Book Description
Includes the major works by one of the greatest names in literature.Namely, Great Expectations, Hard Times, A Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities.This Library of Literary Classics edition is bound in padded leather with luxurious gold-stamping on the front and spine, satin ribbon marker and gilded edges. Other titles in this Library of Literary Classics series include: Charlotte & Emily Bronte: The Complete Novels; Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Works; Mark Twain: Selected Works; Jane Austen: The Complete Novels: Lewis Carroll: The Complete, Fully Illustrated Works; and William Shakespeare: The Complete Works. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

Enjoying the Classics
Beautiful book.Everyone in our home is fighting over who gets to read it next.Maybe I should have ordered more than one...

Great value for the price
Let's face it, there are better editions of Dickens out there. You get what you pay for. This is not a top of the line leather edition. For the price, though, you can't beat it. It is what it is, a reasonably priced leather edition of four of his novels.At five dollars apiece, the price can not be beat.

Pretentious
Buying books because they look good on your shelf is pretentious and phony - and this book capitalizes on that.I got this as a gift and was amazed when I read it at the number of typos in it.There is simply no way this collection was proofed by an editor - that or the editing company is one of the worst in the world.

Buy these fantastic books, but not this edition, unless you just want people to think you read Dickens.

If nothing else, it looks good on your bookshelf.
You would do better off buying these books individually from a different publisher.
It sounds impressive, leather bound, gilded edges, but it is very cheaply done.On the plus side, it does have a ribbon book mark so you don't have to buy your own.
But this book was poorly edited, filled with needless typos, and with all four of these books available from numerous other publishers, I would suggestto just buy it from them.

Loved it,
I'm a big fan of long drawn out novles. I've always been a fan of Dickens. This book has on eof my favorite stories by his pen: Great Expectations. His style is very personal I found it a lot like Tolkien. His ability to tell a good tale is clear as the reader becomes part of the story. Very nice volume and worth the time and money in my opinion. ... Read more

Book Description
Superb collection of Dickens' best, includes five of his major novels.The Pickwick Papers, The Adventures of Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, and Tale of Two Cities.1114 pages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Use of Motifs in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities, is outstanding in that it portrays very real themes and, with the use of motifs, develops those themes thoroughly. Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that help the themes unfold. In the novel, there is an ever-present possibility of resurrection or transformation, both on a personal and societal level. Sydney Carton's death serves as a sacrifice for the lives of others, and he is reborn in the hearts of those he has died to save. Connected to the theme of the possibility of resurrection is the necessity of sacrifice. Sacrifice is a way to achieve and ensure pure happiness. Dickens also shows that along with a revolution comes the tendency towards violence, evil, and oppression. By using the motifs of doubles, shadows, and imprisonment, Dickens forms and materializes his major themes and makes his views known on the French Revolution.

The novels opening words, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..." immediately establishes the centrality of doubles in the novel. These beginning words represent the two cities mentioned in the title, and the action in the novel divides itself between these two cities. The two main women characters in the novel are depicted as opposed doubles. Lucie Manette is gentle while Madame Defarge is hateful and detestable. Dickens doubling technique is used to create oppositions but also to reveal hidden parallels. For example, Carton is shown as a foil to Charles Darnay. Darnay is everything that Carton has failed to become. However, by the end of the novel, Carton transforms himself into a hero whose goodness surpasses that of Darnay's virtuous status. Thus, Dickens uses opposition to make judgments and thematic assertions.

Shadows dominate the novel and set the mood so that it is of gloom and despair. Even from the beginning, the first images of the story set off a mood of apprehension when the mail coachmakes its journey in the dark and mist. This atmosphere contributes to the mystery surrounding Lorry's mission to Paris and Dr. Manettes imprisonment. Dickens demonstrates that in the depths of every human heart lies mysteries and secrets that will never see the light of day. Revolution is a time of foreboding and obscurity- thus the emergence of Dickens theme that with a revolution comes the tendency towards violence and oppression. Marquis Evrémonde belongs to a vicious aristocracy that exploits and mistreats the nations poor.He stands as a symbol of the ruthless aristocratic cruelty that the French Revolution seeks to overcome. Dickens deeply sympathizes with the plight of the peasantry yet he condemns their strategies in overcoming it. They perpetuate the very cruelty and oppression from which they hope to free themselves of. Dickens' most relevant view of the French Revolution comes at the end of the novel, he notes the downward slope from the oppressed to the oppressor. Though Dickens sees the French Revolution as a great symbol of transformation and resurrection, he emphasizes that its violent means were ultimately antithetical to its end.

Almost all of the central characters in the novel fight against some kind of imprisonment. For Darnay and Manette the struggle is literal, both serve significant sentences in French prisons. However, the memories of what some have overcome in the novel prove to be no less confining than the walls of prison. Manette recalls his experiences in the Bastille and can do nothing but return to his pathetic shoe-making occupation. Similarly, Carton struggles against his own personality, dissatisfied with his worthless life. Yet, through all of Carton's struggles, he ascends to the plane of heroism and becomes a Christ-like figure whose death saves the lives of others. Thus, his own life gains meaning. The supreme selflessness of this final act of going to the guillotine speaks for change. Change not only personally for Carton, but also for a better society.

In conclusion, A Tale of Two Cities portrays eminent and powerful themes brought about by the use of motifs. The most important theme is that of the possibility of resurrection or transformation. The novel suggests that Sydney Carton's death secures a new, peaceful life for Lucie, Darnay and even Carton himself. By delivering himself to the guillotine, Carton, like Christ, will be resurrected and reborn in the hearts of those he has died to save. Similarly, the novel implies that the death of the Old Regime in France prepares the way for the renewed Paris that Carton envisions from the guillotine. The novel expresses the belief that violence will ultimately give way to a new and better society. However, a new French republic can come about only wit heavy costs- personal loves and loyalties must be sacrificed for the good of the nation. Thus, the idea of sacrifice is necessary to obtain happiness and everlasting peace. Most importantly, Carton's transformation into a man of moral worth depends upon his sacrificing of his former self. In choosing to die for his friends, Carton not only enables their happiness but ensures his spiritual rebirth. He states, " I am the Resurrected and the Life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die" (363). The novel ends with the statement that Carton would have said if he had been allowed to write the thoughts that inspired him, "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known." This basically ensures his spiritual resurrection and those for which he has sacrificed his life will never forget him.

