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CHARLES
DICKENS
IMPRESSIVE
COLLECTION
22 MP3 AUDIO BOOKS DVD SET
OVER
412 HOURS OF FULL LENGTH AUDIO BOOKS
ON 3 DVDs
A Child's History of England
16 hours 20
minutes
A Christmas Carol
2 hours 43
minutes
A House to Let
4 hours 12
minutes
A Tale of Two Cities
14 hours 59
minutes
All the Year Round
2 hours 30
minutes
American Notes
11 hours 12
minutes
Barnaby Rudge
24 hours 17
minutes
Bleak House
43 hours 30
minutes
David Copperfield
35 hours 38
minutes
Dombey and Son
40 hours 22
minutes
Great Expectations
20 hours 29
minutes
Hard Times
10 hours 54
minutes
Little Dorrit
36 hours 10
minutes
No
Thoroughfare
5 hours
56 minutes
Oliver
Twist
17 hours
2 minutes
Our
Mutual Friend
35 hours
6 minutes
The
Cricket on the Hearth
3 hours
22 minutes
The
Mystery of Edwin Drood
12 hours
21 minutes
The Old
Curiosity Shop
23 hours
24 minutes
The
Pickwick Papers
32 hours
19 minutes
The Seven
Poor Travellers
1 hour 11
minutes
Three
Ghost Stories
2 hours
10 minutes
BONUS 1
A Child's History of England PDF eBook
A Christmas Carol PDF eBook
A House to Let PDF eBook
A Tale of Two Cities
PDF eBook
All the Year Round
PDF eBook
American Notes
PDF eBook
Barnaby Rudge
PDF eBook
Bleak House
PDF eBook
David Copperfield
PDF eBook
Dombey and Son
PDF eBook
Great Expectations
PDF eBook
Hard Times
PDF eBook
Little Dorrit
PDF eBook
No
Thoroughfare
PDF eBook
Oliver
Twist
PDF eBook
Our
Mutual Friend
PDF eBook
The
Cricket on the Hearth
PDF eBook
The
Mystery of Edwin Drood
PDF eBook
The Old
Curiosity Shop
PDF eBook
The
Pickwick Papers
PDF eBook
The Seven
Poor Travellers
PDF eBook
Three
Ghost Stories
PDF eBook
BONUS 2
Appreciations and Criticisms of
the Works of Charles Dickens by G.K. Chesterton MP3 Audio
Appreciations
and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens by G.K. Chesterton PDF
eBook
Charles Dickens by G.K.
Chesterton MP3 Audio
Charles
Dickens by G.K. Chesterton PDF eBook
Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens
8 hours 27 minutes
Charles
Dickens
7 hours 30 minutes
 Charles
John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870),
pen-name "Boz", was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era and
one of the most popular of all time. He created some of literature's most
memorable characters. His novels and short stories have never gone out of print.
A concern with what he saw as the pressing need for social reform is a theme
that runs throughout his work.
Much of his work first appeared in periodicals
and magazines in serialised form, a favoured way of publishing fiction at the
time. Other writers of the time would complete entire novels before serial
publication commenced, but Dickens often wrote his in parts, in the order in
which they were meant to appear. The practice lent his stories a particular
rhythm, punctuated by one cliffhanger after another to keep the public eager for
the next instalment. Critics and fellow-novelists such as George Gissing
and G. K. Chesterton have applauded Dickens for his mastery of prose, and for
his teeming gallery of unique characters, many of whom have acquired iconic
status in the English-speaking world. Others such as Henry James and Virginia
Woolf have accused him of sentimentality and implausibility.
Legacy
A well-known personality, his novels proved
immensely popular during his lifetime. His first full novel, The Pickwick Papers
(1837), brought him immediate fame, and this success continued throughout his
career. Although rarely departing greatly from his typical "Dickensian" method
of always attempting to write a great "story" in a somewhat conventional manner
(the dual narrators of Bleak House constitute a notable exception), he
experimented with varied themes, characterisations, and genres. Some of these
experiments achieved more popularity than others, and the public's taste and
appreciation of his many works have varied over time. Usually keen to give his
readers what they wanted, the monthly or weekly publication of his works in
episodes meant that the books could change as the story proceeded at the whim of
the public. Good examples of this are the American episodes in Martin Chuzzlewit
which Dickens included in response to lower-than-normal sales of the earlier
chapters. In Our Mutual Friend, the inclusion of the character of Riah was a
positive portrayal of a Jewish character after he was criticised for the
depiction of Fagin in Oliver Twist.
