Search results for ""author charles dickens"

Autumn clouds are drawing in over the village of Askham, at the edge of the picturesque Lake District, and mourners, including Simmy Henderson, are heading to the funeral of Humphrey Craig. Taking a quiet moment later to visit the grave and admire the flowers with her florist's eye, Simmy meets two women: Lindsay Wilson, an academic writing a thesis on Charles Dickens, and ninety-year-old matriarch Pauline Parsons. Just twenty-four hours later, Mrs Parsons is found dead on Askham Fell, and Simmy faces questioning at Penrith police station. An accusation has been made, but if Simmy is to avoid arrest for a murder she did not commit, she will have to uncover the killer herself.

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A captivating, rhyming picture book retelling of Charles Dickens' classic tale about the true meaning of Christmas. Mean old Ebenezer Scrooge hates everything. Even Christmas! Until, one frosty Christmas Eve, Scrooge receives a visit from three ghostly spirits, who whisk him away on a magical journey through past, present and future... But can they melt his frozen heart before it's too late? Introduce even the youngest of children to this classic story and share in the true spirit of Christmas. Retold in rhyme, with atmospheric illustrations, this will make the perfect Christmas gift.

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Marley’s ghost, Bob Cratchit’s slide down icy Cornhill, Mr and Mrs Fezziwig’s dance, and of course Ebenezer Scrooge himself, are all exquisitely illustrated in this luxury collector’s edition of Charles Dickens’s perennial seasonal favourite. Arthur Rackham’s colour wash drawings and silhouettes, first published during the First World War, bring a threatening and haunting atmosphere to Scrooge’s story, which contrasts wonderfully with the gifts and games of Belle’s household. Rackham was a leading illustrator in the golden age of book illustration, when groundbreaking techniques for colour printing were developing fast. He illustrated over sixty books and specialized in children’s classics and fairy tales. This landmark edition helped to consolidate the idea of the Dickensian Christmas and the tradition of the Christmas gift book. It is a beautiful version of a classic story, which never ceases to be relevant to our times.

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Prostitute, adulteress, unmarried woman who engages in sexual relations, victim of seduction—the Victorian "fallen woman" represents a complex array of stigmatized conditions. Amanda Anderson here reconsiders the familiar figure of the fallen woman within the context of mid-Victorian debates over the nature of selfhood, gender, and agency. In richly textured readings of works by Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, among others, she argues that depictions of fallen women express profound cultural anxieties about the very possibility of self-control and traditional moral responsibility.

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It's Christmas Eve. As the cold, bleak night draws in, the penny-pinching Ebenezer Scrooge is confronted by the spirit of his former business partner, Jacob Marley. Bound in chains as punishment for a lifetime of greed, the unearthly figure explains it isn't too late for Scrooge to change his miserly ways in order to escape the same fate. But first he'll have to face three more eerie encounters... Mark Gatiss' spine-tingling adaptation is faithful to the heart and spirit of Charles Dickens' much-loved festive ghost story – with an emphasis on the ghostly. Commissioned by Nottingham Playhouse, the adaptation premiered there in 2021, starring Nicholas Farrell alongside Gatiss, and directed by the theatre's Artistic Director, Adam Penford. A Christmas Carol – A Ghost Story subsequently transferred to Alexandra Palace Theatre, London, produced by Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Eilene Davidson Productions.

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Warrior, prince, lover and rogue: there is much to be said for the Essex man. Henry VIII, Daniel Defoe and Wat Tyler are all covered along with many more in this exciting exploration of Essex Boys. Pepys and Dickens captured Essex in words, while the heads of great Essex families administered its laws and kept the county in order. Men of Essex have battled Viking marauders, defied Norman warlords, sailed with ‘hearts of oak’ against the Spanish Armada and vanquished Napoleon on both land and sea. A man of music, science and literature, the Essex Boy will always be a man of many guises. Strong and loyal, passionate and ruthless – he is here in the pages of this book. Augustine Courtauld, Byrhtnoth, Charles Dickens, The Coggeshall Gang, Colchester Jack, Daniel Defoe, Daniel London, Daniel Mendoza, Dick Turpin, Eudo Dapifer, The Lords Rich, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Humphry Repton, The Ingrave Scribes, John Ardley, John Pell, Captain Oates, Myles Graye, Philip Sainty, Prince Albert Edward, Richard Parker, Sir John Hawkwood, Nathaniel Hedge, William Hunter