Four great novels on the same book
This is a must have for every Dickens fan. Four of his most regarded works together on one fine book. Click and get it!

It was a great book!
It was a very interesting book!Many people thinkthat it is boring but if you get into it, it is great!

literary geinus
Dickens is one of the best authors of all time his classics have been read, reread, studied, and scrutinized and they prevailed. He was considered a great human who lived life to the fullest and was well likedby all. He could percive others' lifestyles and think how they think, hetruly is the literary geinus of his time, and ours.

A story strangely in keeping with then and now
This is a very good boo ... Read more

Amazon.com
Charles Dickens wrote The Life of Our Lord around the same time he was finishing upDavid Copperfield, but to readers raised on a diet of Dickensian wit and indignation, his rendering of Jesus' life may come as something of a surprise. You won't find even the shadow of a Micawber or a Mrs. Gamp anywhere in this brief volume; no Pecksniffs, Podsnaps, or Mulberries, either. Instead, Dickens approaches his subject with simple reverence, retelling the New Testament in a manner suitable for his own young children--who were, in fact, his only intended audience. Indeed, he strictly forbade publication of The Life during his lifetime and begged his sister to make sure that they "would never even hand the manuscript, or a copy of it, to anyone to take out of the house."It wasn't until the death of Dickens's last living son that the manuscript was finally published in 1934. Though he left his trademark comedy behind, Dickens's liberal social conscience is still evident in what he chooses to emphasize about Jesus: "My Dear Children," he begins,

I am very anxious that you should know something about the History of Jesus Christ. For everybody ought to know about Him. No one ever lived who was so good, so kind, so gentle, and so sorry for all people who did wrong, or were in any way ill or miserable, as He was.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Excellent Testimonial from Charles Dickens
This is an excellent book for teaching children, ourselves, or anyone who wants to know about Christ in simple terms. My wife gave a copy to each of our married children.

NOT the Gospel!
I made the big mistake of borrowing this book from a friend at church, and starting to read it to my children.From page one, Dickens shows his hand as a liberal Christian of the moralist stripe.In reading three chapters, and scanning the rest of the book, I could find no indication that Dickens believed that Jesus was actually divine; literally the son of God.

Read the "Search Inside!" excerpt, and you can see for yourself.Page 18 (second page of the narrative) Dickens says "His father's name was Joseph, and His mother's name was Mary."No mention of the virgin birth, conception by the Holy Spirit, or any hint of divine genesis.At the bottom of the same page, the angels announce: "There is a child born to-day in the city of Bethlehem near here, who will grow up to be so good that God will love Him as His own Son."Over and over, Dickens throws out these creepy euphemisms that seem to avoid any assertion that Jesus is God incarnate.

I searched the end of the book, and could find no connection between the cross and forgiveness; although Dickens narrates the Passion and Resurrection, the closest (I could find) to an understanding of WHY, is that the Pharisees wanted to kill him because they were jealous of his following.

"Search Inside!" this book for "sin" (rest assured, there are very few occurrences), and you will get to the last page, where you will find this entirely unhelpful definition:

"Remember! -- It is Christianity TO DO GOOD always -- even to those who do evil to us.It is Christianity to love our neighbors as ourself, and to do to all men as we would have them do to us.It is Christianity to be gentle, merciful, and forgiving, and to keep those qualities quiet in our own hearts, and never make a boast of them, or of our prayers or of our love of God, but always to show that we love Him by humbly trying to do right in everything.If we do this, and remember the life and lessons of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and try to act up to them, we may confidently hope that God will forgive us our sins and mistakes, and enable us to live and die in peace."

In other words, Dickens' definition of Christianity is "If you try hard (enough), God will forgive you for your shortcomings."Check this out: the word "sin" appears 5 times in the whole book, three of which are simply quoting Jesus."The word "faith" appears a grand total of ZERO times!The only two occurrences that show up are from the Front Flap and Front Matter (i.e. not part of what Dickens himself wrote)!

I don't know how anybody could think they have defined Christianity without ever using the word "faith", but I'm pretty sure that any such attempt would be "another gospel", and it should be anathematized.

So if you don't believe that the co-eternal Son of God is the word made flesh; if you think it is silly to believe in conception by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin birth; if you don't want to focus on sin and redemption; if you just want your kids to think of Jesus as a good man, good teacher, and good example, then by all means buy this book.

But if you're a Christian, stay away.

Another Dickens Masterpiece!
I never knew of this book's existence until a friend of mine, a fellow book lover, told me about it.What I love most about the book is that Dickens wrote it for his children--not for the public at large.How many fathers would write a book just for their children?Dickens seems like such a tender hearted person.And you can sense that there is a lot of love put into this book.

It's nice to have the gospel of the Savior unfold in such a smooth narrative, in a language that is closer to modern English than the language of the King James Bible.Of course, Dickens fills in a few gaps, and puts his own spin on things--but all in all he is very faithfull to the four gospels.

I am thankful to my friend for telling me about this wonderful book!

Other great holiday reads:

Christmas Gifts, Christmas Voices--a story that is both gut wrenching and (thankfully) heartwarming.

Finding Noel: A Novel--yet another marvelous Evans book!

The Life of Our Lord : Written for His Children During the Years 1846 to 1849
I liked it because you can tell that it wasn't proofed and edited before printing.It gave me an insight to Charles Dickens that I had not had before.It would be best not to sit down to "read" the book in one setting. Really enjoyed it.

Spiritual Side of a Genius
"[A Christmas Carol] is Dickens's widely acclaimed masterpiece of Christmas. But his The Life of Our Lord, written in a very personal way, without adornment or flights of fancy, and written for the children he loved, carries with it not only a beautiful narrative but a compelling admonition: 'Remember!--It is Christianity TO DO GOOD always--even to those who do evil to us.'"

"Such is the simple telling of a beloved author. In his time and during the generations that have followed, his great novels have been read by millions upon millions. But his story of Jesus' life, written with Dickens's own pen, and without editing of any kind, was for 85 years a family treasure and secret. Printed with all of the editorial mistakes of the original writing, it has delighted many others beyond his family."

President Hinckley, Ensign, December 1994

I have heard Pres. Hinckley, world leader of the Church of JEsus Christ of Latter-day Saints, talk about this book, and believing that there is some merit in reading the same books that the president of the Church reads, I picked it up.

