy’s Story is a short stories by Charles Dickens. Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world’s most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular. Born in Portsmouth, England, Dickens was forced to leave school to work in a factory when his father was thrown into debtors’ prison. Although he had little formal education, his early impoverishment drove him to succeed.
35) Nobody’s Story – 1853
Book Summary: A Charles Dickens Christmas story about remembering the poor, forgotten, and overlooked once a year by the Christmas fire. This grand story sets up the bickering Big Wig family as a guide to the laboring Nobody family, led by a man named Legion, and nothing good comes of it. Legion’s master discusses his losses in term of the poor and their habits and diseases. Legion points out it is one world: “What happens to us happens to you.” Another neglected but masterful Dickens story. Read by an American voice at listener request.
36) Hard Times – 1854
Book Summary: Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Book Reviews:
37) The Seven Poor Travellers – 1854
Book Summary: Strictly speaking, there were only six Poor Travellers; but, being a Traveller myself, though an idle one, and being withal as poor as I hope to be, I brought the number up to seven. This word of explanation is due at once, for what says the inscription over the quaint old door? RICHARD WATTS, Esq. by his Will, dated 22 Aug. 1579, founded this Charity for Six poor Travellers, who not being ROGUES, or PROCTORS, May receive gratis for one Night, Lodging, Entertainment, and Fourpence each.
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38) The Wreck of the Golden Mary – 1856
Book Summary: Captain Ravender and first mate Steadiman are bringing the Golden Mary from England to California, for the gold rush, when they run into an iceberg rounding Cape Horn. Crew and passengers make it into boats, as the ship is clearly going down, and row and drift around the South Pacific until being picked up just as they are all about to expire.Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world’s best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors’ prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children’s rights, education, and other social reforms.
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39) The Perils of Certain English Prisoners – 1857
Book Summary: A classic collaboration between two literary giants, The Perils of Certain English Prisoners is a gripping adventure story filled with murder, intrigue, and strong female characters.- Following on from the success of The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices, Hesperus presents another collaboration from close friends and literary giants, Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Their legendary friendship resulted in a number of joint literary ventures, in this case Collins wrote the second chapter under Dickens’ supervision. Inspired by events of the Indian Mutiny in 1857, but wishing to distance himself from the context of India itself, Dickens chose to set his novella in Central America. This adventure story takes place on an island near the English colony of Belize, where a silver mine is overrun by pirates, who in turn murder a number of English colonists and take the remaining prisoner. In the diverting narrative that follows, the initiative of intrepid women prisoners enables the captives to escape.
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40) Little Dorrit – 1857
Book Summary: Amy Dorrit’s father is not very good with money. She was born in the Marshalsea debtors’ prison and has lived there with her family for all of her twenty-two years, only leaving during the day to work as a seamstress for the forbidding Mrs. Clennam. But Amy’s fortunes are about to change: the arrival of Mrs. Clennam’s son Arthur, back from working in China, heralds the beginning of stunning revelations not just about Amy but also about Arthur himself.Of the complex, richly rewarding masterworks he wrote in the last decade of his life, Little Dorrit is the book in which Charles Dickens most fully unleashed his indignation at the fallen state of mid-Victorian society. Crammed with persons and incidents in whose recreation nothing is accidental or spurious, containing, in its picture of the Circumlocution Office, the most witheringly exact satire of a bureaucracy we possess, Little Dorrit is a stunning example of how thoroughly Dickens could put his flair for the theatrical and his comic genius the service of his passion for justice.
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41) A House to Let – 1858
Book Summary: This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
- Book Reviews:
42) Going Into Society – 1858
Book Summary: This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
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43) The Haunted House – 1859
Book Summary: “The Haunted House” is a story published in 1859 for the weekly periodical All the Year Round. It was “Conducted by Charles Dickens”, with contributions from others. It is a “portmanteau” story, with Dickens writing the opening and closing stories, framing stories by Dickens himself and five other authors
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44) A Message from the Sea – 1860
Book Summary: A Message from the Sea is a single integrated novella that tells a nautical adventure story combined with a family mystery all resolved through some pretty epically implausible coincidences.Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world’s best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors’ prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children’s rights, education, and other social reforms.