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Charles Dickens died half way through writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and ever since speculation has been rife as to how the tale might have unfolded. For this intriguing two-part adaptation for BBC2, for prime-time January 2012, acclaimed screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes (Five Days, Miss Austen Regrets) scoured the text for clues indicating how the great author might have finished this masterpiece, and has drawn from those leads a seamless, compelling and surprisingly modern story of obsessive love, betrayal and murder. This tie-in edition of Dickens's unfinished text will also include an Afterword by Gwyneth Hughes, offering her own conclusion, and revealing how she knitted the strands from the original plot and her own work together to bring the book to a satisfying close.Key cast list: Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters) as John Jasper; Rory Kinnear (Hamlet, Women In Love, Lennon Naked) as Reverend Septimus Crisparkle; Freddie Fox (Worried About The Boy, The Shadow Line) as Edwin Drood; Tamzin Merchant (Jane Eyre, Miranda, The Tudors) plays Rosa Bud; Alun Armstrong (New Tricks, Garrow's Law) as Hiram Grewgious, Rosa's guardian; Julia McKenzie (Cranford, Miss Marple) plays the Reverend's mother, Mrs Crisparkle; David Dawson (Luther, The Road To Coronation Street) as Bazzard; Ron Cook (Little Dorrit) as Durdles; Sacha Dhawan (Five Days 2) as Neville Landless; Amber Rose Revah (House Of Saddam) plays Helena Landless, Neville's twin sister; Ian McNeice (Doctor Who) as Mayor Sapsea; Janet Dale (Holby; Casualty) as Miss Twinkleton; Ellie Haddington (Luther) as Princess Puffer; and young Alfie Davis plays Deputy.

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The first book in Philip Pullman's classic Sally Lockhart quartet in a beautiful new edition. Soon after Sally Lockhart's father drowns at sea, she receives an anonymous letter. The dire warning it contains makes a man die of fear at her feet. Determined to discover the truth about her father's death, Sally is plunged into a terrifying mystery in the dark heart of Victorian London, at the centre of which lies a deadly blood-soaked jewel. Philip Pullman's ever-popular, action-packed Victorian melodramas are rejacketed for the bicentenary of Charles Dickens in 2012. Don't miss Philip Pullman's incredible HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy, now a thrilling, critically acclaimed BBC/HBO television series.

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From humble beginnings as the daughter of a Clerkenwell milliner, Emily Soldene rose to become a leading lady of the London stage and a formidable impresario with her own opera company. The darling of London's theatreland, she later reinvented herself as a journalist and writer who scandalised the capital with her backstage revelations. Weaving through the spurious glamour of Victorian music halls and theatres, taking encounters with the Pre-Raphaelites and legal disputes involving Charles Dickens in her stride, Emily became the toast of New York and ventured far off the beaten track to tour in Australia and New Zealand. In The Improbable Adventures of Miss Emily Soldene, a life filled with performance, travel and incident returns to centre stage.

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Collins Big Cat supports every primary child on their reading journey from phonics to fluency. Top authors and illustrators have created fiction and non-fiction books that children love to read. Book banded for guided and independent reading, there are reading notes in the back, comprehensive teaching and assessment support and ebooks available. The Great Fire of London spread faster than anyone could stop it. What caused the fire? Why did it spread? Discover the facts and read eyewitness accounts to work out the answers to these questions. Lime Plus/Band 11+ books provide challenging plots and vocabulary as well as opportunities to practise inference, prediction and reading stamina. Pages 46 and 47 allow children to re-visit the content of the book, supporting comprehension skills, vocabulary development and recall. Ideas for reading in the back of the book provide practical support and stimulating activities. Liz Miles’ interest in London began with family day-trips to tourist hotspots like the British Museum and the Tower of London. Later, inspired by Charles Dickens’ classics and Samuel Pepys’ diary, she began to research more about life in London’s past, and soon discovered countless mysteries and fascinating, unanswered questions.

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Footsteps in an abandoned holiday resort as the cold weather settles in; a knock on the door of a hut in the middle of an isolated bog; a lane in Rotterdam perceptible to only one inhabitant in the city. In Cruise of Shadows, Jean Ray began to fully explore the trappings of the ghost story to produce a new brand of horror tale: one that described the lineaments of a universe adjacent to this one, in which objects sweat hatred and fear, and where the individual must face the unknown in utter isolation. First published in 1931, two years after he served his prison sentence for embezzling funds for his literary magazine, Ray's second story collection failed to find the success of his first one, Whiskey Tales, but has emerged over the years as a key publication in the Belgian School of the Strange. It has remained unavailable in its integral form even in French until recently, however, though it contains some of Ray's most anthologized and celebrated stories, including two of his best known, The Mainz Psalter and The Shadowy Alley. This is the book's first English translation, and the second of the volumes of Ray's books to be published by Wakefield Press.Alternately referred to as the Belgian Poe and the Flemish Jack London, Jean Ray (1887 1964) delivered tales of horror under the stylistic influence of his most cherished authors, Charles Dickens and Gregory Chaucer. A pivotal figure in what has come to be known as the Belgian School of the Strange, Ray authored some 6,500 texts in his lifetime.

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Never published in its author’s lifetime and intended solely for his own children, to whom he read it every Christmas, The Life of Our Lord is an accessible and gently humorous take on the life of Jesus Christ and his teachings. Far removed from the sharp satire and social dimension of his more famous writings, but showcasing his characteristic humanity and genius for storytelling, this is both an essential work for those wanting to see a different, more intimate side to Dickens and a timeless retelling for children and adults alike.

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Now a major BBC drama.One of Charles Dickens's most renowned and enjoyable novels, Great Expectations tells the story of Pip, an orphan boy who wishes to transcend his humble origins and finds himself unexpectedly given the opportunity to live a life of wealth and respectability. Over the course of the tale, in which Pip encounters such famous characters as Miss Havisham, Herbert Pocket and Joe Gargery, he comes to realise that his money is tainted and the girl he loves will not return his affections; happiness must be found in the things he gave up in pursuit of a more sophisticated life.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is illustrated by various artists and features an afterword by David Pinching.

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Starting in the first century with St Paul and ending in the twentieth with St Oscar Romero, Rowan Williams invites you to reflect with him on the lives and legacies of twenty great Christians – saints, martyrs, poets, theologians and social reformers. Their stories and writings have profoundly influenced his own life and thought, and this sequence of short reflections is sure to sharpen your theological vision and cast a fresh light on what it means to live and breathe the gospel. Included among these 'luminaries' are Augustine of Hippo, William Tyndale, Teresa of Avila, Charles Dickens, Florence Nightingale, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Simone Weil, Let these brilliant meditations light your way as you follow the footsteps of the faithful who have gone before.

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Hard Times is Dickens's shortest novel, and arguably his greatest triumph. A useful appendix of the author's working notes, together with an enlightening introduction and full explanatory notes, will ensure that this edition becomes the obvious choice for anyone studying the novel. Paul Schlike is Lecturer in English at the University of Aberdeen. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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Londres es, sin duda, una de las principales capitales mundiales. Su extensa e intensa historia, con sus más de 2.000 años de antigüedad, hacen de ella una fuente inagotable de relatos, tanto históricos como ficticios. No en vano es la cuna de personajes tan relevantes como Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, John Lennon, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, Charles Chaplin o William Shakespeare.Más allá de su historia, es una ciudad en permanente crecimiento donde el consumo responsable cobra especial importancia a fin de convertirla en un proyecto sostenible. Londres parte con una gran ventaja, pues está repleta de parques y zonas verdes abiertas al público gracias a la tradición aristocrática, hoy extinta, de establecer cotos de caza sin necesidad de trasladarse fuera de la ciudad. Además, con el tiempo ha ido creciendo la sensibilización por la preservación del entorno natural o la utilización sostenible de los recursos, tanto a la hora de velar por el entorno existente como por modifi

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Grandes Clásicos Literatura Random House nos trae esta cuidada edición de colección de una de las grandes obras maestras tardías de Charles Dickens.Un joven se encamina a Londres para aceptar una herencia paterna que, según estipula el testamento, tan solo podrá disfrutar si se casa con Bella Wilfer, una hermosa muchacha a la que nunca ha conocido. Poco antes, sin embargo, aparece flotando en el Támesis un cadáver que la policía identifica con el joven heredero. Es el principio de una onda que afectará a toda la sociedad londinense.Una novela conclusa de Dickens, Nuestro amigo común es para muchos críticos y escritores -Italo Calvino, por ejemplo- una obra maestra absoluta en la que el autor, más pesimista que nunca, a las puertas de la muerte, demuestra todo el vigor de su prosa y de su imaginación en un deslumbrante ejercicio de virtuosismo literario.Italo Calvino dijo...Los comienzos de las novelas de Dickens suelen ser memorables, pero ninguno supe

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Explore the rich heritage of Christmas past in Kent with this varied collection of carols and customs, stories, folklore and reminiscences. With extracts from a diverse range of sources, including novels, journals and diaries, this delightful anthology features seasonal extracts from writers with local connections such as Charles Dickens, Russell Thorndike and H.E. Bates. Stories of wrecks on the notorious Goodwin Sands, Nelson's last journey and Christmas at Leeds Castle are illustrated with a fine selection of seasonal etchings and photographs. Along with evocative reminiscences of wonderful Christmases past, these stories are a festive treat for both long-time residents and newcomers to enjoy.

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Menials argues that British writers of the long-eighteenth century projected their era’s economic and social anxieties onto domestic servants. Confronting the emergence of controversial principles like self-interest, emulation, and luxury, writers from Eliza Haywood, Daniel Defoe, and Samuel Richardson to Mary Shelley, Charles Dickens, and William Thackeray used literary servants to critique what they saw as problematic economic and social practices. A cultural history of economic ideology as well as a literary history of domestic service, Menials traces the role of the domestic servant as a representation of the relationship between the master’s ideal self and the cultural forces that threaten it.