This book may be considered a follow-up to his immortal classic "A Christmas Carol," where, instead of an allegory dealing with three spirits working on the Scrooge-of-all-Scrooges, he retells the story of the life of our Lord.

The book was geared for his children, so it is a quite easy read. Having read "A Tale of Two Cities," "Hard Times," and "A Christmas Carol," I was impressed with Dickens's flexibility. In fact, it is almost as if we are reading a transcript of a fireside chat. So this book is very readable for anyone of any age. It would be an ideal gift for a child between five and ten years old, or helpful to someone with a learning/reading disability. You could conceivably kill two Goliaths with one stone: get them familiar with the life of the Savior AND expose them to great literature!

The only drawback with the book is the theology, but that is understandable since we are of different faiths. Dickens focuses mainly on the ethical aspects of Christ's life, which is good, but incomplete. Another presdeint of the Church of Jesus Christ, President Howard W. Hunter, once gave a talk called, "Ethics Alone is not Sufficient." If you remember in "A Christmas Carol," Scrooge makes a conversion to ethical ideal, but not a conversion to Christ. He is going in the right direction, but not far enough. But it is a great book nonetheless.

The cover is stellar! It looks as important as its contents. The internal organizing and lay are also up to the stature of the author. It is nice to see that books are returning to their former glory of being both functional and beautiful. It would makes a great gift book, or a beautiful addition to any Postum table.

This book had been submerged for a long time due to Dickens's desire to keep his beliefs uncommercialized. I am glad that his estate has published this book, so we see the complete man. ... Read more

Book Description
With the delectable wit, unforgettable characters, and challenging themes that have won her a Pulitzer Prize and national bestseller status, Jane Smiley naturally finds a kindred spirit in the author of classics such as Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol. As "his novels shaped his life as much as his life shaped his novels," Smiley's Charles Dickens is at once a sensitive profile of the great master and a fascinating meditation on the writing life.

Smiley evokes Dickens as he might have seemed to his contemporaries: convivial, astute, boundlessly energetic-and lionized. As she makes clear, Dickens not only led the action-packed life of a prolific writer, editor, and family man but, balancing the artistic and the commercial in his work, he also consciously sustained his status as one of the first modern "celebrities."

Charles Dickens offers brilliant interpretations of almost all the major works, an exploration of his narrative techniques and his innovative voice and themes, and a reflection on how his richly varied lower-class cameos sprang from an experience and passion more personal than his public knew. Jane Smiley's own "demon narrative intelligence" (The Boston Globe) touches, too, on controversial details that include Dickens's obsession with money and squabbles with publishers, his unhappy marriage, and the rumors of an affair.

Here is a fresh look at the dazzling personality of a verbal magician and the fascinating times behind the classics we read in school and continue to enjoy today.Download Description
With the delectable wit, unforgettable characters, and challenging themes that have won her a Pulitzer Prize and national bestseller status, Jane Smiley naturally finds a kindred spirit in the author of classics such as Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol. As ""his novels shaped his life as much as his life shaped his novels,"" Smiley's Charles Dickens is at once a sensitive profile of the great master and a fascinating meditation on the writing life. Smiley evokes Dickens as he might have seemed to his contemporaries: convivial, astute, boundlessly energetic-and lionized. As she makes clear, Dickens not only led the action-packed life of a prolific writer, editor, and family man but, balancing the artistic and the commercial in his work, he also consciously sustained his status as one of the first modern ""celebrities."" Charles Dickens offers brilliant interpretations of almost all the major works, an exploration of his narrative techniques and his innovative voice and themes, and a reflection on how his richly varied lower-class cameos sprang from an experience and passion more personal than his public knew. Smiley's own ""demon narrative intelligence"" (The Boston Globe) touches, too, on controversial details that include Dickens's obsession with money and squabbles with publishers, his unhappy marriage, and the rumors of an affair. Here is a fresh look at the dazzling personality of a verbal magician and the fascinating times behind the classics we read in school and continue to enjoy today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Terrific Overview
This lively book provides an overview of the literary achievements and personal life of Charles Dickens. For those Amazon.com customers who, like me, don't know how to approach this writer's vast achievements, I provide this advice from Smiley, who is an intelligent, charming, and enthusiastic biographer: "But a newcomer to Dickens can do no better than to begin with a novel-my suggestions are David Copperfield, to be followed by Great Expectations, Dombey and Son, A Tale of Two Cities, and Our Mutual Friend, in that order, light, dark, light, dark, light, a wonderful chiaroscuro of Dickens's most characteristic and accessible work." Bravo for Jane and her fun and concise treatment of an enormous subject!

A succinct yet superb short biography of Charles Dickens
Jane Smiley is a leading contemporary novelist whose insight into the difficult arcane world of writing for profit is helpful in reviewing our greatest English novelist.As self-described Charles Dickens was the "inimitable." Dickens draws a broad stoke as his thousands of characters lie, cheat,[borrow], love, live and [end life] on the canvas of humanity.
As one who has read all the standard biographies of the 19th behemoth of literature that was Dickens I can highly recommend this excellent book.
Smiley provides a sketch of Dickens life including warts and all.Her dissection of the affair the middle aged author engaged in with actress Ellen Ternan was well done in looking at what may have motivated Dickens to break with his wife Catherine and thumb his nose at Victorian respectability.
Dickens is a mixture of good and bad with the humanity and essential goodness of the man on display.
This little book in the excellent Penguin Viking Biography series could be well used in an introductory course on Dickens, the nineteenth century English novel or on the art of literary biography.
Smiley made me smile and laugh as I explored the mind of a genius with this gifted biographer.It is the best biography I have so far read in this series.

Possibly the best of the Penguin Lives
I've read about half the books in the Penguin series and I'd rate this at the top (other favorites are the bios of Leonardo da Vinci and James Joyce).It's only 207 pages long but there is no sense that anything important was left out.I hadn't realized that Dickens was such an astounding character--Ms. Smiley brings him to life with precise detail, through knowledge, and insights that DESERVE to be called insights.She's obviously an excellent writer herself and every page radiates her professionalism.

A good brief account of Dickens
For those who want to spend two weeks leaning about Dickens, Peter Ackroyd's book is really excellent.However if you do not have that kind of time, this work by Jane Smiley is excellent.Whoever marries the authors to the subjects should be commended.Jane Smiley is a best-selling author. Who better to write on the foremost novelist during the high noon of the novel as a medium?

