Resultado de "Charles Dickens" em Todas as categorias

Barnaby Rudge, one of only two historical novels by Dickens, deals with the "Popery" riots of 1780. It is read here by one of Britain's most popular readers, Sean Barrett, whose reading of Bleak House was widely praised. This recording is part of the extended Dickens collection offered in both abridged and unabridged form by Naxos AudioBooks.

Christmas is humbug, Scrooge says - just a time when you find yourself a year older and not a penny richer. The only thing that matters to Scrooge is business, and making money. But on Christmas Eve three spirits come to visit him. They take him travelling on the wings of the night to see the shadows of Christmas past, present, and future - and Scrooge learns a lesson that he will never forget.

The Old Curiosity Shop follows the story of Little Nell who lives with her grandfather in his magical shop of curiosities in London. Her grandfather's attempts to secure an inheritance for Nell lead them into financial trouble with the evil dwarf Quilp. Nell manages to flee and lead her grandfather to safety, but with considerable cost to her health.

A chilling collection of ghost stories containing Rats by MR James, The Raven and Berenice by Edgar Allan Poe, The Birthday of the Infanta by Oscar Wilde, A Tough Tussle by Ambrose Bierce and The Signalman by Charles Dickens. In Rats, Mr Thompson comes to regret his decision to investigate a locked room in a country inn, and in The Signalman, the subject of the story is haunted by ghostly appearances that always precede tragic events.

Scrooge! His name has become synonymous with being miserly and miserable, especially at Christmas! A Christmas Carol is the much-loved novella by Charles Dickens which tells Scrooge's story. This mean, misanthropic man is visited by the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley, and then three spirits: the ghosts of Christmas Past, of Christmas Present, and of Christmas Yet to Come.

The Chuzzlewits are a family divided by money and selfishness; even young Martin, the eponymous hero, is arrogant and self-centered. He offends his grandfather by falling in love with the latter’s ward, Mary, and sets out to make his own fortune in life, travelling as far as America – which produces from Dickens a savage satire on a new world tainted with the vices of the old. Martin’s nature slowly changes through his bitter experience of life and his enduring love for Mary.

Dr. Manette has emerged from eighteen years of unjust imprisonment in the Bastille. By an ironic twist of fate, his daughter Lucie's marriage draws the family into a terrifying web of circumstance which, it seems, can only end in death by the guillotine.

The Pickwick Papers, Dickens' first novel, is a glorious romp through the pre-Reform Bill England of 1827. Traveling by stage-coach, the innocent but well-intentioned Pickwick and his equally naive friends, all in search of "interesting scenes and characters," are repeatedly saved from disaster by the resourceful and quick-witted Sam Weller.

In this, perhaps Dickens' most profound and personal novel, we are invited to share in the sentimental education of Pip, the poor boy from the village forge who risks losing himself in snobbery and selfishness when he mysteriously inherits a fortune. The story moves from the bleak Kentish marshes of Pip's childhood to a thrilling climax that mingles tragedy and triumph.

A Christmas Carol is one of Charles Dickens' best loved tales. Ebenezer Scrooge, described as "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner," is certainly no lover of the Christmas season. He is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley, who warns him that he will be visited by three further spirits: The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come.

For the background to this historical novel, a tale of mystery, suspense and unsolved murder, Dickens chose the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots of 1780. Mayhem reigns in the streets of London, vividly described by Dickens, and the innocent Barnaby Rudge is drawn into the thick of it.

When young Edwin Drood disappears, suspicion centers on John Jasper, a drug-addicted choirmaster who hungers after Drood's fiancé. So does Neville Landless, a Ceylonese who has previously quarreled violently with the missing man. The mystery if further enhanced because it was left unfinished at the author's death. Thus the book has challenged the imagination of generations of readers.

Ghost stories continue to be a popular audiobook genre, and this group of four stories brings together some of the best. Reader Stephen Critchelow has spent a lifetime collecting and reading works like these and, with carefully chosen music, brings a strong sense of atmosphere to the recordings.

This critically acclaimed holiday staple about a bitter old man visited by three ghosts in London at Christmas has never been out of print. The work on which this somewhat wry production is based, and that has been adapted often for film, stage, and opera, is a story of redemption, moral concience, and charity. But it is also what its subtitle plainly states: a ghost story.

Oliver Twist, Dickens' second novel, is a thrilling study of childhood innocence thrust into the darkly comic world of Fagin, his apprentice, the Artful Dodger, and their gang of child thieves. Who will help the orphaned Oliver to escape from their clutches and discover his true history?

One of Dickens' earlier novels, dating from 1839, it charts the fortunes of an honourable young man, Nicholas Nickleby, who has set out to make his way in the world. Dickens presents his remarkably vivid display of Victorian characters and the life they lead, from the generous to the fated to crushed. Hope springs eternal, however, and righteous persistence brings rewards.

In this, Dickens' most openly political novel, we discover the terrible human consequences of a ruthlessly materialistic philosophy in the lives of Thomas Gradgrind's family, brought up to believe that only "Facts! Facts! Facts!" have any meaning. Set in Coketown, a typical Lancashire milltown, the novel graphically exposes the truth about Victorian "progress".

When Nicholas befriends Smyke, a physically challenged runaway from a deplorable Yorkshire school, he risks his livelihood and the livelihoods of his sister and mother. Through many hardships and adventures, Nicholas demonstrates that loyalty and integrity can overcome the most devious machinations. Featuring a glorious cast of Dickensian heroes and villains, Nicholas Nickleby is a tour de force Victorian novel.

This is the story of the celebrated Pickwick Club. The members are to report to the club on their journeys, adventures, and observations of characters and manners. Dickens creates a vivid picture of England in taking his characters along the nostalgic highways and byways of this majestic isle. This remarkable first novel made Dickens famous and has remained one of the world's best-known works.

While not being not particularly scary by the standards of today many of the ghost stories of the Victorian Era are very entertaining, and represent escapist literature of the highest quality. In To Be Taken With a Grain of Salt, which first appeared in the 1865 Christmas Edition of All the Year Round, the master novelist presents a lively portrait of the spectre of a murder victim with a desire for vengeance.