Charles Dickens

David Copperfield is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr. Murdstone; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble yet treacherous Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora; and the magnificently impecunious Micawber, one of literature's...

Five tales written for Christmas, 1843 to 1848, combining realism and fantasy. "A Christmas Carol in Prose" makes its ghostly appeal to Scrooge, the hard old miser, and "The Chimes" is a variation of the same motive. "The Cricket on the Hearth" is an idyll of home life, "The Battle of Life", an imaginative deliverance on resignation, "The Haunted Man", a fairy tale with the beauty of kindness for its moral.

Hard Times, Dickens's shortest novel and one of his major triumphs, tells the tragic story of Louisa Gradgrind and her father. No other work of Dickens presents so harsh an indictment against the attitude of life he associated with Utilitarianism. With savage bitterness Dickens exposes the devilish industries and institutions that exploited the bodies and minds of the vulnerable labor class.

Two of Dicken's novels are republished. The first follows a group from the tranquil roads of London to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror. The second follows the life of the orphaned Pip from the wild Kent marshes through a series of events as he abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman.

A miser learns the true meaning of Christmas when three ghostly visitors review his past and foretell his future. Illustrated notes throughout the text explain the historical background of the story.