This book provided an excellent overview not only of the life of Dickens, which can be summed up as "poor boy makes good," but also the novels themselves.I do not agree with some of Jane Smiley's criticism ("Pickwick Papers" is a good read, despite what she says), but by and large she is on target with a great deal of what she has to say.

A fresh look at the man and his achievements
Smiley's lively biographical coverage of Charles Dickens paints a portrait of a convivial, astute and energetic writer who led an action-packed life as a prolific writer and family man. Blending with this highly recommended portrait of the man is a survey of his major works and narrative style, providing a fresh look at the man and his achievements. ... Read more

Book Description
From Longman's new Cultural Editions Series, Hard Times, by Charles Dickens, edited by Jeff Nunokawa, includes Books 1-3 of Hard Times and contextual materials on the age of Dickens. Books 1-3 of Hard Times is included along with extensive contextual material that helps readers understand Dickens' work more thoroughly Those interested in works by Charles Dickens. ... Read more

Book Description

Named a notable book of the year by theNew York Times and one of best biographies of 1988 byPublishers Weekly

"Anyone who has not read a life of Dickens is going to prefer Fred Kaplan's long, solid, and illuminating biography, furnished with new facts and theories, to any previous one they might encounter. The novelist who emerges from his study -- dynamic, mercurial, self-deluding, with a big heart for the masses and a small one for his ego, makes fascinating reading." -- Louis Auchincloss,Newsday

" Dickens by Fred Kaplan may do for our greatest writer after Shakespeare what Ellman did for Oscar Wilde... A brilliantly readable work and one essential for all of us who care about the man who, for all his faults, remained 'The Inimitable' and 'The Sparkler' to the end." -- John Mortimer,Spectator

"Fred Kaplan'sDickens... would be valuable if only because it takes into account the reams of research that have been published in the intervening years; but it is also well proportioned, persuasive in its judgments and consistently, grippingly readable." -- John Gross,New York Times

From a bitter childhood mired in poverty and hard work to a career as the most acclaimed and best-loved writer in the English-speaking world, Charles Dickens had a life as tumultuous as any he created in his teeming novels of life in Victorian England. And no one has captured the rich texture of this life as colorfully and persuasively as Fred Kaplan in this acclaimed biography. Drawing on unpublished and long-forgotten sources, Kaplan presents a full-scale portrait of Dickens and his world. From the autobiographical basis of his novels and his extraordinary circle of friends to the course of his unhappy marriage and complicated family relations, Kaplan reveals the restless compulsions, private passions, and professional concerns that drove Dickens to unprecedented literary success. Kaplan details Dickens's often stormy dealings with his publishers and his carefully cultivated relationship with readers, heightened through amateur theatricals and numerous public readings in Britain and North America. Brilliantly written and thoroughly researched,Dickens provides an absorbing and perceptive account of its subject as a singularly complex man and a consummate artist, offering readers new insights into Dickens's -- and literature's -- greatest works, works such asBleak House,David Copperfield,Great Expectations, andOliver Twist.

"Kaplan has spent ten years preparing and writing this book; his achievement is as rare, as wonderful, as the Dickens he brings to life. We are all the beneficiaries of this exceptional biography." -- A. D. Hutter,Los Angeles Times

"A winning mix of insight, narrative skill and shrewd judgement. Kaplan shows how powerfully both as a man and artist Dickens was shaped by the experience of his youth: on the one hand the humiliations showered on him by his penurious and feckless parents, on the other his mental escape into the bright world of the 18th-century novel which gave him his models for good and bad character." --Publishers Weekly

"Kaplan is particularly good... on the shape and perspective of Dickens's career, his relation with his younger siblings, all of whom he outlived, and with his own children and their developing private lives. To be fully understood as a writer he needs to be put in this sort of family frame." -- John Bayley,New York Review of Books

"Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Mr. Kaplan's biography is its picture of Dickens's professional life and friendships: one senses anew the extraordinary competitive vigor of the Victorian imperial personality. Mr. Kaplan's objective presentation of the facts about the colossus of the age gives us a far better sense of its shape and scale than any facile charm might conjure up. His clarity is the highest form of respect and affection for his astonishing subject." -- Richard Locke,Wall Street Journal

Customer Reviews (9)

All You Need to Know

All you need to know about Charles Dickens is here.Fred Kaplan has given us a well-rounded look at the literary lion in his natural habitat.What more could we ask for, except to savor - anew or again - another of Boz's novels?

We appreciate Dickens because he loves all of his characters so completely - even the most irredeemable ones.With Kaplan's book, we find that Dickens himself is one of his best creations.

Well-written, well-researched, scholarly work
The key word is "scholarly." If you want the run-of-the-mill pulp bio, you won't find it here. What you will find is a treasure of information on Dickens and his life. I have read every major biography of Dickens, and Kaplan's work is by far the best. I don't know how others could call it "boring," for I couldn't put it down.If you need your biographies "punched up," perhaps you should try Ackroyd's bio, which is more colorful but also more rambling. This is solid work, from a solid researcher.

worse then boring
two stars due to the tons of information, but way too much that is strangely disconnected from Dickens' vibrant writing and his nearly frantic appreciation of life. Reading this (many passagesyou have to skip through they are so deadly), it's as though Kaplan waded through all of Dickens' writings even though not one of the novels struck a chord and really got to him. And there's that deadly present tense, i.e. Dickens goes here instead of went, writes to Forster instead of wrote; only makes it all more artificial, distant, bloodless, boring.

Too many details, not enough emotion!
This book seems to have been written by a business man and not a man of literature.I felt as though I were reading Charles Dicken's family budget diary rather than a life-history.This biography is lengthy with details that are indescribably boring.I found myself longing for more of the emotional aspects of this marvelous man's life.Kaplan writes in a dry, uninspiring style.I had 'great expectations' for this book but found those expectations dashed to pieces on the rock of boredom.

Great Bio of a Great Author
Charles Dickens is without a doubt one of my favorite authors.I have read all of his major novels (some numerous times) and many of his other works.The most important things to know about Dickens are right there in his own words.However, the man himself is a fascinating subject from his rise through a poor youth to his triumph as the most famous authors of his age or, indeed, any age.Certainly, Dickens is worthy of a well-written biography.Fortunately, there are well-done ones out there.