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Bloomsbury lies at the heart of cultural and intellectual London, famed for its museums, universities and literary heritage. Matthew Ingleby's new history ranges across the neighbourhood to explore hidden corners and reveal unexpected connections between Bloomsbury's past and present, its buildings and its people, its austere towers and its garden squares. Ingleby examines the facets of Bloomsbury that have shaped its identity - its long association with youth and beginnings; its proud secularism and scepticism; and its role as London's centre of thinking, writing and publishing. He draws on the voices of Bloomsbury's most observant residents, such as Charles Dickens and Virginia Woolf, to explain the character of the place in a fresh and engaging new way.

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Bah! Humbug! Charles Dickens' classic Christmas ghost story, a tale of human nature and second chances, comes to life for children! Tons of interactive elements invite kids to follow the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge as he is haunted by the Ghosts of Christmas and learns the value of kindness. Much more than a primer, Lit for Little Hands: A Christmas Carol tells the actual story in simple, engaging prose, and fans of the novella will be delighted by the book's attention to detail and clever use of original dialogue. And the book's use of super-sturdy board means everyone can enjoy this tale of Christmas spirit over . . . and over . . . and over again!

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At once a love letter to literature and a charming guide to the books most worth reading, A Reader's Book of Days features bite-size accounts of events in the lives of great authors for every day of the year. Here is Marcel Proust starting In Search of Lost Time and Virginia Woolf scribbling in the margin of her own writing, "Is it nonsense, or is it brilliance?" Fictional events that take place within beloved books are also included: the birth of Harry Potter’s enemy Draco Malfoy, the blood-soaked prom in Stephen King’s Carrie. A Reader's Book of Days is filled with memorable and surprising tales from the lives and works of Martin Amis, Jane Austen, James Baldwin, Roberto Bolano, the Brontë sisters, Junot Díaz, Philip K. Dick, Charles Dickens, Joan Didion, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Keats, Hilary Mantel, Haruki Murakami, Flannery O’Connor, Orhan Pamuk, George Plimpton, Marilynne Robinson, W. G. Sebald, Dr. Seuss, Zadie Smith, Susan Sontag, Hunter S. Thompson, Leo Tolstoy, David Foster Wallace, and many more. The book also notes the days on which famous authors were born and died; it includes lists of recommended reading for every month of the year as well as snippets from book reviews as they appeared across literary history; and throughout there are wry illustrations by acclaimed artist Joanna Neborsky. Brimming with nearly 2,000 stories, A Reader's Book of Days will have readers of every stripe reaching for their favorite books and discovering new ones.

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Share the spirit of Christmas with Dickens A Christmas Carol as an illustrated chapter storybook made for young readers! This timeless tale will have beginner readers drawn into the memorable story of Ebenezer Scrooge.Humbug! On a cobblestone street in London, on a cold Christmas Eve, the wealthy, greedy Ebenezer Scrooge is staying late at work at his “counting-house,” keeping his clerk, poor Bob Cratchit, busy and cold and away from his family. But little does Scrooge know that his old business partner, Jacob Marley—dead for seven years—is about to pay him a ghostly visit! His intention: to warn Scrooge that three spirits, the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, will be soon coming to see him, in order to convince him to change his ways before it’s too late! As Scrooge comes to see the mistakes he’s made, as only the three spirits can show him, he realizes that nothing is better than being loved by his family and his fellow people.In this gorgeously illustrated hardcover classic, the true meaning of Christmas is brought to life! Kid Classics: A Christmas Carol gives kids a chance to read Dickens’s classic short novel at their reading level—and come away with a greater appreciation for the spirit of Christmas! With page after page of captivating illustrations, this magical hardcover will be the fought over favorite in your home and schoolroom!This just-for-kids retelling of Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol: Is an abridged, child-friendly retelling of original novel Is a beautiful illustrated hardcover with illustrations in each chapter Is perfect for homeschooling, school reading challenges, and beginning readers Makes a great holiday gift or stocking stuffer for Advent or Christmas

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Jane Austen is the definitive biography of one of Britain's best-loved novelists, from the acclaimed author of Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, Charles Dickens: A Life and The Invisible Woman'As near perfect a life of Austen as we are likely to get: intelligent, feeling, suggestive' Carmen Callil, Daily Telegraph'Tomalin has written a biography that reflects Austen's own exacting standards, a book that radiates intelligence, wit and insight' Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times'Of all the Austen biographies, this is the best ... leaves the reader with a much deeper appreciation of the circumstances and motivation behind the creation of those six perfect novels' Harpers & Queen'I cannot think that a better life of Jane Austen then Claire Tomalin's will be written for many years.' Philip Hensher, Mail on Sunday'A perfect biography: detailed, witty, warm. Tomalin involves us so deeply that Austen's final illness and death come almost as a personal tragedy to the reader' Dirk Bogarde, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year

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George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) made her fictional debut when SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE appeared in 'Blackwood's Magazine' in 1857. These stories contain Eliot's earliest studies of what became enduring themes in her great novels: the impact of religious controversy and social change in provincial life, and the power of love to transform the lives of individual men and women. 'Adam Bede' was soon to appear and bring George Eliot fame and fortune. In the meantime the SCENES won acclaim from a discerning readership including Charles Dickens: ' I hope you will excuse my writing to you to express my admiration...The exquisite truth and delicacy, both of the humour and the pathos of those stories, I have never seen the like of.'

