Showing results by author "Charles Dickens" in All Categories

Basil Rathbone stars in this staged version of Dicken's A Christmas Carol.

In the polluted and poverty-ridden Coketown, Louisa and Tom Gradgrind endure a cold and loveless childhood at the hands of their self-satisfied and unimaginative father, Thomas. Starved of affection, Louisa is forced into a miserable marriage with the self-made industrialist Josiah Bounderby, 30 years her senior, whilst Tom descends into a secret life of theft. Into such squalor and misery comes generous and spirited Sissy Jupe, a child of the circus whose ailing father, Sleary, has deserted her.

Christmas is humbug, Scrooge says - just a time when you find yourself a year older and not a penny richer. The only thing that matters to Scrooge is business, and making money. But on Christmas Eve three spirits come to visit him. They take him travelling on the wings of the night to see the shadows of Christmas past, present, and future - and Scrooge learns a lesson that he will never forget.

"Oliver Twist", also known as "The Parish Boy's Progress", is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. The story is about an orphan, Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to London where he meets the Artful Dodger, leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets. Oliver is led to the lair of their elderly criminal trainer Fagin, naively unaware of their unlawful activities.

The long, drawn-out case of Jarndyce versus Jarndyce provides the background to this novel, which takes us into Dickens' world of impoverished people on the street, lovers fallen on hard times, and the grand riches of the upper classes. It is read movingly by Sean Barrett.

Written in 1867, The Magic Fishbone is one of Charles Dickens' best loved fairy tales for children. It tells the story of an impoverished King who can barely manage to keep his nineteen children, and it is a long time until pay day. One day he meets a Fairy Godmother who tells him to give his eldest daughter, Princess Alicia, a piece of salmon, and after she has eaten everything but the bone, she is to dry and polish the bone carefully because it has magic powers.

The Chuzzlewits are a family divided by money and selfishness; even young Martin, the eponymous hero, is arrogant and self-centered. He offends his grandfather by falling in love with the latter’s ward, Mary, and sets out to make his own fortune in life, travelling as far as America – which produces from Dickens a savage satire on a new world tainted with the vices of the old. Martin’s nature slowly changes through his bitter experience of life and his enduring love for Mary.

The young Oliver is orphaned practically at birth, and when he grows up, he is passed off to several people who simply put him to work without really caring for him. Oliver escapes after being put to work by a coffin-maker, yet his new found freedom leads him right to a few individuals who do not have his best interests in mind. They're so-called friends who take him in, yet they have the intention of priming him to be a pick-pocket. But with each downturn in his life, there is a corresponding up-swing for Oliver.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) Los fantasmas de Dickens ponen al descubierto los pensamientos más oscuros de la mente humana. Forman parte del presente, son historias morales y de redención. Su interés por el mundo fantástico permaneció vivo a lo largo de su vida plasmado con maestría en sus obras. La presente edición recopila tres breves historias.

Puede que la vida de los Nickleby no sea la más interesante, pero sin duda es apacible... hasta que el padre muere y la familia debe ir a Londres para pedir ayuda a un mezquino pariente. A cambio, este pone una condición: su sobrino trabajará como profesor en una escuela de Yorkshire.

"A Tale of Two Cities" is set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution.

Mrs. Peerybingle is bright and sharp as a tack. Her husband John is a carrier, a profession as lumbering and sturdy as he is himself. When the crafty Tackleton seeks to cause mischief to forward his own nefarious plans, John’s steady heart is sorely wounded. Luckily there is a cricket on the hearth to act as a guardian angel for all of them. A huge commercial success when it was first published in 1845, this Christmas fantasy is a lovely portrait of Victorian life.

This story's orphaned hero, Pip, who undergoes change and growth, progressing from thoughtless selfishness to humble industry and generosity, is one of Dickens's best-loved characters. "It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home," finding himself apprenticed to his blacksmith brother-in-law and "dusty with the dust of small coal."

In "Old Christmas" we join in the celebrations of a Christmas Eve and a Christmas Day in Old England. The selection from The Pickwick Papers involves a Dickensian skating party.

Charles Dickens saw his fictional work in print for the first time in 1833 when he was only 21. It was a story called "Mr Minns and his Cousin" and was published in the Morning Chronicle. He wrote more tales and sketches for newspapers and magazines, which were collected and published in book form in two series in 1836 as Sketches by Boz. Here are nine of them.

Charles Dickens, like many Victorian writers, loved to write supernatural stories during the Christmas season. The most famous, of course, is A Christmas Carol, but there were many other such stories including, Number One Branch Line: The Signalman, The Trial for Murder, and The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton. This particular story has many parallels to A Christmas Carol but also has many unique feathers.

Unique to this title is: A historical introduction and a study of the themes present in A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol and The Chimes. Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He was born in 1812 in Portsmouth. When his father was sent to jail because of unsettled debt, Dickens had to leave school and get a job in a factory. Dickens is believed to be the best novelist of the Victorian era and he became very popular during his lifetime. His novels are still widely read and translated.

The Cricket on The Hearth was first published in 1845. A cricket constantly chirps on the hearth and acts as a guardian angel to the Peerybingle family. The arrival of a mysterious stranger threatens to shatter this harmony. Does the cricket have supernatural powers? The Seven Poor Travellers was first published in 1854. On Christmas Eve, a traveling gentleman happens upon a house in a quaint little village, which houses up to six travelers each evening. He decides to treat them all to a Christmas dinner and tells them a story around the fireplace about a soldier....

When John Harmon Returns to England to claim his inheritance - and his intended bride - only to be found murdered, the fortune passes to the most unlikely of people. A satirical romp in humanity by the master novelist, Charles Dickens. In classic Dickens style, he explores what truly makes one wealthy, and how we view our fellow creatures.

En cada relato, los personajes se encuentran con alucinaciones, por no llamarlos fantasmas. El escenario de cada momento es narrado por la astucia del escritor de una manera muy distintiva, única. Surgen conversaciones entre los personajes y los fantasmas, las cuales se van desarrollando según la vida particular y personalidad de cada protagonista.