I had read Kaplan's book a number of years ago and recently read it again.It remains one of the best.Kaplan gives us a complete and balanced portrait of Dickens' entire life.He is sufficiently laudatory of Dickens' successes without being fawning.Additionally, he is not afraid to point out Dickens' weaknesses--as a son, husband, father, friend and author, though his weaknesses as a author are few enough.We get a real sense of Dickens as a human being.

One of the reasons I think Kaplan is so successful in his portrait is that he weaves numerous quotes from letters by Dickens and his many correspondents almost seamlessly into the text.It gives more of a feeling for Dickens as a man of his time as opposed to looking back and trying to compose a modern view of him.I also like the way Kaplan shows Dickens as an acute observer who integrated people and places he knew into his fiction.There are risks in reading a novel too biographically but it is interesting to try to pin down an author's inspirations and themes.Kaplan handles this quite well but he doesn't go into any of the novels in depth so someone unfamiliar with Dickens' books might have trouble in some places.

Overall, Kaplan finds an nice balance between depth and readability.He is able to pack a lot into 556 pages.Anyone with an interest in Dickens would be foolish not to read one of the best biographies of the man in print. ... Read more

Book Description
For every frustrated reader of the great nineteenth-century English novels of Austen, Trollope, Dickens, or the Brontës who has ever wondered whether a duke outranked an earl, when to yell "Tally Ho!" at a fox hunt, or how one landed in "debtor's prison," here is a "delightful reader's companion that lights up the literary dark" (The New York Times).

This fascinating, lively guide clarifies the sometimes bizarre maze of rules, regulations, and customs that governed everyday life in Victorian England. Author Daniel Pool provides countless intriguing details (did you know that the "plums" in Christmas plum pudding were actually raisins?) on the Church of England, sex, Parliament, dinner parties, country house visiting, and a host of other aspects of nineteenth-century English life -- both "upstairs" and "downstairs."

An illuminating glossary gives at a glance the meaning and significance of terms ranging from "ague" to "wainscoting," the specifics of the currency system, and a lively host of other details and curiosities of the day.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (62)

An amazing tool!
This book is a marvel, understandable to any person intelligent enough to enjoy Charles Dickens.Every aspect of life is within its scope.Easy to use, it is easily the best resource on my shelves.Indispensable to readers (and writers).

An Easy to Read and Interesting Reference
If you read Regency or Victorian literature this is a reference you will want close at hand.Both Interesting and fun to read, the author says he wanted to "answer some of the questions that nag any half-curious reader of the great nineteenth-century English novels."He does just that.This book is meant as an overview, or introduction, to the period not an in-depth reference.You will not find lengthy discussions of what Jane Austen might have eaten, but there are several sections on foods and dinner parties.

The book includes a large glossary of terms peculiar to the period.I have found it handy when I've come across an unfamiliar word in a novel and didn't want to stop reading and go research it.

While I feel the book does cover both the Regency and Victorian era fairly well, I believe it can be criticized for spanning too great of a period.Imagine a book attempting to give insight into the entire twentieth century, a period that would include the Wright Brothers and the moon landings and corsets and miniskirts, and many more contrasts.The nineteenth century had many similar contrasts making it difficult to write a single volume cover the entire period.

I recommend two other books for anyone reading Victorian literature, Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England and To Marry an English Lord by Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace

Recommendation: I recommend this handy reference for anyone who enjoys Regency or Victorian literature.

Kyle Pratt

Fun and Interesting
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-The Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England, by Daniel Pool, is a nice book that is full of fun facts and answers to questions that come about from the reading of some of the great English writers.The book needs to be taken for what it is... entertainment, rather than relied upon as a historical textbook of any kind.I find the book an interesting diversion occasionally, and fun for picking up a bit of the Victorian period.Enjoy.Three stars.

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew
That's a perfect book. If you want to know anything interesting about the 19th century in England, you should read it.I teach English as the second language andit's sometimes too difficult to draw students' attention through the whole lesson. There are many interesting and unknown things, that help students to imagine this time in England. On the other hand, the book is written by clear and easy English so I could not stop reading till I finished.

Cute but glib--and wrong!
This is an error-ridden, foolish little book that is just fine for casual consumption but is a terrible place for anyone serious about history to try to learn anything.I write Victorian-set novels, and I really think that books like these are a major problem with my genre as they fool would-be writers into believing that they actually have actually done "research."

*sighs*

Read through George Eliot, Trollope, Austen, Dickens, the Eyres, and Thackeray.Then read articles from popular newspapers and real histories of the period.And then collect fashion plate images and discriptions.Buy copies of Mrs. Beeton and Mayhew.THEN you will have done some research about the 19th c. ... Read more

Book Description
Hugely admired by Tolstoy, David Copperfield is the novel that draws most closely from Charles Dickens's own life. Its eponymous hero, orphaned as a boy, grows up to discover love and happiness, heartbreak and sorrow amid a cast of eccentrics, innocents, and villains. Praising Dickens's power of invention, Somerset Maugham wrote: "There were never such people as the Micawbers, Peggotty and Barkis, Traddles, Betsey Trotwood and Mr. Dick, Uriah Heep and his mother. They are fantastic inventions of Dickens's exultant imagination...you can never quite forget them."

This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition includes a new Introduction by Pulitzer Prize finalist David Gates, in addition to new explanatory notes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (31)

Ummm.....
While I admire anyone who can write 800+ pages with an overarching theme (the discipline of the heart), and while I also consider Dickens to be one of my favorite writers of all time, I was very disappointed in this book. It ultimately comes down to three main story lines: (1) the events regarding Uriah Heep, (2) events regarding Emily, and (3) events regarding David finding love.Maybe in 1850 it was a big deal, but reading 800+ pages to find out that Emily ran off with an egoist isn't exactly stimulating, nor is plowing through only to find out Uriah Heep is a scoundrel.Sure, the last couple of pages are nice with David and Agnes, but I'm not sure it makes the book worth reading.

I'm really not sure how Dickens could consider this character his favorite.Copperfield is the consumate pushover and patsy.Instead of doing something, anything, to defend the abuse/neglect of his mother and himself when coming across the Murdstone's in later years, he does absolutely nothing.His main event with Uriah is a slap in the face.It's almost like David Copperfield was Boy George placed in the 1900's.

But, if you have several hours to spend on the pursuit of being so bored you want to contemplate suicide, I would highly recommend this book.

A Masterpiece
This is Dickens's best and it is on par with other great novels such as Anna Karenina, Pride and Prejudice, Madame Bovary, etc. In short, it is a masterpiece that brings together all of Dickens's writing skills with a great story.