Although his popularity has waned a little since
his death, he continues to be one of the best known and most read of English
authors. At least 180 motion pictures and TV adaptations based on Dickens' works
help confirm his success. Many of his works were adapted for the stage
during his own lifetime and as early as 1913 a silent film of The Pickwick
Papers was made. His characters were often so memorable that they took on a life
of their own outside his books. Gamp became a slang expression for an umbrella
from the character Mrs. Gamp and Pickwickian, Pecksniffian, and Gradgrind all
entered dictionaries due to Dickens' original portraits of such characters who
were quixotic, hypocritical, or emotionlessly logical. Sam Weller, the carefree
and irreverent valet of The Pickwick Papers, was an early superstar, perhaps
better known than his author at first. It is likely that A Christmas Carol
stands as his best-known story, with new adaptations almost every year. It is
also the most-filmed of Dickens' stories, with many versions dating from the
early years of cinema. This simple morality tale with both pathos and its theme
of redemption, sums up (for many) the true meaning of Christmas. Indeed, it
eclipses all other Yuletide stories in not only popularity, but in adding
archetypal figures (Scrooge, Tiny Tim, the Christmas ghosts) to the Western
cultural consciousness. A Christmas Carol was written by Dickens in an attempt
to forestall financial disaster as a result of flagging sales of his novel
Martin Chuzzlewit. Years later, Dickens shared that he was "deeply affected" in
writing A Christmas Carol and the novel rejuvenated his career as a renowned
author.
At a time when Britain was the major economic and
political power of the world, Dickens highlighted the life of the forgotten poor
and disadvantaged at the heart of empire. Through his journalism he campaigned
on specific issues—such as sanitation and the workhouse—but his fiction probably
demonstrated its greatest prowess in changing public opinion in regard to class
inequalities. He often depicted the exploitation and repression of the poor and
condemned the public officials and institutions that not only allowed such
abuses to exist, but flourished as a result. His most strident indictment of
this condition is in Hard Times (1854), Dickens' only novel-length treatment of
the industrial working class. In this work, he uses both vitriol and satire to
illustrate how this marginalised social stratum was termed "Hands" by the
factory owners; that is, not really "people" but rather only appendages of the
machines that they operated. His writings inspired others, in particular
journalists and political figures, to address such problems of class oppression.
For example, the prison scenes in The Pickwick Papers are claimed to have been
influential in having the Fleet Prison shut down. As Karl Marx said, Dickens,
and the other novelists of Victorian England, "...issued to the world more
political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional
politicians, publicists and moralists put together...". The exceptional
popularity of his novels, even those with socially oppositional themes (Bleak
House, 1853; Little Dorrit, 1857; Our Mutual Friend, 1865) underscored not only
his almost preternatural ability to create compelling storylines and
unforgettable characters, but also ensured that the Victorian public confronted
issues of social justice that had commonly been ignored.
His fiction, with often vivid descriptions of
life in nineteenth century England, has inaccurately and anachronistically come
to symbolise on a global level Victorian society (1837 – 1901) as uniformly
"Dickensian", when in fact, his novels' time span spanned from the 1770s to the
1860s. In the decade following his death in 1870, a more intense degree of
socially and philosophically pessimistic perspectives invested British fiction;
such themes stood in marked contrast to the religious faith that ultimately held
together even the bleakest of Dickens' novels. Dickens clearly influenced later
Victorian novelists such as Thomas Hardy and George Gissing; however, their
works display a greater willingness to confront and challenge the Victorian
institution of religion. They also portray characters caught up by social forces
(primarily via lower-class conditions), but they usually steered them to tragic
ends beyond their control.
Novelists continue to be influenced by his books;
for instance, such disparate current writers as Anne Rice, Tom Wolfe, and John
Irving evidence direct Dickensian connections. Humorist James Finn Garner even
wrote a tongue-in-cheek "politically correct" version of A Christmas Carol, and
other affectionate parodies include the Radio 4 comedy Bleak Expectations.
Matthew Pearl's novel The Last Dickens is a thriller about how Charles Dickens
would have ended Edwin Drood. Although Dickens' life has been the subject of at
least two TV miniseries and two famous one-man shows, he has never been the
subject of a Hollywood "big screen" biography.
A TALE OF TWO CITIES
A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is
a historical novel by Charles Dickens; it is moreover a moral novel strongly
concerned with themes of guilt, shame, redemption and patriotism.