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The beginning is both internal and external to the text it initiates, and that noncoincidence points to the text’s vexed relation with its outside. Hence the nontrivial self-reflexivity of any textual beginning, which must bear witness to the self-grounding quality of the literary work— its inability either to comprise its inception or to externalize it in an authorizing exteriority. In a different but related way, the fact that they must begin renders our lives and our desires opaque to us; what Freud called “latency” marks not only sexuality but human thought with a self-division shaped by asynchronicity. From Henry James’s New York Edition prefaces to George Eliot’s epigraphs, from Ovid’s play with meter to Charles Dickens’s thematizing of the ex nihilo emergence of character, from Wallace Stevens’s abstract consideration of poetic origins to James Baldwin’s, Carson McCullers’s, and Eudora Welty’s descriptions of queer childhood, writers repeatedly confront the problem of inception. Inception introduces a fundamental contingency into texts and psyches alike: in the beginning, all could have been otherwise. For Kevin Ohi, the act of inception, and the potential it embodies, enables us to see making and unmaking coincide within the mechanism of creation. In this sense, Inceptions traces an ethics of reading, the possibility of perceiving, in the ostensibly finished forms of lives and texts, the potentiality inherent in their having started forth.

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From New York Times bestselling author Max Lucado comes a timeless message that will warm your heart.“The Christmas Candle shines with a radiant insight. Written with Max Lucado’s signature style of sincerity and spiritual perception, this story will warm the reader’s heart with the wonders of God’s love and mercy.” —In the Library ReviewsImagine a Victorian England village in the Cotswolds where very little out of the ordinary ever happens . . . except at Christmas time.This year, Edward Haddington, a lowly candle maker, is visited by a mysterious angel. That angel silently imparts a precious gift—a gift that’s bungled and subsequently lost. The candle maker and his wife, Bea, struggle to find the gift.And when they do, they have to make a difficult choice. Who among their community is most in need of a Christmas miracle?Join inspirational author Max Lucado and experience anew the joy of Christmas.“A powerful reminder of the true meaning of faith and community, The Christmas Candle is a welcome respite from the harried commercialism of the holiday season.” —BookPage“Fans of Charles Dickens and Jan Karon, you’re in for treat! Max Lucado has penned a wholly original Christmas story complete with cobblestone streets, quirky characters, and a supernatural visit you’ll never forget.” —John C. Maxwell, New York Times bestselling author on The Christmas Candle

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Which novels are truly great, and why? The Novel 100, Revised Edition is a unique reference that profiles great novels drawn from all cultures and periods of literature. Each entry provides a plot summary and assessment of a particular novel, with an emphasis on facts about the novel's creation, critical reception, and contribution to literary history.For this revised edition, Daniel S. Burt has reevaluated the original list and added entries on 25 additional novels, including Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Jane Austen's Persuasion, Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, Philip Roth's American Pastoral, and Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. Featuring an index and a helpful bibliography, The Novel 100, Revised Edition is sure to engage readers in a spirited discussion of literary values.

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David Levithan, bestselling author of Every Day, gives Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol a Valentine’s remix When Ben’s girlfriend, Marly, dies, he feels his life is over and the prospect of Valentine’s Day without her fills him with bitterness. But then Marly arrives – or at least, her ghost does – along with three other spirits. Now Ben must take a journey through Valentines past, present and future – and what he learns will change him forever. David Levithan is master of blending fantasy and romance, and Marly’s Ghost has every bit as wonderfully strange and magical as Every Day and Another Day. David is the New York Times best-selling author of Boy Meets Boy and Marly’s Ghost. While among his many collaborations are Will Grayson, Will Grayson with Fault in Our Stars author John Green, and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist with Rachel Cohn, which became a major film. David's latest collaboration with Rachel, The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily, was picked by Zoella for her Book Club with WHSmiths. Tiny Cooper from Will Grayson, Will Grayson, now has his own novel: Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story. David is also a highly respected children’s book editor, whose list includes many luminaries of children’s literature, including Garth Nix, Libba Bray and Suzanne Collins. He lives and works in New York.