As background information, I am in the process of reading most of Dickens 22 novels and longer short stories. I bought the Penguin Popular Classics version of the novel. It is very basic and comes in a simple green cover. It contains no introduction or analysis, just the text plus a very brief historical sketch of Dickens. It seems to be an excellent value for the money and I bought three Dickens novels in the series. I was a bit disappointed in that the book seemed to fall apart as I read it: the binding seemed very weak and cheaply made. After this bad experience, I bought other versions of Dickens's works - Wordsworth Classic versions, the regular Penguin Classic versions, the ones with the photo on the covers, and others.

Charles Dickens, who lived from 1812 to 1870, is the best know male English writer of the 19th century. He authored 22 novels plus numerous short pieces. Most of his writing was first written in serialized form, later published as single novels.

A young Dickens at the age of 12 had the unenviable job of attaching labels 10 hours a day at the Warren's boot blacking factory. That experience shaped much of his writing career. Still in his teens he became a law clerk, then later in his twenties a journalist. The last job as a reporter led to the serialized writing of his novels. His works were social commentaries with larger than life characters, or colorful caricatures, living in the slums of London. He was a critic of poverty, social injustice, and the slow moving court system.

All of Dickens's experiences come together in David Copperfield. The story has many biographical elements in it: a young man forced to take a job in a factory, attendance at a difficult school, working in a law firm, being a reporter, etc.The book was the author's favorite because of all of these biographical elements. The novel is twice as long as Great Expectations and has a wonderful set of characters, a good story, and it is a compelling read. It is clear from reading the novel that Dickens has put a lot of enthusiasm and creativity into writing the novel and into the creation of many memorable characters such as Edward and Jane Murdstone, Wilkins Micawber, Uriah Heep, Tommy Traddles, Mrs Trotwood, etc. Readers will not be disappointed.

Having read many of Dickens's novels I still rate David Copperfield as best as a work of literature and for entertainment value.

great classic novel
This is a great classic novel full of wonderful insights of human nature and humorous notions from David's viewpoint.It shows how people do better when treated better, something very worthwhile for people to read nowadays when overly strict discipline has been transferred to overly diagnosed mental illnesses and medication for this.This shows a believable resilient child, though in unusual circumstances for modern times, children are normally resilient to hardships, as well as adults.The difference between the way David is treated by the Murdstones and cruel teachers as opposed to how he is treated well by his Aunt Betsy and good teachers show how much a difference kind treatment to people makes.

A Brilliant Masterpiece
This book was a slight drag at first in the first part, but the ending is remarkable and sheds a new light on charles Dickens' work. It is sure a masterpiece. Its portrayal of love, death, hope, misery, and so much more is quite striking. It is definitely one of the best books I have ever come across.

Difficult but worth while
Well this was my first Charles Dickens book. I found it difficult at times to read, a lot of flowery descriptions and some English expressions I wasn't familiar with. BUT, I did enjoy reading it and found the characters interesting. I found some of the events that happened were to coincidental, but then again that's how the author brings some zest to the story. This book is long. I did appreciate Modern Library Classics little extra touches like discussion points, even the front of the books art work is nice. ... Read more

Book Description

THIS ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES:

• A concise introduction that gives the reader important background information

• A chronology of the author's life and work

• A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context

• An outline of key themes and plot points to guide the reader's own interpretations

• Detailed explanatory notes

• Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work

• Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction

• A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

What a find!!!
As an English teacher, whenever I have looked for material on Dickens, I have always checked to see what it says about Dickens' boyhood, which was the source of his art, his activism, and his "ghosts." Moreover, I have more than once wished that I could have seen Dickens live on stage acting out scenes from his novels, pouring heart and soul into the performances as his biographers have so often detailed. So you can imagine my delight to find this gem by Simon Callow, who appears as Dickens in a one-man show similar to those Dickens himself would have done in London, Edinburgh, and elsewhere. Callow has made Dickens come alive more than any written biography could do. He narrates the life of Dickens from boyhood to death, moving flawlessly between biographical material and excerpts from the novels to show the biographical elements of many of Dickens' works.His depiction of the personality, accent, facial expression, and body language of the panoply of Dickens' creations, not to mention Dickens himself, is amazing. No student could come away from this video and say they had not seen or did not understand Dickens.I also appreciate the way Callow handles Dickens' troubled marriage, his idealization of his dying 17-year-old sister-in-law, and his infatuation with the young Ellen Ternan.We come away viewing Dickens not as some roving-eyed dandy, as post-modern critics often do, but as a deeply scarred man looking for the lost ideal. I will definitely show this to students everytime I teach Dickens in the future. Its intermission between Acts I and II makes it possible to split the viewing into two class periods. If less time were available, a teacher would find Act I very satisfactory as a one-period, stand-alone piece. ... Read more

Book Description
On Christmas Eve, a party of friends descends on a purportedly haunted country retreat, charged with the task of discovering evidence of the supernatural. Sequestered in their rooms for the holiday, the friends reconvene on Twelfth Night at a great feast and share their stories of spectral encounter. “Conducted” by Charles Dickens and counting Elizabeth Gaskell and Wilkie Collins among its contributors, The Haunted House examines quintessentially Victorian themes–sex and longing, nostalgia and loss–in ways that continue to resonate today. Ingeniously conceived and written, and spiked with flashes of Dickensian humor, this volume is a strange and sheer delight. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Disappointment !
Quite a disappointing book. I was hoping for a much better story. This book is a collection of stories by several different authors. Some of the authors are downright bad. I enjoyed the chapters written by Dickens and Sala. Do not read the book if you're expecting a haunting or scary tale...haunting or scary this book is not. Boring is more appropriate. It should not be presented as a Dickens book as it is a collection, perhaps inspired by Dickens, but not written entirely by him. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Beginning in 1854 up through to his death in 1870, Charles Dickens abridged and adapted many of his more popular works and performed them as staged readings. This version, each page illustrated with lovely watercolor paintings, is a beautiful example of one of these adaptations.