- Book Reviews:
45) The Uncommercial Traveller – 1860
Book Summary: The Uncommercial Traveller is a collection of literary sketches and reminiscences written by Charles Dickens, published in 1860-1861. In 1859 Dickens founded a new journal called All the Year Round and the Uncommercial Traveller articles would be among his main contributions.
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46) Great Expectations – 1860
Book Summary: ‘Great Expectations is up there for me with the world’s greatest novels’ Howard Jacobson. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American ReadCharles Dickens’s Great Expectations charts the course of orphan Pip Pirrip’s life as it is transformed by a vast, mysterious inheritance. A terrifying encounter with the escaped convict Abel Magwitch in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decrepit Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella at Satis House; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor – these form a series of events that change the orphaned Pip’s life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble station as an apprentice to blacksmith Joe Gargery, beginning a new life as a gentleman. Charles Dickens’s haunting late novel depicts Pip’s education and development through adversity as he discovers the true nature of his identity, and his ‘great expectations’. This definitive version uses the text from the first published edition of 1861. It includes a map of Kent in the early nineteenth century, and appendices on Dickens’s original ending and his working notes, giving readers an illuminating glimpse into the mind of a great novelist at work.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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47) The Manuscript of Great Expectations – 1861
Book Summary: The novels of Charles Dickens (1812-70), with their inimitable energy and their comic, tragic and grotesque characters, are still widely read, and reworked for film and television. Dickens himself had the original manuscripts of his works bound and presented them to his friends: that of Great Expectations was given to Chauncy Hare Townshend, with whom Dickens shared an interest in mesmerism and the occult. Townshend bequeathed his library (and collection of paintings and ceramics) to the Wisbech and Fenland Museum in 1868. The manuscript has now been scanned and is published in the Cambridge Library Collection together with reissues of the serialized version of 1860-1 and the first book edition of 1861 (in three volumes). Dickens scholars and enthusiasts will be able to examine the work-in-progress, with all its deletions and revisions, alongside the first two published versions.
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48) Somebody’s Luggage – 1862
Book Summary: In Somebody’s Luggage, Dickens explores the life and experience of a waiter, who tells his own story:””I asked our Head Chambermaid in the course of the day, ‘What are them things in 24 B?’ To which she answered with a careless air, ‘Somebody’s Luggage.’ Regarding her with a eye not free from severity, I says, ‘Whose Luggage?’ Evading my eye, she replied, ‘Lor! How should I know!'”
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49) The Trial for Murder – 1865
Book Summary: The Trial for Murder
by Charles DickensNo Description Available
FictionMystery & DetectiveShort Stories
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50) Our Mutual Friend – 1865
Book Summary: Charles Dickens’s last complete novel and a glorious satire spanning all levels of Victorian societyOur Mutual Friend centres on an inheritance – Old Harmon’s profitable dust heaps – and its legatees, young John Harmon, presumed drowned when a body is pulled out of the River Thames, and kindly dustman Mr Boffin, to whom the fortune defaults. With brilliant satire, Dickens portrays a dark, macabre London, inhabited by such disparate characters as Gaffer Hexam, scavenging the river for corpses; enchanting, mercenary Bella Wilfer; the social-climbing Veneerings; and the unscrupulous street-trader Silas Wegg. The novel is richly symbolic in its vision of death and renewal in a city dominated by the fetid Thames, and the corrupting power of money. Our Mutual Friend uses text of the first volume edition of 1865 and includes original illustrations, a chronology and revised further reading. As Adrian Poole writes in his introduction to this new edition, ‘In its vast scope and perilous ambitions it has much in common with Bleak House and Little Dorrit, but its manner is more stealthy, on edge, enigmatic.’For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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51) Dr. Marigold’s prescriptions – 1865
Book Summary: Summary (differentiated book):
– Original book from 1865
– Book contains detailed biography of author
– Includes photos/illustrations of the authorBook details:
The 1865 Christmas framed tale Doctor Marigold’s Prescriptions contained the introduction and conclusion by Dickens himself, as well as one of the inset stories,
“To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt” (since reprinted in Two Ghost Stories as “The Trial for Murder” — and further extraneous material by his staff-writers at All the Year Round as the stories that her adoptive father writes for the deaf-and-dumb child.