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'Christmas is the perfect time to share the magic of reading with your family and Scrooge's journey to redemption is still as thrilling, moving and joyous over 175 years after it was written. This has to be the perfect Christmas book' - Cressida CowellEbenezer Scrooge is a bitter and selfish old man, and worst of all . . . he hates Christmas! But this Christmas Eve there's a surprise in store for Scrooge when four spooky ghosts pay him an unexpected visit. Over the course of the night, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come show Scrooge how his mean and nasty behaviour has affected everyone around him . . .But is it enough to help Scrooge change his ways, just in time for Christmas Day? Or is he destined to remain miserable for ever?Perfect for any young book lover - Charles Dickens' much-loved classic is a wonderful story for all the family to share at Christmas.

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Cornwall has a special literary heritage. Its writers and poets seem to come from its rich, deep and ancient rock formations, unique geology and proximity to the sea. Cornwall's writers have been shaped by landscape, from its bardic tradition and ancient language of Kernewek to the present day. In the north, the literary giant Thomas Hardy lived and worked in St Juliot where he met and courted his first wife. This part of the county is also the setting for Winston Graham's extraordinarily popular Poldark' series of novels. Fowey in the south has been home to Daphne du Maurier, Q' (Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch), Kenneth Grahame and Mabel Lucie Attwell. John le Carré lived in Cornwall and his books often involve Cornish interludes. Visiting writers also drew inspiration from Cornwall, including Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf and Arthur Conan Doyle. Cornwall's forgotten authors also have a place, from Derek Tangye's popular 1970s accounts of escaping the rat race and Crosbie Garstin's lost c

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In the nineteenth century, Great Britain and the United States shared a single literary marketplace that linked the reform movements, as well as the literatures, of the two nations. The writings of transatlantic reformers—antislavery, temperance, and suffrage activists—gave novelists a new sense of purpose and prompted them to invent new literary forms. The result was a distinctively Anglo-American realism, in which novelists, conceiving of themselves as reformers, sought to act upon their readers—and, through their readers, the world. Indeed, reform became so predominant that many novelists borrowed from reformist writings even though they were skeptical of reform itself. Among them are some of the century's most important authors: Anne Brontë, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, Elizabeth Stoddard, and Mark Twain. The Novel of Purpose proposes a new way of understanding social reform in Great Britain and the United States. Amanda Claybaugh offers readings that connect reformist agitation to the formal features of literary works and argues for a method of transatlantic study that attends not only to nations, but also to the many groups that collaborate across national boundaries.

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Victorians were fascinated with how accurately photography could copy people, the places they inhabited, and the objects surrounding them. Much more important, however, is the way in which Victorian people, places, and things came to resemble photographs. In this provocative study of British realism, Nancy Armstrong explains how fiction entered into a relationship with the new popular art of photography that transformed the world into a picture. By the 1860s, to know virtually anyone or anything was to understand how to place him, her, or it in that world on the basis of characteristics that either had been or could be captured in one of several photographic genres. So willing was the readership to think of the real as photographs, that authors from Charles Dickens to the Brontës, Lewis Carroll, H. Rider Haggard, Oscar Wilde, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster, and Virginia Woolf had to use the same visual conventions to represent what was real, especially when they sought to debunk those conventions. The Victorian novel's collaboration with photography was indeed so successful, Armstrong contends, that literary criticism assumes a text is gesturing toward the real whenever it invokes a photograph.

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In an adorable box set, three of the greatest classics ever written are retold with a cast of guinea pigs in the starring roles. These little books contain all the wit and wonder of William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and Jane Austen, with added fluffiness! In Romeo & Juliet, two young dreamers must find true love against the odds, while Pride & Prejudice is a delightful tale of clever conversation, unexpected romance and guinea pigs in bonnets and top hats. In Oliver Twist, a very small guinea pig has a BIG London adventure in front of him starting when he says the fateful words, ''Please, sir, I want some more''. It''s a furry new world, where storytelling will never be the same again...

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"The Ideas in Things" explores apparently inconsequential objects in popular Victorian texts to make contact with their fugitive meanings. Developing an innovative approach to analyzing nineteenth-century fiction, Elaine Freedgood reconnects the things readers unwittingly ignore to the stories they tell. Building her case around objects from three well-known Victorian novels - Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton, and Charles Dickens' Great Expectations - Freedgood argues that these things are connected to histories that the novels barely acknowledge, generating darker meanings outside the novels' symbolic systems. A valuable contribution to the field of object studies, "The Ideas in Things" pushes readers' thinking about things beyond established concepts of commodity and fetish.

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This Devil’s Advocate explores the cinematic wonders of Brian Desmond Hurst’s much loved 1951 adaptation of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge, through the prism of horror cinema, arguing that the film has less in common with cosy festive tradition than it does with terror cinema like James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein, Robert Weine’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and F.W. Murnau’s Faust. Beginning with Charles Dickens himself, a prolific writer of ghost stories, with A Christmas Carol being but one of many, Colin Fleming then considers earlier cinematic adaptations including 1935’s folk-horror-like Scrooge, before offering a full account of the Hurst/Sim version, stressing what must always be kept at the forefront of our minds: this is a ghost story.