The plot centers on the years leading up to French Revolution and culminates in
the Jacobin Reign of Terror. It tells the story of two men, Charles Darnay and
Sydney Carton, who look very alike but are entirely different in character.
The
Seven Poor Travellers
One of Dickens' Christmas stories, this was first
published as part of the Christmas number of Household Words for 1854. The first
chapter relates Dickens' visit to the ancient Richard Watts's Charity at
Rochester. The second chapter is the touching story of "Richard Doubledick",
which Dickens supposedly told the travellers, and Dickens' journey home on
Christmas morning provides the short concluding chapter.
THE PICKWICK PAPERS
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club,
better known as The Pickwick Papers, is the first novel by Charles Dickens.
Written for publication as a serial, The Pickwick Papers consists of a sequence
of loosely-related adventures. Its main literary value and appeal is formed by
its numerous unforgettable heroes. Each personage in The Pickwick Papers (just
as in many other Dickens' novels) is drawn comically, often with exaggerated
features of character.
THREE GHOST STORIES
As a gifted writer with a strong interest in
supernatural phenomena, Charles Dickens produced a string of ghost stories with
enduring charm. Three of them are presented here, of which
The Signal Man is one of the best known. Though quite different from his
most celebrated realistic and humorous critical novels, these ghost stories,
Gothic and grotesque as they are, are of good portrayal, and worth a
read/listen. Summary by Vivian Chan
A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND
A Child's History of England first appeared in
serial form, running from January 25, 1851 to December 10, 1853 and was first
published in three volume book form in 1852, 1853, and 1854. Dickens dedicated
the book to "My own dear children, whom I hope it may help, bye and bye, to read
with interest larger and better books on the same subject". The history covered
the period between 50 BC and 1689, ending with a chapter summarising events from
then until the ascension of Queen Victoria.
NO THOROUGHFARE
Two boys from the Foundling Hospital are given
the same name, with disastrous consequences in adulthood. Two associates,
wishing to right the wrong, are commissioned to find a missing heir. Their quest
takes them from fungous wine cellars in the City of London to the sunshine of
the Mediterranean — across the Alps in winter. Danger and treachery would
prevail were it not for the courage of the heroine and the faithful company
servant.
The story contains crafted descriptions, well-drawn and diverse characters,
eerie and exotic backgrounds, mystery, semi-concealed identities, brinkmanship
with death, romance, the eventual triumph of Good over Evil, and many other
elements expected in classic Dickens.
First published in 1867 there are thematic parallels with other books from
Dickens' mature writings, including Little Dorrit (1857) and especially Our
Mutual Friend (1865). The Listener will decide if this story yields insights
into The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished 1870).
Wilkie Collings collaborated with Charles Dickens to produce this ‘Christmas’
book and the stage play of the same name. In the book Collins assisted in Act 1
and Act 4; Collins scripted most of the stage play with Dickens’ assistance. If
this book were released today it would be splashed "THE BOOK OF THE FILM".
A HOUSE TO LET
A House to Let is a novella originally
published in 1858 in the Christmas edition of Dickens'
Household Words magazine. Each of the contributors wrote a chapter (stories
within a story, and in the case of Adelaide Anne Procter, as a story in verse)
and the whole was edited by Dickens.
The plot concerns an elderly woman, Sophonisba, who notices signs of life in a
supposedly empty dilapidated house (the eponymous "House to Let") opposite her
own, and employs the efforts of an elderly admirer, Jabez Jarber, and her
servant, Trottle, to discover what is happening within.
The
Mystery of Edwin Drood
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by
Charles Dickens. It is a mystery indeed; the serial novel was just half
completed at the time of Dickens' death - leading to much speculation on how it
might have ended.
The novel is named after Edwin Drood, one of the characters, but it mostly tells
the story of his uncle, a choirmaster named John Jasper, who is in love with his
pupil, Rosa Bud. Miss Bud is Drood's fiancée, and has also caught the eye of the
high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless! Landless comes from Ceylon with
his twin sister, Helena. Neville Landless and Edwin Drood take a dislike to one
another the moment they meet.
The story is set in Cloisterham, a lightly fictionalised Rochester (in Kent,
England). Rochester is close to Dicken's country house Gad's Hill Place, where
the final chapter was written and where Dickens died.
