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 Books by Charles Dickens (7 Items)
Charles Dickens was born in a little house in Landport, Portsea, England, on February 7, 1812. The second of eight children, he grew up in a family frequently beset by financial insecurity. At age eleven, Dickens was taken out of school and sent to work in London backing warehouse, where his job was to paste labels on bottles for six shillings a week. His father John Dickens, was a warmhearted but improvident man. When he was condemned the Marshela Prison for unpaid debts, he unwisely agreed that Charles should stay in lodgings and continue working while the rest of the family joined him in jail. This three-month separation caused Charles much pain; his experiences as a child alone in a huge city–cold, isolated with barely enough to eat–haunted him for the rest of his life.
When the family fortunes improved, Charles went back to school, after which he became an office boy, a freelance reporter and finally an author. With Pickwick Papers (1836-7) he achieved immediate fame; in a few years he was easily the post popular and respected writer of his time. It has been estimated that one out of every ten persons in Victorian England was a Dickens reader. Oliver Twist (1837), Nicholas Nickleby (1838-9) and The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41) were huge successes. Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-4) was less so, but Dickens followed it with his unforgettable, A Christmas Carol (1843), Bleak House (1852-3), Hard Times (1854) and Little Dorrit (1855-7) reveal his deepening concern for the injustices of British Society. A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1860-1) and Our Mutual Friend (1864-5) complete his major works.
Dickens’s marriage to Catherine Hoggarth produced ten children but ended in separation in 1858. In that year he began a series of exhausting public readings; his health gradually declined. After putting in a full day’s work at his home at Gads Hill, Kent on June 8, 1870, Dickens suffered a stroke, and he died the following day.
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American Notes
By Charles Dickens
( 1976 Books on Tape, Inc.)
Read by Angela Cheyne (Brit.)
Classics > Fiction
Book Rating:
(Not yet rated)
Format: Audio Download (Unabridged)
An account of Dickens' first trip to the United States in 1842.
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Nicholas Nickleby
By Charles Dickens
( 1982 Books on Tape, Inc.)
Read by Wanda Mccaddon (Brit.)
Classics > Fiction
Book Rating:
(Not yet rated)
Format: Audio Download (Unabridged)
An unlikely young man makes good in the theatre despite his years at the hands of a cruel schoolmaster. Dickens displays his comic genius.
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Tale of Two Cities
By Charles Dickens
( 2002 Books on Tape, Inc.)
Read by John Lee (Brit.)
Classics > Fiction
Book Rating:
(Not yet rated)
Format: CD (Unabridged)
A tableau of the French Revolution, with all the injustices that attend it. Newly re-recorded.
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Oliver Twist
By Charles Dickens
( 2002 Books on Tape, Inc.)
Read by John Lee (Brit.)
Classics > Fiction
Book Rating:
(Not yet rated)
Format: CD (Unabridged)
The harrowing tale of a young London orphan who is kidnapped by a gang of thieves and pickpockets. Newly re-recorded.
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Great Expectations
By Charles Dickens
( 2002 Books on Tape, Inc.)
Read by John Lee (Brit.)
Classics > Fiction
Book Rating:
(Not yet rated)
Format: Tape (Unabridged) or CD (Unabridged)
The orphan Pip inherits a mysterious fortune and comes of age as he deals with its consequences. Newly re-recorded.
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A Christmas Carol
By Charles Dickens
( 2003 Random House, Inc.)
Read by Jim Dale (Brit.)
Young Readers > Ages 9-12
Book Rating:
(Not yet rated)
Format: CD (Unabridged)
Grammy Award winner Jim Dale lends his talented voice to this well- loved classic.
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Bleak House
By Charles Dickens
( 1992 Books on Tape, Inc.)
Read by David Case (Brit.)
Classics > Fiction - Historical
Book Rating:
(Not yet rated)
Format: Tape (Unabridged)
The futility of law, the hardships of children, mystery and romance all combined by a master.
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