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52) Three Ghost Stories – 1866
Book Summary: A bone-chilling trio of supernatural tales by fiction master Charles DickensIn “The Haunted House,” a new homeowner discovers he is sharing his bed with the skeleton of the house’s former master. In “The Trial for Murder,” a revengeful ghost haunts a juror serving at his killer’s trial. In “The Signal-Man,” an apparition warns a man of impending disaster.These strange and frightening occurrences unfold in grim and gripping detail in this collection of 3 Victorian ghost stories that puts Charles Dickens’s first-rate storytelling on display.This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
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53) Mugby Junction – 1866
Book Summary: “Mugby Junction” is a set of short stories written in 1866 by Charles Dickens and collaborators Charles Collins, Amelia B. Edwards, Andrew Halliday, and Hesba Stretton. It was first published in a Christmas edition of the magazine All the Year Round. Dickens penned a majority of the issue, including the frame narrative in which “the Gentleman for Nowhere,” who has spent his life cloistered in the firm Barbox Brothers & Co., makes use of his new-found freedom in retirement to explore the rail lines that connect with Mugby Junction. Dickens’s collaborators each contributed an individual story to the collection.
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54) The Signal-Man – 1866
Book Summary: “The Signal Man” is a ghost story written by English author Charles Dickens (1812-1870). It was first published in 1866.This edition also contains the beautiful biography “Charles Dickens” written by English writer Gilbert K. Chesterton (1874-1936) in 1906.
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55) Magic Fishbone – 1868
Book Summary: King Watkins the First is the father of the lovely and kind-hearted Princess Alicia and a tribe of eighteen other darlings. Between their money problems, the queen’s illness, and the children’s boisterous doings, the king and his eldest daughter are fairly overwhelmed by responsibilities. But a chance meeting with a good fairy at the fishmonger brings a bit of magic into their lives and leads the entire family toward health and happiness.Caldecott Award-winning artist Louis Slobodkin recaptures the enchantment of Charles Dickens’s The Magic Fishbone in a book that perfectly blends the gifts of one of the world’s favorite storytellers with those of a great American illustrator. Readers of all ages are certain to be captivated by the little-known tale of a king whose only riches lie in his children. Winsome watercolor images grace every page of this beautiful edition.
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56) George Silverman’s Explanation – 1868
Book Summary: George Silverman’s Explanation”, published in instalments from January to March 1868, was one of the last pieces of fiction written by Charles Dickens, two years before his death. Silverman is born in a Preston cellar, and spends his early years locked in there, often left alone while his parents go out to seek work.Hoodwinked by hypocritical clergymen and exploited by his employer, he finds himself forsaking love and facing professional ruin. One of Dickens’s very last writings, ‘George Silverman’s Explanation’ is a dark and psychologically insightful investigation of failure and guilt.
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57) Holiday Romance – 1868
Book Summary: Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870), also known as “Boz”, was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Considered one of the English language’s greatest writers, he was acclaimed for his rich storytelling and memorable characters, and achieved massive worldwide popularity in his lifetime. The popularity of his novels and short stories has meant that not one has ever gone out of print. Dickens wrote serialised novels, the usual format for fiction at the time, and each new part of his stories was eagerly anticipated by the reading public. Among his best-known works are Sketches by Boz (1836), The Pickwick Papers (1837), Oliver Twist (1838), Nicholas Nickleby (1839), Barnaby Rudge (1841), A Christmas Carol (1843), Martin Chuzzlewit (1844), David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), Little Dorrit (1857), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1861) and Our Mutual Friend (1865).
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58) The Mystery of Edwin Drood – 1870
Book Summary: Charles Dickens’s puzzling—and unfinished—final novelThe Mystery of Edwin Drood has enthralled readers since its 1st publication in 1870. Left unfinished at the time of Dickens’s death, the ending of the book remains a mystery. The story follows Edwin Drood, a young man who has promised to wed the beautiful Rosa Bud when he comes of age. But the lovely Rosa has caught the eyes of other men—including Edwin’s uncle Jasper. On a stormy Christmas Eve, Edwin receives an ominous warning, and by the following morning he has mysteriously disappeared. Foul play seems likely, and there are suspects aplenty . . .This beguilingly open-ended mystery is sure to enchant.This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
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59) Letters of Charles Dickens – 1880
Book Summary: This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
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60) Tales from Dickens – 1888
Book Summary: Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world’s most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular. -Wikipedia
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61) The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices – 1890
Book Summary: Throughout his lifetime, Charles Dickens produced several works of fiction and non-fiction in collaboration with his friend and fellow writer, Wilkie Collins. This fictionalized account of a walking tour the two took together highlights the pair at their best. The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices is a hilarious and engaging tale that will please Dickens fans and those with an affinity for top-notch travel writing.