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THE CAPTIVATING NEW NOVEL, SET AGAINST CHARLES DICKENS' HOME FOR FALLEN WOMEN'Absorbing . . . Halls weaves together the elements of her story with great skill' Sunday Times'Acutely observed and beautifully written' Daily Mail'Compelling and richly detailed' Good Housekeeping'Captivating' Woman'Meticulously researched and compelling' Red'Keeps the reader enthralled' Prima'Exquisitely written . . . full of heart and hope' FabulousNOT ALL WHO ARE FALLEN WANT TO BE SAVEDLondon, 1847. In a quiet house in the countryside outside London, the finishing touches are being made to welcome a group of young women. The house and its location are top secret, its residents unknown to one another, but the girls have one thing in common: they are fallen. Offering refuge for prostitute

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Oliver Twist is one of the most well-known stories ever told, about a young orphan who has to survive the mean streets of London before ultimately being rescued by a kindly benefactor. But it is his friend, the Artful Dodger, who has the far more intriguing tale, filled with more adventure and excitement than anything boring Oliver could possibly get up to. Throw in some vampires and a plot to overthrow the British monarchy, and what you have is the thrilling account that Charles Dickens was too scared to share with the world. From the brilliant mind of novelist and comic book veteran Peter David, Artful is the dark, funny, and action-packed story of one of the most fascinating characters in literary history. With vampires.

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A look at 100 inspiring novels that have left a significant mark on the world of literature and popular culture. Before the novel, the world of books was dominated by scientific tomes, religious tracts and histories of the victorious in war. There had been stories and epic poems from ancient times – Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey recounted ancient Greece, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was a chivalric romance in Middle English, but it was not until the seventeenth century, when the European middle classes had money and leisure, that anything so frivolous as a novel could be sold for entertainment. Colin Salter traces the evolution of the novel from the earliest examples through to the postmodernist best-sellers of the 21st century. Rather than dwelling too long on the technical nuances of innovative writing style he has amassed 100 of the greatest novel writers and chosen their most significant work. For writers such as Herman Melville, James Joyce or Harper Lee the decision is not a difficult one. For Charles Dickens, Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood, the choice is perhaps more difficult. Following the style set with previous books in the 100 series, most notably 100 Children’s Books and 100 Science Discoveries, each author is given a concise biography and their major novel analysed and then set in context with their other published work. Readers can become ridiculously well-read in 224 pages. Authors included: Alexandre Dumas, Daniel Defoe, Victor Hugo, Mary Shelly, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Hilary Mantel, Jane Austen, Robert Louis Stevenson, Walter Scott, Lewis Carroll, JRR Tolkien, Gustave Flaubert, Marcel Proust, Henry James, Harper Lee, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Margaret Atwood, Alice Walker, Jules Verne, HG Wells, Virginia Woolf, Leo Tolstoy, Louisa M. Alcott, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, John Steinbeck, CS Lewis, Chinua Achebe, Jack Kerouac, John Le Carre, Arundhati Roy, Mila Kundera, Joseph Heller, JD Salinger, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Miguel Cervantes, Graham Greene, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell, John Steinbeck, Evelyn Waugh, Robert Graves, Daphne du Maurier, Agatha Christie, PG Wodehouse, Raymond Chandler, Hunter S. Thompson, Khaled Hosseini.

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Complete and unabridged.When A Christmas Carol was first published in 1843 it was an overnight success. A celebration of Christmas, a tale of redemption, and a critique on Victorian society, Charles Dickens' atmospheric novella follows the miserly, penny-pinching Ebenezer Scrooge who views Christmas as 'humbug'. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Featuring original illustrations by John Leech, with an afterword by Anna South.It is only through a series of eerie, life-changing visits from the ghost of his deceased business partner Marley and the spirits of Christmas past, present and future that Scrooge begins to see the error of his ways. With heart-rending characters, rich imagery and evocative language, the hopeful message of A Christmas Carol remains as significant today as when it was first published.

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Scholastic Children's Books are proud to publish this beautiful edition of the classic tale, Oliver Twist. The story of orphaned Oliver, who runs away from the workhouse only to be taken in by a den of thieves. Plunged into a dark criminal underworld of vivid and memorable characters - the arch-villain Fagin, the artful Dodger, the menacing Bill Sikes and kind-hearted Nancy - Oliver struggles to survive and find his real family. A rich, powerful look at Victorian London poverty from master storyteller, Charles Dickens. SCHOLASTIC "INK DOT" CLASSICS - COLLECT THEM ALL! A Christmas Carol A Little Princess Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Anne Of Green Gables Black Beauty Five Children and It Just So Stories Kidnapped Little Women Moonfleet Oliver Twist Pollyanna The Happy Prince and Other Stories The Jungle Book The Railway Children The Secret Garden The Wind in the Willows The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Treasure Island What Katy Did

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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 as Oliver himself (who dares to ask for more), the tyrannical Bumble, the diabolical Fagin, the menacing Bill Sikes, Nancy and 'the Artful Dodger'. For any reader wishing to delve into the works of the great Victorian literary colossus, Oliver Twist is, without doubt, an essential title.