Because it is quite seriously abridged, the story concentrates primarily on the extended family of Mr. Peggotty: his orphaned nephew, Ham; his adopted niece, Little Emily; and Mrs. Gummidge, self-described as "a lone lorn creetur and everythink went contrairy with her." When Little Emily runs away with Copperfield's former schoolmate, leaving Mr. Peggotty completely brokenhearted, the whole family is thrown into turmoil. But Dickens weaves some comic relief throughout the story with the introduction of Mr. and Mrs. Micawber, and David's love for his pretty, silly "child-wife," Dora.Dark nights, mysterious locations, and the final destructive storm provide classic Dickensian drama. Although this is not David Copperfield in its entirety, it is a great introduction to the world and the language of Charles Dickens.Book Description
`I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is DAVID COPPERFIELD,' wrote Dickens of what is the most personal, certainly one of the most popular, of all his novels.Dickens wrote the book after the completion of a fragment of autobiography recalling his employment as a child in a London warehouse, and in the first-person narrative, a new departure for him, realized marvellously the workings of memory. The embodiment of his boyhood experience in the novel involved a `complicated interweaving of truth and fiction', at its most subtle in the portrait of his father as Mr Micawber, one of Dickens's greatest comic creations. Enjoying a humour that never becomes caricature, the reader shares David's affection for the eccentric Betsey Trotwood and her protege Mr Dick, and smiles with the narrator at the trials he endures in his love for the delightfully silly Dora.Settings, (East Anglia, the London of the 1820s), people, and events are unified by their relationship to the story of Steerforth's treachery, which reaches its powerful climax in the storm scene.This edition, which has the accurate Clarendon text, includes Dickens's trial titles and working notes, and eight of the original illustrations by `Phiz'.Download Description
'I really think I have done it ingeniously and with a very complicated interweaving of truth and fiction.' So wrote Dickens of David Copperfield (1850), the novel he called his 'favourite child'. Through his hero Dickens draws openly on his own life, as David Copperfield recalls his experiences from childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Rosa Dartle, Dora, Steerforth and Uriah Heep are among the characters who focus the hero's sexual and emotional drives, and Mr Micawber, a portrait of Dickens's own father, evokes the mixture of love, nostalgia and guilt that, put together, make this Dickens's most quoted and best-loved novel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (103)

Classic catharsis
What could be more prosaic? A physically abused child surmounts all obstacles through diligence, devotion, goodness, and terrific good luck at key moments. But within this simple frame Dickens paints a tapestry of pity and terror and epiphany. To encounter such a broad spectrum of good and evil - the pure femininity of a lover, the earthy sweetness of a nurse, the generosity of a mentor, the frivolity of a sweetheart, parental naivete and cruelty, the destructive arrogance of a best friend, the viciousness of a Uriah Heep - would be an object lesson in Humanity. But we encounter all this each day. This dawns on you with each passing chapter - and that you are confronting yourself as you confront them: Your own evil and your own goodness rising above the shadows. Copperfield is a quick course in religion and philosophy and psychology. By the end, you're transformed vicariously and like David Copperfield dismiss the shadows: "Thus I leave them; thus I always find them; thus they wear their time away, from year to year".

Please note: Dickens is not my favorite author. His style at times is too melodramatic. But David Copperfield is wonderful. If we had only this, it would be clear Dickens was a master who walked the talk. Highly commended even for those who are not Dickens fans.

A wonderful (audio)book
I have read and listened to many of Dickens' novels, and this is, without a doubt, my favorite. In fact, this is my favorite audiobook bar none.

This BBC Radio adaptation is the perfect introduction to Dickens and to David Copperfield in particular for those who may be dissuaded from reading Copperfield because of its length. It is impossible to imagine that the BBC could have found better performers for the roles--I can easily hear their voices in my mind as I recall the story. Although the story is abridged, you don't get the sense that you are missing any of the important points of the story. In fact, it's a much more satisfying "read" than most books in their unabridged version.

Poor print quality for the price

For the price of the Everyman edition, one would expect the pages to be cleanly printed. Instead, the letters are faded and weak on many pages. On many pages, parts of some letters are missing altogether.

Sublime
"But one face, shining on me like a heavenly light by which I see all
other objects, is above them and beyond them all. And that remains. I turn my
head, and see it, in its beautiful serenity beside me. My lamp burns low,
and I have written far into the night, but the dear presence, without which
I were nothing, bears me company."
[David Copperfield]
Timeless, full of plastic characters, entertaining, colourful, warm. Imagine Dostoevsky, but with more optimism and respect and deep love for humans. Kind regards, Mario.

Dickens' favorite Dickens... with good reason.
Charles Dickens said that his favorite work of his own was David Copperfield.I'm still partial to Tale of Two Cities, but this is a truly spectacular piece of literature that deserves every bit of its status as a classic.

Dickens draws you into his stories in a way that nearly no other author can.In David Copperfield, you truly feel as if you are the protagonist/narrator Copperfield.You feel his pain and enhaltation, you sense his difficulties, mistakes and triumphs before they come through Dickens' subtle foreshadowing.

The other thing that Dickens does so masterfully is create his characters.Dickens' characters are the stuff of legend for a reason.In anyone else's hands, characters as vivid and over-the-top as Dickens' are would be ridiculous, but somehow Dickens writes the colorful characters to be completely believeable.This trick has something to do with the way Dickens develops the characters over time, something to do with the detail with which he describes them and something to do with consistent core of the characters.The villians alone make this story well worth reading and they are just the tip of the iceberg.

Read this classic, you'll be glad you did. ... Read more

Book Description
One of Dickens's most haunting novels, A Tale of Two Cities has, since its first serial publication in 1859, continued to exert a grip on the popular imagination. The two cities of the title--a lethal, vengeful Paris during the French Revolution and a leafy, tranquil London--are only one of the novel's stark dichotomies, which are continued as Syndey Carton and Charles Darnay are drawn toward their separate destinies--their lives touched by the same woman.

In his absorbing Introduction, Richard Maxwell discusses the novel's intricate design, in which Dickens magnificently interweaves epic drama with personal tragedy.Comparing it to Thomas Carlyle's French Revolution and Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, Maxwell argues that A Tale of Two Cities "stands as Dickens's most memorable effort to see a world in a very small space; a work short by its nature . . . yet curiously at its ease among giants."Download Description
Dicken's classic novel of The French Revolution. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…" ... Read more

Customer Reviews (376)

Best Novel I Have Ever Read
I first read this book when I was in the 12th grade.I think I read the first three chapters and then used Cliff Notes for the rest.I then read it again (or for the first time to be more accurate) five or six years later.Wow, what a difference.I am still blown away at how stupid I was to not recognize how good Dickens is.