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62) American notes and Pictures from Italy – 1893
Book Summary: CHARLES DICKENS’ TWO GREAT TRAVEL BOOKS IN ONE EDITIONThe Definitive Edition of AMERICAN NOTES FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION
and PICTURES FROM ITALY (Dickens’ Italian Travelogue)
-Illustrated with the original engravings by Marcus Stone
-Complete, unabridged, and formatted for kindle to improve your reading experience
-Linked table of contents to reach your chapter quickly“Dickens does his best to record the essence of the country he sees–the good and the bad–and not to be diplomatic or use false words in that description, but to be honest, direct, moral, and true. This book is an important reminder that the highest form of patriotism is in fact looking with clear eyes at your country’s flaws, writing down what you see so that you can begin to change them.” J.S.Found”A beautifully detailed view of the early American Republic. I found the most amazing parts to be Dickens’ depictions of traveling itself, and also the insight we get into Charles Dickens, the person. American Notes very much reminded me of Mark Twain’s travel books. But, of course, the best of American Notes is Dickens’ writing-his descriptions, his characterizations, the way he puts words together.” Elena“Dickens had first journeyed to America in January 1842, eagerly anticipating the land of liberty and liberalism. Americans were just as exhilarated to catch a glimpse of the 30-year-old British writer. The tour, however, quickly degenerated into an experience of mutual disdain and recriminations. Dickens disliked the intrusiveness of the American public, who stared at him and his wife, and the press, which reported his every move. To make matters worse, once he returned to England, Dickens published even harsher views of the United States in American Notes., particularly condemning the American habit of spitting and the institution of slavery. Americans were furious, with critics panning American Notes and residents of New York City burning copies of Martin Chuzzlewit. Nevertheless, Dickens’s later publications gained a wide readership in America.” New York Times“Mr Dickens is a young man who knows nothing of this world, of society, or of government, but what he picked up as a “flash reporter” and penny-a-liner when connected with some of the most scurrilous of the vile presses with which London abounds. No person of ordinary intelligence can get up from the perusal of these “notes” without feeling that the great aim of the writer is produce the impression among the English readers that he is really somebody, and possesses all those niceties of feeling and sensitiveness of contact with the vulgar mass, so frequently assumed by the low-bred scullion unexpectedly advanced from the kitchen to the parlour.” Courier and Enquirer, 17 November 1842“This travelogue of Dickens’s 1844 Italian sojourn retains the wit and sumptuous detail of his novels.” Publishers WeeklyAMERICAN NOTES FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION features the classic travelogue by Charles Dickens in a specially designed edition for kindle. This book will intrigue and delight you. Read it as it’s meant to be read: complete, unabridged and illustrated. This edition also includes Dickens’ account of his trip to Italy: PICTURES FROM ITALY.
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63) The Holly-Tree – 1899
Book Summary: Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870), also known as “Boz”, was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Considered one of the English language’s greatest writers, he was acclaimed for his rich storytelling and memorable characters, and achieved massive worldwide popularity in his lifetime. The popularity of his novels and short stories has meant that not one has ever gone out of print. Dickens wrote serialised novels, the usual format for fiction at the time, and each new part of his stories was eagerly anticipated by the reading public. Among his best-known works are Sketches by Boz (1836), The Pickwick Papers (1837), Oliver Twist (1838), Nicholas Nickleby (1839), Barnaby Rudge (1841), A Christmas Carol (1843), Martin Chuzzlewit (1844), David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), Little Dorrit (1857), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1861) and Our Mutual Friend (1865).