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The true story of the remarkable John Rae - Arctic traveller and Hudson's Bay Company doctor - FATAL PASSAGE is a tale of imperial ambition and high adventure. In 1854 Rae solved the two great Arctic mysteries: the fate of the doomed Franklin expedition and the location of the last navigable link in the Northwest Passage.But Rae was to be denied the recognition he so richly deserved. On returning to London, he faced a campaign of denial and vilification led by two of the most powerful people in Victorian England: Lady Jane Franklin, the widow of the lost Sir John, and Charles Dickens, the most influential writer of the age. A remarkable story of courage and determination, FATAL PASSAGE is Ken McGoogan's passionate redemption of Rae's rightful place in history. In this richly documented and illustrated work, McGoogan captures the essence of one man's indomitable spirit.

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If you were fascinated by The Five, you'll love this gripping and atmospheric historical thriller set in Victorian London in the wake of Jack the Ripper.A killer is haunting London's streets . . .A year after Jack the Ripper claimed his last victim, London is in the grip of a wave of terror. The newly formed Murder Squad of Scotland Yard battles in vain against the tide of horror.When the body of a detective is found in a suitcase, his lips sewn together and his eyes sewn shut, it becomes clear that no one is safe from attack. Has the Ripper returned - or is a new killer at large? And for Walter Day, the young policeman assigned the case, is time running out?Praise for The Yard:'If Charles Dickens isn't somewhere clapping his hands for this one, Wilkie Collins surely is.' New York Times

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In The Art of Alibi, Jonathan Grossman reconstructs the relation of the novel to nineteenth-century law courts. During the Romantic era, courthouses and trial scenes frequently found their way into the plots of English novels. As Grossman states, "by the Victorian period, these scenes represented a powerful intersection of narrative form with a complementary and competing structure for storytelling." He argues that the courts, newly fashioned as a site in which to orchestrate voices and reconstruct stories, arose as a cultural presence influencing the shape of the English novel. Weaving examinations of novels such as William Godwin's Caleb Williams, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and Charles Dickens's The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, along with a reading of the new Royal Courts of Justice, Grossman charts the exciting changes occurring within the novel, especially crime fiction, that preceded and led to the invention of the detective mystery in the 1840s.

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This beautiful, giftable Christmas collection features timeless works from well-known authors that will become a precious holiday keepsake.Perhaps no Christmas novel is more beloved than Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, and no holiday poem more well-known than Clement Clarke Moore’s “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Together these classic literary masterpieces warm our hearts and remind us of the joy and love to be discovered anew each Christmas morning.A Classic Christmas features both of these traditional works, as well as other vintage poems and stories that celebrate the timeless truths of the holiday season. This cheerful, collectible treasury makes a wonderful gift for the reader in your life and reminds us that simple gifts of the heart and memories made with loved ones truly are the most meaningful of all. With additional pieces from Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Hans Christian Andersen, and more, A Classic Christmas will become a beloved holiday keepsake—one that will be enjoyed by the whole family for years to come. Perfect as a stocking stuffer or as a host or hostess gift Hardcover, giftable size Makes a lovely keepsake companion to A Vintage Christmas and A Timeless Christmas Includes hopeful and encouraging Christmas stories

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Now a major West End play! From 3rd May 2023, see Bleak Expectations on stage at the Criterion theatre, with guest stars Stephen Fry, Dermot O'Leary, Sue Perkins and more!Based on the beloved Radio 4 series, BLEAK EXPECTATIONS recounts the remarkable adventures of young Pip Bin as he tries to make his way in a world made all horrible by the machinations of his cruel guardian, Mr Gently Benevolent. Grim circumstances, mistaken identities, nightmarish court-cases, ridiculous names, convenient coincidences to resolve plot problems, over-sentimental death scenes and lots and lots of adjectives: Bleak Expectations is a novel like Charles Dickens might have written after far too much gin.

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Meet the women of American Housewife… They smoke their eyes and paint their lips. They channel Beyoncé while doing household chores. They drown their sorrows with Chanel No. 5 and host book clubs where chardonnay trumps Charles Dickens. They redecorate. And they are quietly capable of kidnapping, breaking and entering, and murder. These women know the rules of a well-lived life: replace your tights every winter, listen to erotic audio books while you scrub the bathroom floor, serve what you want to eat at your dinner parties, and accept it: you’re too old to have more than one drink and sleep through the night.Vicious, fresh and darkly hilarious, American Housewife is a collection of stories for anyone who has ever wondered what really goes on behind the façades of the housewives of America…

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