The most unforgettable opening and closing sentences ever found in a book!
I will never, the rest of my life forget these two sentences. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness...." and at closing "It is a far, far, better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."

Wow, this is not your usual Dickens. No quirky characters with strange names and laugh out loud moments, just a darn good story -- the story of two cities, London and Paris. It is difficult to put the plot into words, but when the book begins you are in London at the time of the American revolution and spies (or suspected spies) abound, and the story eventually switches to France prior to and during the French revolution.

Dickens does a marvelous job (as always) of building his story one step at a time and slowly peeling back the layers one at a time. This is not a put down and pick it up a week later kind of a book, it is very intense and complicated and you have to pay close attention. I was just floored at how he sucked me in with his descriptions of the mobs, terror and the madness of the revolution leading you to a nail biting finish. I admit to holding my breath during those last few pages!

Highly recommended, and well worth the time to discover (or rediscover) an old classic.

A Good Review
I think this book was great! In the beginning of this book some of the words are French or English, which makes them a little hard to read, but once you get past that it turns into an amazing book.This book is about a daughter who saves her father from insanity and brings him home to England.Years after that day the daughter is married and her husband is asked to come to France (the French Revolution is taking place), but once he gets there he is put on death trial because of his fathers' crimes.In the end of the book the husband is saved and they all go back to England.

A Story Like No Other
A Tale of Two cities is a vivid story of the French Revolution filled with imagery and motifs that are thick in the literature. So many stories collide in as the numerous characters are all connected some way, some how. There's a dramatic love triangle, a revenge story, a recovery from an eighteen year imprisonment and much more.

Charles Dickens writes as someone from his day would, filled with commas and metaphors. For children under thirteen this might be inappropriate, not because of content, but because they might not understand it enough to appreciate all it has to offer. It shows the immoral side of humanity, even though revenge isn't the only purpose. The aristocrats were mercilessly taken from there homes and to La Guillotine.

Motifs such as The Sea, Redemption, Secret Sins, Letters, and many others reinforce what is trying to be demonstrated. They are occurring events or ideas that keep the book interesting. So many of these characters come to their doom and it the affects the reader just as it would if you were actually watching it. Dramatic foreshadowing is also very affecting, but the actual events are even more thrilling.

Overall, I recommend this book to all willing to read, it's a wonderful book to enhance your literary vocabulary. It has tastes for men with its brutal wars and battles, but also has a sense of feminism as the love story will interests the women.

Classic Story of Love and Redemption!
This is easily my second favorite classic novel. Saturated with adventure, love, passion, and redemption, Dickens expertly and eloquently details the lives of many characters all woven together by the golden threads of love during the tumultuous and dangerous French Revolution. A must read! ... Read more

Book Description
Edwin Drood is contracted to marry Orphan Rosa, but they break the engagement off-and soon afterwards Edwin disappears. Is it murder? And is his jealous uncle-a sinister choirmaster with a double life and designs on Rosa-the killer? Dickens died before completing the story, leaving the mystery unsolved and encouraging successive generations of readers to turn detective. In addition to its tantalizing crime, the novel also offers a characteristically Dickensian mix of the fantastical world of the imagination and a vibrantly journalistic depiction of gritty reality.

This edition features a new critical introduction that assesses the evidence to show whether the mystery can truly be solved, as well as a chronology, illustrations, appendixes (including one on opium use in the nineteenth century).

Edited with an introduction and notes by David Paroissien.Download Description
The main issue in the novel is the disappearance of Edwin Drood and the suspicion that he has been murdered. But as intriguing as this central plot are the startling innovations in Dicken's work and the troubled elements lurking within the novel: a dark opium underworld, the uneasy and violent fantasies of its inhabitants, the disquieting presence of old 'Princess Puffer', of the quiet cathedral town of Cloisterham from which people have to escape in order to save themselves--and, at the centre, the menacing figure of Jasper. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Readers Left Stranded: Uninspired and Unfinished.
As a suggestion, avoid the Penguin Popular Classics with the plain green covers (I bought two). They fall apart and do not stand up to a read, especially books over 500 pages - and they have no illustrations. The Regular Penguin Classics with the illustration on the front are excellent, and have maps, illustrations, and extensive analysis - sometimes 100 pages. The Wordsworth Classics are not as good.

I finished Edwin Drood by Dickens and was left scratching my head and wondering why this book is so terrible. After all it is written by Dickens. How can it be so bad?

Dickens has many works and this is down at the bottom of the pile. That is not just my opinion or crazy idea. Currently it ranks below rank #120 for Dickens books, over 110 spots below, for example, Oliver Twist and collections of short stories. That is, there are 120 Dickens novels, DVDs, and collections of stories ahead of it.

Edwin Drood is different. It was written about five years after all the others. It is his last novel. All the sympathetic children are missing here and the story is unfinished, maybe only half written. It is a dark novel in both plot and setting. The characters are mostly around 20 to 30 years in age and relatively lifeless or not fully developed since the novel is half finished. The children - made famous in Dickens novels - are replaced by two drug addicts. Even the villain John Jasper lacks any attraction, nor is he as interesting as other famous Dickens villains such as Uriah Heap in David Copperfield.

Edwin Drood and his fiancée, Rosa Bud, make rather weak appearances, and seem two dimensional. The story, which is set near a large cathedral, seems very gray and somber. The ending - as such as it is - is abrupt and ends in the middle of a page with everything left hanging - and too many questions are simply left unresolved and up in the air.

So, this is an unfinished story and not a very attractive story by comparison to Great Expectations or David Copperfield, or any of the great novels by Dickens. Clearly, the writing is a good in Edwin Drood - since it is Dickens doing the writing - but you need characters and a plot to make it interesting, and most of that is missing.

This is a slow and a mostly dreadful read.

A true mystery
This is a deep and sordid tale, a tale of love and hate and indifference, of drugs and desire and (just possibly) murder. Edwin Drood feels trapped in a betrothal that was engineered by his dead father. Drood's uncle, John Jaspar, secretly loves Drood's fianc?e, Rosa Bud. The newly arrived Neville Landless has also fallen in love with Rosa, and hates Edwin for his indifference to her. And when Edwin disappears under strange and suspicious circumstances, it begins to look like murder. But, there is more here than meets the eye. Who has done what and why? It's a mystery.

And, to make matter worse, it will remain a mystery! This book was Charles Dickens' (1812-1870) last nov