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64) Miscellaneous Papers – 1908
Book Summary: Anyone who has ever read a novel by Charles Dickens is well aware of the author’s keen interest in social issues, especially the detrimental effects of poverty. This volume of essays brings together some of Dickens’ best non-fiction writing on social issues, carried out in the form of letters to the editor, op-ed pieces, and correspondence.ContentsThe agricultural interest — Threatening letter to Thomas Hood from an ancient gentleman — Crime and education — Capital punishment — The spirit of chivalry in Westminster Hall — In memoriam: W. M. Thackeray — Adelaide Anne Procter — Chauncey Hare Townshend — On Mr. Fechter’s acting.
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65) The Life of Our Lord – 1934
Book Summary: Charles Dickens’s other Christmas classic, with a new introduction by Dickens’s great-great-grandson, Gerald Charles Dickens.
Charles Dickens wrote The Life of Our Lord during the years 1846-1849, just about the time he was completing David Copperfield. In this charming, simple retelling of the life of Jesus Christ, adapted from the Gospel of St. Luke, Dickens hoped to teach his young children about religion and faith. Since he wrote it exclusively for his children, Dickens refused to allow publication.
For eighty-five years the manuscript was guarded as a precious family secret, and it was handed down from one relative to the next. When Dickens died in 1870, it was left to his sister-in-law, Georgina Hogarth. From there it fell to Dickens’s son, Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, with the admonition that it should not be published while any child of Dickens lived.
Just before the 1933 holidays, Sir Henry, then the only living child of Dickens, died, leaving his father’s manuscript to his wife and children. He also bequeathed to them the right to make the decision to publish The Life of Our Lord. By majority vote, Sir Henry’s widow and children decided to publish the book in London. In 1934, Simon & Schuster published the first American edition, which became one of the year’s biggest bestsellers.
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66) The Nonesuch Dickens – 1937
Book Summary: Here, some of Dickens’s most memorable characters come to play their part in a story whose title itself reflects the deep irony that shaped Dickens’s searching reappraisal of the Victorian middle class.
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67) The Complete Ghost Stories of Charles Dickens – 1982
Book Summary: Collects short stories of weird supernatural occurrences, the horrifying appearances of ghosts, and men haunted by strange spirits.
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68) Captain Murderer – 1986
Book Summary: Captain Murderer, a possible relation of the Blue Beard family, weds a series of wealthy young girls that he then proceeds to kill and bake into a pie.
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69) The D Case – 1989
Book Summary: The text of Dickens’ unfinished novel is interspersed with solutions to the mystery of who killed Edwin Drood
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70) Bleak House – 2003
Book Summary: With an Introduction and Notes by Doreen Roberts, University of Kent at Canterbury Bleak House is one of Dickens’ finest achievements, establishing his reputation as a serious and mature novelist, as well as a brilliant comic writer. It is at once a complex mystery story that fully engages the reader in the work of detection, and an unforgettable indictment of an indifferent society. Its representations of a great city’s underworld, and of the law’s corruption and delay, draw upon the author’s personal knowledge and experience. But it is his symbolic art that projects these things in a vision that embraces black comedy, cosmic farce, and tragic ruin. In a unique creative experiment, Dickens divides the narrative between his heroine, Esther Summerson, who is psychologically interesting in her own right, and an unnamed narrator whose perspective both complements and challenges hers.
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71) Gone Astray – Night Walks – 2008
Book Summary: Charles Dickens describes in Night Walks his time as an insomniac, when he decided to cure himself by walking through London in the small hours, and discovered homelessness, drunkenness and vice on the streets. This collection of essays shows Dickens as one of the greatest visionaries of the city in all its variety and cruelty.GREAT IDEAS. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
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72) Chilling Ghost Stories – 2008
Book Summary: A deluxe edition with a chilling selection of original and classic short stories. The new tales, many of them published here for the first time, are written by today’s top authors, and they bring a modern twist to the outstanding mix of intrigue that lurks in the furtive imagination of E.F. Benson, Henry James, Wilkie Collins, Washington Irving , Edith Wharton, Oscar Wilde, and so many more within this outstanding collection.
