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A Tale of Two Cities / A Christmas Carol / The Cricket on the Hearth
A Tale of Two Cities
In this great novel Charles Dickens spares us no detail of the day-to-day horrors of the French Revolution. But injustice and tragedy hit the Manette family earlier when the Marquis de St. Evremonde imprisons Lucie's father for eighteen years in the Bastille. On his release Dr. Manette is nearly demented and does not realize that Lucie is his daughter. In England Lucie slowly nurses him back to life before she is inexorably caught up in the terrifying events of the revolution in Paris culminating in her husband's sentence to the guillotine.
A Christmas Carol
Scrooge's mean and miserly reputation is well-known amongst his acquaintances and no-one suffers more from his penny-pinching ways than Bob Cratchit, his ill-used clerk. But on Christmas Eve, old Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Marley, his late partner in business who shows him terrifying visions of the past, present and future including one of what his own death will be like unless hie is quick to mend his ways.
The Cricket on the Hearth
John Peerybingland his young wife Dot are perfectly happy - that is until John catches Dot in conversation with a handsome young stranger and begins to doubt hs wife's love for him. But with the help of the cricket (who has always brought them luck in the past) and in spite of old Tackleton's venomous comments, John is brought round do forgive his wife and then discovers there is no occasion for forgiveness.
(jacket flap)
In this great novel Charles Dickens spares us no detail of the day-to-day horrors of the French Revolution. But injustice and tragedy hit the Manette family earlier when the Marquis de St. Evremonde imprisons Lucie's father for eighteen years in the Bastille. On his release Dr. Manette is nearly demented and does not realize that Lucie is his daughter. In England Lucie slowly nurses him back to life before she is inexorably caught up in the terrifying events of the revolution in Paris culminating in her husband's sentence to the guillotine.
A Christmas Carol
Scrooge's mean and miserly reputation is well-known amongst his acquaintances and no-one suffers more from his penny-pinching ways than Bob Cratchit, his ill-used clerk. But on Christmas Eve, old Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Marley, his late partner in business who shows him terrifying visions of the past, present and future including one of what his own death will be like unless hie is quick to mend his ways.
The Cricket on the Hearth
John Peerybingland his young wife Dot are perfectly happy - that is until John catches Dot in conversation with a handsome young stranger and begins to doubt hs wife's love for him. But with the help of the cricket (who has always brought them luck in the past) and in spite of old Tackleton's venomous comments, John is brought round do forgive his wife and then discovers there is no occasion for forgiveness.
(jacket flap)
622 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1980
1 person is currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Charles Dickens
12.9k books31.4k followersCharles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.
Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.
(from Wikipedia)
Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.
(from Wikipedia)
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