Charles Dickens

Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly old skinflint. He hates everyone, especially children.

But at Christmas three ghosts come to visit him, scare him into mending his ways, and he finds, as he celebrates with Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and their family, that geniality brings its own reward.

This finest of all Christmas stories is beautifully illustrated with Arthur Rackham’s superb line drawings.

A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Dickens’ greatest historical novel, traces the private lives of a group of people caught up in the cataclysm of the French Revolution and the Terror. Dickens based his historical detail on Carlyle’s great work – The French Revolution – and also on his own observations and investigations during numerous visits to Paris. ‘The best story I have written’ was Dickens’ own verdict on A Tale of Two Cities, and the reader is unlikely to disagree with thi...

A Christmas Carol is the most famous, heart-warming and chilling festive story of them all. In these pages we meet Ebenezer Scrooge, whose name is synonymous with greed and parsimony: 'Every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas" on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart'. This attitude is soon challenged when the ghost of his old partner, Jacob Marley, returns from the grave to haunt him on Christmas Eve. Scro...

With an Introduction and Notes by Peter Preston, University of Nottingham. Illustrations by Hablot K. Browne (Phiz) and George Cruickshank. The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41), with its combination of the sentimental, the grotesque and the socially concerned, and its story of pursuit and courage, which sets the downtrodden and the plucky against the malevolent and the villainous, was an immediate popular success. Little Nell quickly became one of Dickens' most celebrated charact...

Pip's life as an ordinary country boy is destined to be unexceptional until a chain of mysterious events lead him away from his humble origins and up the social ladder. His efforts to become a London gentleman bring him into contact not just with the upper classes but also with dangerous criminals. Pip's desire to improve himself is matched only by his longing for the icy-hearted Estella, but secrets from the past impede his progress and he has many hard lessons to learn....

Lucie Manette has been separated from her father for eighteen years while he languished in Paris's most feared prison, the Bastille. Finally reunited, the Manettes' fortunes become inextricably intertwined with those of two men, the heroic aristocrat Darnay and the dissolute lawyer Carton. Their story, which encompasses violence, revenge, love and redemption, is grippingly played out against the backdrop of the terrifying brutality of the French Revolution.

Introduction and Notes by Dr Adrienne Gavin, Canterbury Christ Church University College. Illustrations by Hablot K. Browne (Phiz). Dickens wrote of David Copperfield: 'Of all my books I like this the best'. Millions of readers in almost every language on earth have subsequently come to share the author's own enthusiasm for this greatly loved classic, possibly because of its autobiographical form. Following the life of David through many sufferings and great adversity, the re...

With an Introduction and Notes by Peter Preston, University of Nottingham. Illustrations by S.L. Fildes and Hablot K. Browne (Phiz). Dickens’s final novel, left unfinished at his death, is a tale of mystery whose fast-paced action takes place in an ancient cathedral city and in some of the darkest places in nineteenth-century London. Drugs, sexual obsession, colonial adventuring and puzzles about identity are among the novel’s themes. At the centre of the plot lie the bafflin...

Illustrations by Hablot K. Browne (Phiz) and George Cattermole, with a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, Research Professor of English, University of Sussex. This vivid historical and political novel by Dickens is centred on the infamous 'No Popery' riots, instigated by Lord George Gordon, which terrorised London in 1780. Dickens' targets are prejudice, intolerance, religious bigotry and nationalistic fervour, together with the villains who exploit these for selfish ends. His...

With an Introduction and Notes by Karl Ashley Smith, University of St Andrews. Illustrations by Hablot K. Browne (Phiz). Mr Dombey is a man obsessed with his firm. His son is groomed from birth to take his place within it, despite his visionary eccentricity and declining health. But Dombey also has a daughter, whose unfailing love for her father goes unreturned. 'Girls' said Mr Dombey, 'have nothing to do with Dombey and Son'. When Walter Gay, a young clerk in her father's ...

Interest in supernatural phenomena was high during Charles Dickens’ lifetime. He had always loved a good ghost story himself, particularly at Christmas time, and was open-minded, willing to accept, and indeed put to the test, the existence of spirits. His natural inclinations toward drama and the macabre made him a brilliant teller of ghost tales, and in the twenty stories presented here, which include his celebrated A Christmas Carol, the full range of his gothic talents can...

Introduction and Notes by Dr Ella Westland, University of Exeter. Illustrations by George Cruickshank. Dickens had already achieved renown with The Pickwick Papers. With Oliver Twist his reputation was enhanced and strengthened. The novel contains many classic Dickensian themes - grinding poverty, desperation, fear, temptation and the eventual triumph of good in the face of great adversity. Oliver Twist features some of the author's most enduring characters, such...

W tej klasycznej dickensowskiej opowieści życie sieroty imieniem Pip na zawsze zmienia się dzięki spotkaniu ze skazańcem, znajomości z tajemniczą panną Havisham, wielkiej miłości do Estelli i niespodziewanej pomocy nieznanego dobroczyńcy. Czytelnicy będą bardzo wzruszeni, gdy dołączą do Pipa w jego trudnej podróży z wielkimi oczekiwaniami.. Oryginalne i klasyczne powieści dla młodzieży i dorosłych.Wspomagają samodzielne doskonalenie języka angielskiego. Rozwija umiejętności j...

Kiedy umiera matka młodego Davida, jego okrutny ojczym wysyła go do pracy w fabryce w Londynie. Warunki pracy są przerażające i David postanawia uciec i rozpocząć nowe życie w Dover …Interesujące opowiadanie oparte na klasycznych historiach, znanych przez czytelników na całym świecie. Odpowiednie dobrane słownictwo i gramatyka dostosowane do poziomu językowego CEFR dla nastolatków i młodzieży. Czytając rozwijamy wszystkie umiejętności językowe, w tym szczególnie wzbogacamy sw...

Opowiadanie „Opowieść Wigilijna” powstało w 1843 roku. Głównym bohaterem jest zgorzkniały, znany ze swego skąpstwa Ebenezer Scrooge, który - od lat nie czerpiąc radości ze Świąt Bożego Narodzenia - i tym razem zamierza spędzić je samotnie. Plany próbuje mu pokrzyżować duch jego zmarłego wspólnika, Jakuba Marleya, zjawiając się w wigilijny wieczór i zapowiadając przybycie trzech zjaw – Duchów: Dawnych, Obecnych oraz Przyszłych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia.