'Please, Mr Murdstone! Don't beat me! I've tried to learn my lessons, really I have, sir!' sobs David. Although he is only eight years old, Mr Murdstone does beat him, and David is so frightened that he bites his cruel stepfather's hand. For that, he is kept locked in his room for five days and nigh[...]

'What was merry Christmas to Scrooge? Out upon merry Christmas! What good had it ever done to him?' Ebenezer Scrooge is a bad-tempered skinflint who hates Christmas and all it stands for, but a ghostly visitor foretells three apparitions who will thaw Scrooge's frozen heart. A Christmas Carol ha[...]

Reprinting the original 1850 text, this work also includes Dickens' plans for serialization in "All the Year Round". It includes excerpts from Dickens' letters which should lead to an understanding of the genesis of the novel, as well as Phiz's line drawings. The background section includes an autob[...]

21 captivating scenes include a terrified Scrooge confronted by Marley's ghost and Christmas dinner with the Cratchits, accompanied by Dickens's own specially abridged text.
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As uplifting as the tale of Scrooge itself, this is the story of how Charles Dickens revived the signal holiday of the Western world. Soon to be a major motion picture. Just before Christmas in 1843, a debt-ridden and dispirited Charles Dickens wrote a small book he hoped would keep his creditors a[...]

In a churchyard, a grizzled convict springs upon a poor orphan boy named Pip and threatens to kill him unless Pip helps further his escape. Later, Pip meets the wealthy and crazy Miss Havisham and her foster child, Estella, with whom he falls in love. After a secret benefactor gives him a fortune, P[...]

Using only Charles Dickens' extraordinary words and a chameleon ensemble of eight actors, Neil Bartlett's powerful stage version of this much-loved story brings its settings and characters to thrilling theatrical life. From its opening image of little Pip, alone on the windswept marshes, to the haun[...]

The innocent orphan Oliver is thrust into the darkly comic world of Fagin, his apprentice the Artful Dodger, and their gang of child thieves.[...]

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule.' Living with his sister and her husband, Pip is an orphan without any expectations. It is only when he begins to visit a rich old woman,[...]

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...' Set before and during the French Revolution in the cities of Paris and London, A Tale of Two Cities tells the story of Dr Manette's release from imprisonment in[...]

'The one great principle of the English law is, to make business for itself'. 'Jarndyce and Jardyce' is an infamous lawsuit that has been in process for generations. Nobody can remember exactly how the case started but many different individuals have found their fortunes caught up in it. Esther Summ[...]