About this title: Dickens's novel--in its day, one of his most beloved--follows the career of the depraved dwarf Quilp, and introduces poor, innocent Little Nell, who is too good for this world. When Little Nell and her grandfather are forced to flee Quilp's evil clutches, various upright characters try to intervene and save them, but the frail and debilitated Nell dies as the result of her troubles, and her aged grandfather soon follows. The lushly sentimental and prolonged death of Little Nell sent an entire nation into mourning when the novel appeared in serial form.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780140430752ISBN:014043075X
Description: Good. Clean pages. Remainder mark. Cover art varies from that featured. Cover creased/rubbed/soiled from use. 2" open tear top corner first page (About the Ed.). Water damage pages prelim-56 (top margin only) & 693-720 (right margin only). Sev. page corners bent and/or creased. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9781853262449ISBN:1853262447
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Pages are clean and binding is tight. Some wear on cover. Slight discoloration of pages. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. Wordsworth Classics. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Dust Cover Missing. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Dust Cover Missing. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"I know this isn't thought of as one of his better books, but I'm digging it, so far. I'm reading my way, slowly, through Dickens, in chronological order, until it stops being fun. I think a lot of us assume we've read more Dickens than we have, he is so literarily ubiquitous. But oh my God. This guys energy and imagination. ..when you think he cranked this stuff out, plus edited a magazine, plus had a large household who waould all pick up and travel to the continent at the drop of a hat, his amout and the consistent level of his work is really quite something. I get a gardener down the street with a leaf blower and I'm shot for the day..."
"My two biggest issues with this Dickens novel were Nell and Quilp. They were polar opposites, but the thing they shared were their extreme personalities. Nell was so much the wide-eyed, innocent childling, and she was expertly offset by Quilp's dastardly evil, unforgiving and conniving self.
The thing that bothered me about them was that they were as they were presented - there was never a glimmer of an opposite to their personality. Nell never showed an ounce of frustration or anger, and Quilp never showed that he had even a fraction of a heart. Did Nell ever question her lot in life? Did she ever doubt her grandfather's care of her? Did Quilp ever know a twinge of conscience? Was he always the evil little garden gnome that the reader knew?
The saving graces for this story were, for me, Kit and Dick. Again, I had issues with Fred, but found that I was able to look past him as moronic and greedy. I had originally worried that Dick would spend the entirety of the novel being manipulated and misled by Fred, but was more than pleasantly surprised to see his growth as a character. His tendencies to wax poetic throughout the story even became less obnoxious.
Likewise, I was glad to see Kit's transformation. He went from a harmless puppy, eagerly learning his letters at Nell's side and watching out for her when dear old Gramps had his nightly ministrations, to an all-out savior who kept his morality, ideals and honor when things looked most grim.
Again, had it not been for the evolution of Kit and Dick, this story would have buried me. I found I did not believe Nell's "everything's rosy as long as I have Gramps" outlook, and was not shocked to find that the little girl started to grate on my nerves something fierce. And Quilp...well, hell - if ever there was a bit of a bad guy, he played the part perfectly. I also didn't like Fred's ending - it seemed entirely too contrived and convenient, as well as too abrupt, to be believable.
All in all, not one of my favorite Dickens' novels, but I'm glad that I at least read it. I can't say that I really understand the mania that swept Americans and their desire to know Nell's fate, but I guess back then, this was good entertainment, and Nell's plight was their escape."
"Following the publication of Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens started a new publication called Master Humphrey's Clock that was to be a miscellany of selections by various writers including Dickens himself. One of the first short pieces was The Old Curiosity Shop, a Tale of Master Humphrey, but when the public demanded another novel Dickens expanded his concept for this story into his next novel. The Old Curiosity Shop is the story of a young girl, Nell and her Grandfather. Nell is one of Dickens young girls who are beautiful and, in this case, possesses a certain strength. Her Grandfather is addicted to gambling and seems to need the care of Nell more than she needs his care. Her innocence holds some appeal but I have found her appeal is limited and insufficient to hold my interest. Early in the story Nell and her Grandfather leave London due to his indebtedness to an evil dwarf named Daniel Quilp. If this brief outline suggests the melodramatic it is not far from it. The interest of the reader is maintained primarily through Dickens ability to create fascinating evil characters in Quilp and Nell's brother Fred. Quilp seems to be almost satanic in the way his character and physical appearance are described when he is introduced in chapters three and four. Later he is described as engaging in a "demon dance" (p. 170) and when he tells Mrs. Nubbles that he "doesn't eat babies" neither she nor you as the reader are sure that he is telling the truth, although he may prefer to just torment characters rather than actually eat them.
Dickens is effective in creating a mood and establishing contrasting themes of dark and light, night and day, old and young, city and country, big and small and cleanliness and filth; fundamentally depicting a battle between good and evil. Rather than creating another novel that indites social evils like Oliver Twist or Nicholas, Dickens uses biblical allusions and references to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress to establish the story of Nell and her Grandfather as, at least partly, an allegorical tale. Over the next two weeks I will find out what fate holds for this duo and where their peregrinations through the countryside lead them. This was Dickens most popular novel since his original success with Pickwick Papers; I do not share the opinion of those who made it so, but find enough redeeming features to keep me reading."
"HAVING REaD THE BOOK BEFORE THE STORY WAS FAMILIAR, my reading again because of having seen a recent drama series of it; I found it boringly focussed (too much time of story on this), on the wanderings of g-father and young girl Nell. In my opinion Dickens liked to write, to picture poor young girls, 10-16 year olds, in poor circumstances bravely trying to cope with life, in this story ending that part of book on death of the g-father and girl. In other parts of the novel Dickens pictures a dreadful, ugly dwarf, for a time manipulating characters to his wishes, later getting his just punishment by an accidental death; an odd delopment of story is the character D. Swiveller, who first appears as a selfish, odd-ball man easily taken advantage of by others, later becoming a near hero of the story. I'm inclined not to ever read the book again, opinion that it's inferior to some, maybe most of Dickens' other novels."
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