Books by Charles Dickens

I was apprenticed to the Sea when I was twelve years old, and I have encountered a great deal of rough weather, both literal and metaphorical. It has always been my opinion since I first possessed such a thing as an opinion, that the man who knows only one subject is next tiresome to the man who knows no subject. Therefore, in the course of my life I have taught myself whatever I could, and although I am not an educated man, I am able, I am thankful to say, to have an intelligent interest in most things.A person might suppose, from reading the above, that I am in the habit of holding forth about number one. That is not the case. Just as if I was to come into a roomamong strangers, and must either be introduced or introduce myself, so I have taken the liberty of passing these few remarks, simply and plainly that it may be known who and what I am. I will add no more of the sort than that my name is William George Ravender, that I was born at Penrith half a year after my own father was drowned, and that I am on the second day of this present blessed Christmas week of one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, fifty-six years of age.

In his "Ghostly little book," Charles Dickens invents the modern concept of Christmas Spirit and offers one of the world''s most adapted and imitated stories.

The traditional Christmas classic by Charles Dickens adapted for the stage by award-winning playwright Gary Owen.

The Old Curiosity Shop tells the story of Nell Trent, a beautiful and virtuous young girl of "not quite fourteen". An orphan, she lives with her maternal grandfather (whose name is never revealed) in his shop of odds and ends. Her grandfather loves her dearly, and Nell does not complain, but she lives a lonely existence with almost no friends her own age. Her only friend is Kit, an honest boy employed at the shop, whom she is teaching to write. Secretly obsessed with ensuring that Nell does not die in poverty as her parents did, her grandfather attempts to provide Nell with a good inheritance through gambling at cards.

A Victorian master of tales from beyond the veilThe works of Charles Dickens are justifiably famous and timeless classics. His most famous ghostly tale, 'A Christmas Carol' has become THE Christmas ghost story and has been filmed and dramatised for the stage and radio on numerous occasions. It is also well known that Dickens had a particular palate for the fiction of the strange, other worldly and bizarre, indeed there have been collections of his strange and weird tales published in the past. This special Leonaur collection is different containing, perhaps, an unprecedented 35 novellas, novelettes and short stories within two coordinating volumes available in soft cover and hard cover with dust jackets.Volume one contains the evergreen 'A Christmas Carol,' the novella 'A House to Let' and nineteen short stories including 'Well-Authenticated Rappings,' 'Lying Awake,' 'The Queer Chair,' 'The Black Veil,' 'The Goodwood Ghost' and the renowned 'The Signalman'-among many others. This may be the essential Dickens Ghost Story collection and will be a joy to his many enthusiastic readers.