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Charles Dickens Message Board 1/1/2012
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Dickens has written!

Author Dickens's Book Reviews

A Christmas Carol
Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his dead business partner one night. Reprimanded for being a cruel man, he is told that he will be visited by three ghosts during the night. Through the ghosts, Ebenezer is forced to look at both his past, his present, and his future. In the past, he sees himself as a lonely boy and then as a young man employed by a kind and giving man. Nevertheless, Ebenezer has grand ambitions, something that his fiancee reco...
A Tale of Two Cities
Sydney Carton, a bright young man who has seemingly wasted his life, acts behind the scenes to effect a higher justice within the maelstrom of power struggles and spy intrigues between France and England, and persecutions by the government and the governed in France. He loves a young French woman named Lucie Manette, who marries his good friend Charles Darnay, a teacher of languages with a secret aristocratic background. Set against the fiery backdrop of...
Bleak House
The story centers around John Jarndyce, a kind-hearted wealthy gentleman entangled in a long, difficult, and hopeless lawsuit over a disputed will, and his young wards: Ester, Richard, and Ada. Richard and Ada are his cousins, and Ester is an illegitimate child he took interest in and helped to educate. The three of them are about 18 when they meet for the first time to live all together in Bleak House, John Jarndyce's residence. They get along very well...
David Copperfield
David Copperfield's father dies 3 months before his birth. His mother, very young, pretty, and inexperienced, raises the boy with the help of her loyal maid, Clara Peggoty. Things go well, young Davy is growing up in a happy, loving home – until his mother marries again. Mr. Murdstone, Davy's stepfather, believes that “firmness” is the only way of dealing with boys. He ends up sending Davy away to a boarding school run by a cruel schoolmaster Mr. Creakle...

Dickens booklist

Dombey and Son
A wealthy shipping tycoon, obsessed with nurturing his male heir to take over his empire, neglects the far greater talents of his daughter, and in his myopic pride loses everything. Paul Dombey has wealth and the respect (if not love) of his neighbors and colleagues. What he doesn't have is a suitable heir for his shipping empire. Dombey does not seem to care that he already has a child – a daughter, Florence, who is smart and competent, and wants only h...
Great Expectations
Pip is an orphan who lives with his fearsome aunt anmd kindly uncle Joe the blacksmith, who is good to Pip while his aunt is a terrifying person. Pip lives in a house on the moors where he meets the ecaped prisone. Pip feels fear and also pity and smuggles some food to him. Later Pip is invited to the home of Miss Havishem who keeps her home like a museum due to a frustrated love affair. Her wedding dress in inhabited by spiders. Suddenly, while at Miss...
Hard Times
Thomas Gradgrind's family has been taught that material things are the only things of importance. His daughter Louisa marries an elderly banker to help her brother Tom who works for him. Tom robs the banker and casts suspicion on an innocent weaver, Stephen Blackpool. Louisa attracts the attention of a sleazy politician named Harthouse, and to escape an affair with him, she goes to her father. Gradgrind is shocked by the results of his t...
Little Dorrit
A physically small, but courageous girl by the name of Amy, or affectionately referred to as Little Dorrit, is born in a debtors prison in London. Though the youngest of three children, she takes care of her family and sews for Mrs.Clennem, a strange old lady. When Mrs.Clennem's son, Arthur, becomes interested in helping the Dorrit family (and succeeds in doing so) he is unaware of the love that Amy has for him. The Dorrits find they have a vast fortun...
Nicholas Nickleby
Nicholas Nickleby, an 18-year-old gentleman's son, is left to take care of his mother and his beautiful sister Kate after his father's death. His father left them no money, and his dying wish was that the family goes to London and turns to help to his brother Ralph, a well-to-do businessman. Uncle Ralph is not at all happy about Nicholas, Kate, and Mrs. Nickleby showing up on his doorstep, but he feels obligated to do something for them. He finds the...
Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist is born in a workhouse, and orphaned almost immediately. The managers of the workhouse abuse him and declare that he will amount to nothing. Eventually, Oliver is apprenticed out and runs away from the situation once the cycle of abuse and extreme want repeat themselves. In his journey, Oliver meets the Artful Dodger, a seemingly nice boy who offers his assistance. Oliver is taken to a run-down house occupied by Fagin and his boys. Th...

Charles Dickens list of books

Our Mutual Friend
Dickens's last completed novel is one of his greatest. It has at least three stories in one: a murder mystery, a sweet romance, and a portrait of Victorian society, with characters that belong in each and cross over into the other uneasily. Bella Wilfer is left to depend on the good graces of the Boffins after her fiance John Harmon is apparently drowned on his way home to England. Various unscrupulous characters scheme after Harmon's fortune left in Mr....
Sketches by Boz
A collection of excellent sketches (short stories) of Dickens' views of society around him. He was most certainly an outstanding observor and these little stories are warm....
The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit
Young Martin Chuzzlewit becomes estranged from his wealthy self centered grandfather when he vows his love for the grandfather's ward, Mary, without asking for the grandfather's consent. Since Martin has no money of his own, he is forced to go out in the world to seek a living. He decides to go to America to seek his fortune, accompanied by his friend and servant, Mark Tapley. While he is gone, another relative, the evil Mr. Pecksniff seems to gai...
The Old Curiosity Shop
Little Nell is a 14-year-old beauty with a heart of gold raised by her kind, secretive grandfather. He runs an antique shop, and borrows significant sums of money from Mr.Quilp, the moneylender. No one knows what the grandfather does with the money, but he is thought to be rich and increasing his assets. Then the secret comes out: the old man is a gambler, he hopes to secure the future of his beloved granddaughter by winning a fortune. That, of course, n...
The Old Curiousity Shop
Little Nell and her useless grandfather escape from the shrewd, mean, humuorous dwarf Mr Quilp. Quilp has taken over their antique shop, due to the grandfathers gambling debts....
The Pickwick Papers
The members of a quasi-scientific and philosophical club, led by an aging gentleman named Samuel Pickwick, embark on adventurous expeditions around Britain, which result in various comic mishaps and discoveries. The Pickwick Club of London, whose purpose and value is not entirely clear, decides to establish a clearer mission for itself and transforms into a society of intrepid travelers (though without leaving the relative comforts of England, of course)...