LITTLE DORRIT
Born in the Marshalsea Prison for Debtors,
Amy—Little Dorrit—the daughter of the ruined, but self-respectful William Dorrit,
has put her entire heart in caring for her dear father, until one day her humble
path is crossed by Arthur Clennam. Their meeting proves providential not only
for Amy's life, but for the whole Dorrit family, whose new rise will, in many
ways, be also their fall. As in all his novels, in "Little Dorrit" Dickens
ushers us into a fascinating and startlingly rich world of human characters and
destinies, where virtue and nobility cross swords with vice and villainy, where
strength and weakness intertwine with prejudice and magnanimity and where the
author's inspired pen wields a compelling and unforgettable power over the
readers.
OUR MUTUAL FRIEND
Dickens’ last complete novel was published
serially 1864-5. It begins with an intriguing fortune offered to John Harmon by
his late father, a rich dust contractor, in his will.
To receive the money, John must marry a certain Bella Wilfer who he does not
know from Eve. He is returning from the exile enforced by his father and
confides in a ship’s mate who attempts to murder him. The mate gets killed
instead, leaving one inconvenient corpse. Because John is considered dead (the
body is found with his papers), the money passes to Mr Boffin, old Harmon’s
foreman. Harmon adopts Bella and John comes into his employ disguised as John
Rokesmith. Bella does not fall for John but through kindly Boffin’s contrivances
learns to hate money and fall for her suitor under his false name. Eventually
she learns of his true identity as the Boffins had previously, and the
villainous one-legged Silas Wegg’s plot to blackmail Mr Boffin is brought to
light.
There is also a story running behind the main plot about a certain Eugene
Wrayburn and his love for Lizzie Hexam, and his rival’s attempt to murder him.
The two plots are only really connected through the waterside murders but it
allows Dickens to indulge in an extremely socially diverse cast of characters.
DOMBEY AND SON
Charles Dickens the author of Dombey and Son,
originally wrote the book in installments which were published from October 1846
to April 1848 under the title Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son:
Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation.
The story centers around Paul Dombey, the stern owner of the Firm. He is totally
immersed in having his newly born son continue the business, and entirely
neglects his daughter Florence. Tragedy occurs, and Florence’s plight worsens.
As the years go by, Mr. Dombey sees to it that the man she loves, his employee,
is sent far away. Mr Dombey remarries, but his marriage is eventually destroyed,
his fortune gone, he becomes destitute. Finally he accepts help from his
daughter, and life changes for him. Many wonderful characters interweave the
tale, as in all Dickens literary masterpieces.
BARNABY RUDGE
A wayside tavern where the local men drink and
gossip; an unsolved, twenty year old murder at a nearby mansion; a very
talkative black raven; a London locksmith and his family; a man apparently
returned from the dead; a hangman who enjoys his job way too much; an
anti-Catholic lord; a large and violent mob; and the British Militia—what do all
these things have in common? All have, in some way, touched or been touched by
the loveable, young, simple-minded “idiot,” Barnaby Rudge.
Barnaby’s good nature makes him a joy to most who know him Unfortunately, his
eagerness to please and his gullibility make him an easy prey for the
unscrupulous. Can he emerge unscathed when once he gets tangled up with the
wrong crowd?
Once again, Dickens has managed to temper the horrific with his characteristic
wit and humor, as he tells this tale based on the "no-popery" or Gordon riots of
1780.
(Note: If the bird in this story seems familiar, it may be because he was the
inspiration for Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, “The Raven.”)
HARD TIMES
Hard Times, the shortest of Dickens’s full-length
novels, is set in the fictitious Victorian-England city of Coketown, where facts
are the rule and all fancy is to be stamped out. The plot centers around the men
and women of the town, some of whom are beaten down by the city’s utilitarian
ideals and some of whom manage to rise above it. The novel was written in 1854
and was a scathing attack on then-current ideas of utilitarianism, which Dickens
viewed as a selfish and at times oppressive philosophy. Perhaps the novel’s best
features are its clever, ironic narration and the larger-than-life characters
that push the plot forward, such as the upper-class banker and hypocritical
braggart, Josiah Bounderby, and the fact-driven schoolmaster, Thomas Gradgrind.
(Summary by Rosalind Wills).
THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP
The Old Curiosity Shop tells the story of Little
Nell, a beautiful and virtuous young girl who lives with her grandfather in his
shop of curiosities. Her grandfather loves her dearly, and Nell does not
complain, but she lives a lonely existence without friends of her own age. Her
only friend is Kit, an honest young lad who works at the shop, and whom she is
teaching to write. Unbeknownst to Nell, her grandfather is obsessed with their
precarious financial position and is attempting to make Nell a good inheritance
by winning at cards. He keeps these nocturnal activities a secret, but borrows
heavily from the evil Quilp, a dwarf, in order to raise new capital. In the end,
he gambles away what little money they own, and Quilp seizes the opportunity to
take possession of the shop and make Nell’s and her grandfather’s lives a
misery. Indeed, her grandfather suffers a breakdown, which leaves him bereft of
his wits. Courageously, Nell decides to escape Quilp, and she and her
grandfather run away to the country to live as beggars, travelling into the
Midlands of England.
There, then, follow the multifarious adventures of Nell and her grandfather,
Quilp and his sly minions and accomplices, who would be Nell’s vehement pursuers
throughout the entire story, the noble schoolmaster, and many, many other
personages as bright and memorable as Dickens’ heroes always are. But… let us
hear the story itself, shan’t we?
The
Cricket on the Hearth
John Peerybingle, a carrier, lives with his wife
Dot (who is much younger than he), their baby, their nanny Tilly Slowboy, and a
mysterious lodger. A cricket constantly chirps on the hearth and acts as a
guardian angel to the family, at one point assuming a human voice to warn John
that his suspicions that Dot is having an affair with the lodger are wrong.
The life of the Peerybingles frequently intersects with that of Caleb Plummer, a
poor toymaker employed by the miser Mr. Tackleton. Caleb has a blind daughter
Bertha and a son Edward, who travelled to South America and seemingly never
returned. Tackleton is now on the eve of marrying Edward's sweetheart, May.
In the end, the lodger is revealed to be none other than Edward. Tackleton's
heart is melted by the Christmas season, like Ebeneezer Scrooge, and surrenders
May to marry her true love. It is suggested ambiguously that Bertha regains her
sight at the end.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
This classic tale tells of an orphan, Pip, who
through a series of strange circumstances first finds a trade as a blacksmith's
apprentice and then learns that he has "great expectations" of a future
inheritance from an anonymous benefactor. He soon learns to live the profligate
life of a gentleman as he gradually sheds his associations with the gentle souls
of his past, Joe (the blacksmith) and Biddy (a level-headed young lady). He
throws his money at improving the prospects of his roommate and friend Herbert
and his heart at an "ice princess" whose heart will never respond. But then an
escaped convict from his distant past comes calling, and all Pip's hopes
dissolve. (Summary by Mark F. Smith)
DAVID COPPERFIELD
David Copperfield" or "The Personal History,
Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of
Blunderstone Rookery" was first published in 1850. Like all except five of his
works, it originally appeared in serial form. Many elements within the novel
follow events in Dickens' own life, and it is probably the most autobiographical
of all of his novels. It is also Dickens' "favorite child."
OLIVER TWIST
Oliver Twist is an 1838 novel by Charles Dickens.
It was originally published as a serial.
Like most of Dickens' work, the book is used to call the public's attention to
various contemporary social evils, including the workhouse, child labour and the
recruitment of children as criminals. The novel is full of sarcasm and dark
humour, even as it treats its serious subject, revealing the hypocrisies of the
time.
It has been the subject of numerous film and television adaptations, and the
basis for a highly successful British musical, Oliver!
G.K CHESTERTON
G K Chesterton has been described as one of the most unjustly neglected
writers of our time. Born in 1874, he became a journalist and later began
writing books and pamphlets. His work includes novels, literary and social
criticism, political papers and spiritual essays in a style characterised by
enormous wit, paradox, humility and wonder. He converted to Catholicism in
1922 and he explores the nature of spirituality in many of his books and
essays, including the mighty Orthodoxy. Chesterton is one of the few authors
who are genuinely timeless and whose work has as much relevance today as when
it was written.
Charles Dickens by G.K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton was a great admirer of Charles
Dickens, and wrote a noted critique of Dickens' works expressing his opinion in
his own inimitable style.
APPRECIATIONS AND CRITICISMS OF THE WORKS OF
CHARLES DICKENS BY G.K. CHESTERTON
Written with intelligence and
authority, these twenty-three essays provide an insight into the works of the
literary genius of Charles Dickens.
Chesterton greatly admired Dickens as a social prophet and a defender of the
common man. Here, he focuses both on the style and ideology of Dickens and
provides the critical insight into his work with his characteristic perceptive
generosity. Chesterton is still regarded by many as one of the most
accomplished and perceptive critics of Dickens
As much about Chesterton's strongly held beliefs as about Dickens this volume
is sure to inform and give pleasure to advocates of both writers.
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