The Charles Dickens Collection

Collection of (1) Oliver Twist : The only token of identity left by Dicken's dying mother to Oliver Twist – born in the workhouse, and orphaned at birth – is stolen. Spending his early childhood in neglect and near starvation Oliver joins the workhouse at nine, and has early taste of humiliation, injustice, torture, and hunger, as he switches jobs and places from undertaker's boy to trainee pickpocket until he finds shelter, as a wounded child burglar, with Mrs Maylie and her protegee, Rose, by whom he is kindly treated and brought up. But can he escape Fagin, the brutal gang leader of a gang of thieves? Can he discover his parentage? When and how shall the long spell of Oliver's hardship and unhappiness come to an end? (2) A Tale Of Two Cities : A Tale of Two Cities is a highly-charged novel of human suffering and human sacrifice, private experience and public history, during the French Revolution. Charles Dickens' compelling portrait of the results of terror and treason, love and supreme sacrifice continues to captivate readers around the world. (3) Great Expectations : Great Expectations is a superbly constructed novel of spellbinding mystery and is full of comic and tragic twists. It is generally considered to be one of the best masterpieces of Dickens. Pip, an orphan, is brought up by his cranky older sister and her gentle, humorous and kind-hearted husband, Joe Gargery. (4) Hard Times : "“Let us strike the keynote, Coketown, before pursuing our tune... It was a town of machines and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever, and never got uncoiled...” — Hard Times (5) Best Ghost Stories : "Interest in supernatural phenomena was high during the time of Charles Dickens. He was open-minded, willing to accept, and put to test the existence of spirits. Best Ghost Stories contains 14 of Dickens’s most interesting stories, exhibiting the full range of his gothic talents. “The Queer Chair” is a modern fairy story.