The classic novel about the French Revolution and its effect upon the lives of several individuals, both French and English.

Hard Times, by Charles Dickens, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies of contemporary...

The novel "Little Dorrit", published originally between 1855 and 1857, is a work of satire on the shortcomings of the government and society of the period. Much of Dickens' ire is focused upon the institutions of debtor's prisons-in which people who owed money were imprisoned, unable to work, until they have repaid their debts. The representative prison in this case is the Marshalsea where the author's own father had been imprisoned. Most of Dickens'...

Regarded by Charles Dickens as his best novel upon publication, "Martin Chuzzlewit" relates a tale of familial selfishness and eventual moral redemption. First published serially from 1842 to 1844, it is the story of young Martin Chuzzlewit, who has been raised by his grandfather. He has fallen in love with his grandfather's ward and caretaker, the young orphan Mary Graham. Martin's grandfather does not approve and young Martin alienates himself from...

Fully entitled "Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty," this novel was Dickens' first attempt at a historical novel. As such, it is the precursor to his more famous "A Tale of Two Cities", in which his exploration of mob violence, and especially the effect of public events on individual lives, becomes apparent. This work centers on Barnaby Rudge, a mentally simple son, and his loving mother, who are a part of the small village of Epping Forest,...

The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain Charles Dickens - The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain, A Fancy for Christmas-Time (better known as The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain or simply as The Haunted Man) is a novella by Charles Dickens first published in 1848. It is the fifth and last of Dickens's Christmas novellas. The story is more about the spirit of Christmas than about the holiday itself, harking back to the first in the series, A Christmas...

"First published serially in 1840 -- 41 in Dickens' own magazine, Master Humphrey's Clock , and in book form in 1841, The Old Curiosity Shop was an immediate popular success. The heart-wrenching story of Little Nell and her doting grandfather offered a rich amalgam of misery and malice, goodness and generosity, love and loyalty -- all with a pervading veneer of sentimentality that greatly appealed to Victorian readers. As the story opens up, Nell...

In this short story by four great Victorian authors, a woman's fascination with an abandoned house reveals mystery and intrigue within. Written by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Adelaide Anne Procter, "A House to Let" tells the story of an elderly woman who moves to London for a change of scenery. Fascinated by signs of life emanating from a supposedly abandoned house, she entreats two rival helpers to investigate. On their...

En una época llena de moralismos y reglas, con prejuicios exagerados, prohibiciones severas y valores «puritanos», donde los formalismos religiosos eran deberes incuestionables, surge una obra que cae como balde de agua fría sobre el orgulloso Imperio británico. En forma de sátira y crítica frontal a las instituciones que operaban como una industria del hambre, de la mortandad, del suplicio y del abuso descarado envuelto en la hipocresía,...

A lonely old man in early nineteenth-century London hits upon the idea of inviting acquaintances over to read their manuscripts together. The friends gather one night a week between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., and with the formation of their fictional literary club, Charles Dickens launched Master Humphrey's Clock, a weekly periodical that he published from 1840 to 1841. Recounted with the author's customary flair for humor and pathos, the tales range from...