The Old Curiosity Shop

Dickens on Dickens

By: Charles Dickens

Narrated by: Gerald Dickens

Length: 25 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Charles Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop performed by his Great Great Grandson Gerald Dickens. A tale about Little Nell, a young girl who lives in the Old Curosity Shop, London with her grandfather. Through not wanting her to die in poverty as her parents did. Nell's grandfather gambles what little money they have left and the tale takes on an even darker turn.

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Outstanding Narration!

Gerald Dickens did a fabulous job of narrating this old classic. Easy to understand even with my hearing loss. The story itself starts a bit slow, but after awhile, you really get sucked into the drama. Recommend!

Hearing Things

Is it just me or has anyone else heard women talking and laughing behind the narrator? Chapters 30 and 31 so far... so annoying. I am not sure where he recorded this but he needs to shut the door!

Good story, decent narration, poor recording

Good story, decent narrator, but the recording was amateur at best. Off and on throughout the whole recording people could be heard having conversations and laughing in the background. Once, very clearly, sirens could be heard for quite some time. And a few times the narrator would be reading, pause, then start the sentence over again. Overall it was a decent book but I won’t be listening to any more books from this group.

Dickens' great grandson narrates excellently

The story is good, of course, as are all Dickens' books.

The best part may be the narrator. Gerald Dickens makes this book lively and compelling.
He is one of the best narrators I have ever listened to...out of a few hundred Audible audiobooks.

My highest recommendation!

A Dickens of a good book

Gerald Dickens does his great great grandfather proud in his exemplary performance of what has become one of my favourites of Dickens' books upon first listening. Such a breathe of fresh air after the brilliant but dark and brooding Oliver Twist, Curiosity Shop contains excellent narrative, full of twists & turns, intrigue, comedy, dark humour, lightheartedness and disappointment but never predictability. Gerald Dickens is an excellent narrator, bringing the story to life.

Great book, bad reading

Is there anything you would change about this book?

This is one of Dickens' earlier novels and does not have the structure of the mature ones (starting with "Dombey and Son"). The illness and suffering of Little Nell thrilled Dickens' contemporaries but is likely to seem quite tedious to our contemporaries. At least, that is how I find it. Nevertheless, like all of Dickens' novels, there are wonderful characters, incidents, and narration. This should not be one of the first Dickens novels you read, but by almost any other fiction writer, it would be a masterpiece.

What other book might you compare The Old Curiosity Shop to and why?

Not as good as Dickens' later novels (starting with "Dombey and Son"), but like the other earlier ones, very much worth reading.

Would you be willing to try another one of Gerald Dickens’s performances?

No.

Did The Old Curiosity Shop inspire you to do anything?

Remind myself how good Dickens is.

Any additional comments?

I find Gerald Dickens' performance quite annoying. Since there are alternatives, in the middle of Chapter 4 I decided to try one of them, the one by Gerald Hagan. But I wish the old one by David Case/Frederick Davidson would be restored to the catalogue. He is unsurpassable.

Exceptional

Exceptional narration of a classic! How wonderful to hear the story told by the author's Great Great Grandson. Highly recommend.

Brilliant

Beautiful story brought to life by a brilliant narrator. Perhaps the best I have heard.

Excellent narration!

Only Oscar Wilde could find the death of a beautiful young girl and an evil dwarf funny.

Everything that makes Dickens Dickens is in this book and it’s excellent .