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73) Nicholas Nickleby – 2012
Book Summary: Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens Nicholas Nickleby; or, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby is a novel by Charles Dickens. Originally published as a serial from 1838 to 1839, it was Dickens’ third novel. Nicholas Nickleby is Charles Dickens’ third published novel. He returned to his favourite publishers and to the format that was considered so successful with The Pickwick Papers. The story first appeared in monthly parts, after which it was issued in one volume. The style is considered to be episodic and humorous, though the second half of the novel becomes more serious and tightly plotted. Dickens began writing ‘Nickleby’ while still working on Oliver Twist and while the mood is considerably lighter, his depiction of the Yorkshire school run by Wackford Squeers is as moving and influential as those of the workhouse and criminal underclass in Twist. ‘Nickleby’ marks a new development in a further sense as it is the first of Dickens’ romances. When it was published the book was an immediate and complete success and established Dickens’s lasting reputation. The cruelty of a real Yorkshire schoolmaster named William Shaw became the basis for Dickens’s brutal character of Wackford Squeers. Dickens visited his school and based the school section of Nicholas Nickleby on his visit.
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74) The Best Victorian Ghost Stories: Annotated and Illustrated Tales of Murder, Mystery, Hauntings, and Horror – 2014
Book Summary: Ghostly coaches shuttling the mildewed cadavers of its ill-fated occupants; a young orphan being lured to a frosty death by a pale, little girl with a mangled shoulder; a man spends the night in a room with a fatal past; a restless ne’er-do-well recognizes his fiancee with her throat cut in a twilit vision; a beautiful woman is sold by her uncle to a corpse living beneath a church… These are the images that haunted their authors’ brains and found their way into the Golden Age of the British ghost story… As industrial Britain steamed away from its feudal-agrarian past, a sense of self-deceit and insecurity – a lingering of violent potential and national shame – pervaded the collective unconscious of the world’s preeminent empire. This psychological malaise manifested itself in the English ghost story, which saw its golden era in the Victorian Age. The unsettling works of Dickens, Gaskell, Blackwood, Hardy, Nesbit, Conan Doyle, M. R. James, Braddon, Broughton, Oliphant, Wells, and Le Fanu grace this brief homage to that unique literary era of elegance, mystique, and horror.
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75) A Christmas Carol: With Original Illustrations In Full Color – 2015
Book Summary: This classic 1843 tale by Charles Dickens has all your favorite characters in their original telling: Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, and the rest. This beautiful hard cover edition includes the original illustrations, in full color, by John Leech. The cover is also very close to the original. All in all, if you want to read “A Christmas Carol” as nearly as it was when it was first written, this edition is for you.Also available as a soft cover edition.Note: John Leech’s illustrations were created as engravings which had to be colored by hand, or through wood cuts. Due to the desire to create an edition that is as faithful to the original as modern typesetting technology will allow, they were not mofidied or enhanced for this edition. Readers should be aware that Leech did not produce his illustrations in a manner that they are accustomed to seeing in later books.
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76) A Vintage Christmas: A Collection of Classic Stories and Poems – 2018
Book Summary: This beautiful, giftable Christmas collection features old-fashioned works from classic authors who invite you to a feast of holiday nostalgia. Stories and poetry have been part of the Christmas season for generations, reminding us that the heart of the holiday never changes. A Vintage Christmas is a unique collection of lesser-known Christmas tales, reflections, and poems from beloved authors across the centuries and makes the perfect gift for the reader in your life.Discover the charming story from L. M. Montgomery about love and sacrifice in a little log house. See Christmas through the eyes of a child in a New England colonial village with Harriet Beecher Stowe. Remember the reason Christ came to earth in the poetry of Anne Brontë. Share with your family the delightful letter Mark Twain wrote as Santa Claus to his three-year-old daughter.This beautiful treasury takes us back to the firesides, simple gifts, and warm family moments of Christmases past as we cherish the timeless truths and joys of the season.A Vintage Christmas includes stories from Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, Ralph Henry Barbour, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, L. M. Montgomery, and William Dean Howells, as well as poems from Eliza Cook, Christina Rossetti, William Makepeace Thackeray, Joyce Kilmer, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
- Perfect as a stocking stuffer or as a host or hostess gift
- Hardcover, giftable size for readers
- Makes a lovely keepsake companion to A Classic Christmas: A Collection of Timeless Stories and Poems
- Includes hopeful and encouraging Christmas stories
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Conclusion
Love these books of Charles Dickens? If you are looking for another author, book series or even genre to read next then check out our collection of must reads here.
