The Complete Works of Charles Dickens (in 30 Volumes Illustrated): The Old Curiosity Shop Vol. I

It is impossible to overstate the importance of British novelist CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) not only to literature in the English language but to Western civilization on the whole. He is arguably the first fiction writer to have become an international celebrity. He popularized episodic fiction and the cliffhanger which had a profound influence on the development of film and television. He is entirely responsible for the popular image of Victorian London that still lingers today and his characters-from Oliver Twist to Ebenezer Scrooge from Miss Havisham to Uriah Heep-have become not merely iconic but mythic. But it was his stirring portraits of ordinary people-not the upper classes or the aristocracy-and his fervent cries for social moral and legal justice for the working poor and in particular for poor children in the grim early decades of the Industrial Revolution that powerfully impacted social concerns well into the 20th century. Without Charles Dickens we may never have seen the likes of Sherlock Holmes Upton Sinclair or even Bob Dylan. Here in 30 beautiful volumes-complete with all the original illustrations-is every published word written by one of the most important writers ever. The essential collectors set will delight anyone who cherishes English literature...and who takes pleasure in constantly rediscovering its joys. This volume contains Part I of The Old Curiosity Shop which was originally serialized in Dickenss own periodical Master Humphreys Clock in 1840 and 1841. The story of the orphan Nell Trent who lives with her grandfather in the establishment by which the book takes its name it is both beloved and disparaged for Dickenss treatment of as Oscar Wilde famously termed it the death of little Nell the suspense surrounding which was comparable to the Harry Potter phenomenon of today.