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Now you can dip into Dickens’s gallery of characters with this specially priced set of eight novels spanning his extraordinary writing career:
In 1824, young Charles was withdrawn from school and forced to work at a boot-blacking factory when his improvident father, accompanied by his mother and siblings, was sentenced to three months in a debtor's prison. Once they were released, Charles attended a private school for three years. The young man then became a solicitor's clerk, mastered shorthand, and before long was employed as a Parliamentary reporter. When he was in his early twenties, Dickens began to publish stories and sketches of London life in a variety of periodicals.
It was the publication of Pickwick Papers (1836-1837) that catapulted the twenty-five-year-old author to national renown. Dickens wrote with unequaled speed and often worked on several novels at a time, publishing them first in monthly installments and then as books. His early novels Oliver Twist (1837-1838), Nicholas Nickleby (1838-1839), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1841), and A Christmas Carol (1843) solidified his enormous, ongoing popularity. As Dickens matured, his social criticism became increasingly biting, his humor dark, and his view of poverty darker still. David Copperfield (1849-1850), Bleak House (1852-1853), Hard Times (1854), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1860-1861), and Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865) are the great works of his masterful and prolific period.
In 1858 Dickens's twenty-three-year marriage to Catherine Hogarth dissolved when he fell in love with Ellen Ternan, a young actress. The last years of his life were filled with intense activity: writing, managing amateur theatricals, and undertaking several reading tours that reinforced the public's favorable view of his work but took an enormous toll on his health. Working feverishly to the last, Dickens collapsed and died on June 8, 1870, leaving The Mystery of Edwin Drood uncompleted.
Author biography from the Barnes & Noble Classics edition of David Copperfield.
Anonymous
Posted May 3, 2010
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This collection from Barnes and Nobles is perfect for those of us who love the classics. There are a few Dickens books missing that I would have liked to see in this set, but for the money this is a good as it gets. Barnes and Nobles makes great quality paperbacks, so I don't really mind these books not being in hardback. Truly, this is a perfect collection and an oppurtunity that shouldn't be missed.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Virtuoso30
Posted March 27, 2010
I bought this pack for leisure reading AND nostalgia considering I have been a fan of Dickens since my Engligh teacher gave me Great Expectations at the age of 8! Great buy, great value for the money and an amazing read!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Aethelred
Posted February 16, 2010
This is a superb Dickens set for the price. It contains all of the books that the average reader would want to read, and they are of good quality (for paperbacks) and are pleasant looking inside and out. I would have liked to see the Pickwick Papers in this set, but otherwise I am very happy with the content. My only other gripe is the cover used on Oliver Twist, I don't understand why B&N would use a mid 20th Century photo on the cover of a book set 100 years before, but of course this is a very small complaint as I love this set.
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Overview
Beloved by readers the world over, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was the second of eight children in a family burdened with financial troubles. Despite difficult early years, he went on to become the most successful British writer of the Victorian age -- and possibly the greatest novelist England ever produced. Drawing on his own life experiences as well as things he witnessed as a young Parliamentary reporter, he created some of the most repugnant villains in literature, as well as some of the most likeable (and unlikely) heroes.Now you can dip into Dickens’s gallery of characters with...