Charles Dickens :: A Life Documented

Architectural Sculpture Bookend of the Charles Dickens House By Timothy Richards

Amazon Price: (as of 02/16/2012)

Charles Dickens published Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby while living at 48 Doughty Street. He is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest and most influential English writers in the Victorian era with novels illustrating the characters and life of Victorian London which raised public awareness of the appalling conditions that the 19th century working class, and in particular children, had to endure. He wrote fifteen major novels and countless short stories. He is buried in Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey. Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870) remains one of the world's greatest writers. This is one of a series of fine Architectural models made by world-renowned artist, Timothy Richards. These models are made with plaster and other traditional construction materials including lead, acid-etched brass, glass, copper and gold leaf. Each model is individually hand-made in Timothy's studio and workshop in Bath in England.
Individual, hand-crafted work of art
Made with traditional construction materials, NOT resin-molded
Made with traditional construction materials, NOT resin-molded
3 1/2" wide by 7" high by 2" deep
Weighs over 3 lbs

Sketches by Boz (Penguin Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $10.00 (as of 02/16/2012)

We commenced our last chapter with the beadle of our parish, because we are deeply sensible of the importance and dignity of his office. We will begin the present, with the clergyman. Our curate is a young gentleman of such prepossessing appearance, and fascinating manners, that within one month after his first appearance in the parish, half the young-lady inhabitants were melancholy with religion, and the other half, desponding with love.

The Pickwick Papers (Penguin Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $5.99 (as of 02/16/2012)

The first ray of light which illumines the gloom, and converts into a dazzling brilliancy that obscurity in which the earlier history of the public career of the immortal Pickwick would appear to be involved, is derived from the perusal of the following entry in the Transactions of the Pickwick Club, which the editor of these papers feels the highest pleasure in laying before his readers, as a proof of the careful attention, indefatigable assiduity, and nice discrimination, with which his search among the multifarious documents confided to him has been conducted.

The Pickwick Papers

Amazon Price: $6.75 (as of 02/16/2012)

Mr. Samuel Pickwick a retired businessman is determined that after a quiet life of enterprise the time has come to set off on an unforgettable excursion accompanied by his three friends - Nathaniel Winkle who fancies himself as a sportsman Augustus Snodgrass a passionately natured poet and Tracy Tupman a plump bachelor who is quite fond of the ladies. The four ramblers travel through the English countryside seeking all forms of adventure and getting into trouble wherever possible.

Charles Dickens Writer Framed Art Poster Print by W. Reynolds, 27x33

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Print Title: Charles Dickens Writer
Artist: W. Reynolds
Size: 27 x 33 inches

Oliver Twist (Penguin Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $4.69 (as of 02/16/2012)

Oliver Twist was Dickens's second novel and one of his darkest, dealing with burglary, kidnapping, child abuse, prostitution, and murder. Alongside this gallery of horrors are the corrupt and incompetent institutions of 19th-century England set up to address social problems and instead making them worse. The author's moral indignation drives the creation of some of his most memorably grotesque characters: squirming, vile Fagin; brutal Bill Sykes; the brooding, sickly Monks; and Bumble, the pompous and incorrigibly dense beadle.

Oliver Twist (2005)

Amazon Price: $6.18 (as of 02/16/2012)

Roman Polanski directs the classic Charles Dickens story of a young orphan boy who gets involved with a gang of pickpockets in 19th Century London. Abandoned at an early age, Oliver Twist (Barney Clark) is forced to live in a workhouse lorded over by the awful Mr. Bumble, who cheats the boys of their meager rations. Desperate yet determined, Oliver makes his escape to the streets of London. Penniless and alone, he is lured into a world of crime by the sinister Fagin (Academy-Award® winner Sir Ben Kingsley) -- the mastermind of a gang of pint-sized pickpockets. Oliver's rescue by the kindly Mr. Brownlow is only the beginning of a series of adventures that lead him to the promise of a better life.

Oliver Twist (The Criterion Collection)

Amazon Price: $27.01 (as of 02/16/2012)

Expressionistic noir photography suffuses David Lean's Oliver Twist with a nightmarish quality, fitting its bleak, industrial setting. In Dickens' classic tale, an orphan wends his way from cruel apprenticeship to den of thieves in search of a true home. Here Alec Guinness is the quintessential Fagin, his controversial performance fully restored in Criterion's new digital transfer.

Oliver!

Amazon Price: $5.64 (as of 02/16/2012)

Film buffs and critics can argue until their faces turn blue about whether this lavish Dickensian musical deserved the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1968, but the movie speaks for itself on grandly entertaining terms. Adapted from Dickens's classic novel, it's one of the most dramatically involving and artistically impressive musicals of the 1960s, directed by Carol Reed with a delightful enthusiasm that would surely have impressed Dickens himself. Mark Lester plays the waifish orphan Oliver Twist, who is befriended by the pickpocketing Artful Dodger (Jack Wild) and recruited into the gang of boy thieves led by Fagin (played to perfection by Ron Moody). The villainous Bill Sikes (Oliver Reed) casts his long shadow over Oliver and his friends, but the young orphan is still able to find loving care in the most desperate of circumstances. Full of memorable melodies and splendid lyrics, Oliver! is a timeless film, prompting even hard-to-please critic Pauline Kael to call it "a superb demonstration of intelligent craftsmanship," and to further observe that "it's as if the movie set out to be a tribute to Dickens and his melodramatic art as well as to tell the story of Oliver Twist."

Oliver Twist (Masterpiece Theatre, 1999)

Amazon Price: $10.50 (as of 02/16/2012)

In this extraordinary production, storyteller Alan Bleasdale broadens the scope of Charles Dickens' classic tale of an orphan in 19th century England-and the characters who influence his destiny.
Oliver's mother, Agnes, struggles against the tragic circumstances that ultimately leave Oliver a penniless orphan. At the Parish Workhouse, he is forced by other boys to ask for more food, and as a result, is sold as an apprentice to a miserly undertaker. He runs away and is taken in by master thief Fagin, who is in league with a murderous pair determined to see that Oliver never inherits the fortune he deserves. Life twists and turns again and again for Oliver, landing him in alternately dangerous and hopeful circumstances.

Oliver Twist is a drama of dark comedy, astonishing vivacity and soaring imagination, but ultimately, it is a story that celebrates the resilience and triumph of a little boy's spirit.

Special DVD features include: materials and activities for educators; a link to the Masterpiece Theatre Web site; closed captions; and described video for the visually impaired.

On three DVD5 discs. Region coding: All regions. Audio: Dolby stereo. Screen format: Letterboxed.

Oliver Twist, BBC: 1985

Amazon Price: $6.83 (as of 02/16/2012)

The classic story of the poor orphan Oliver experiences the terror and brutality of the criminal world with his companions: a pickpocket a thief a prostitute and a fence. Born and raised in the appalling deprivation of the workhouse the orphan Oliver escapes only to fall in with a gang of child thieves. Oliver's rescue by the kindly Mr. Brownlow is only the beginning of a series of adventures that lead him to an incredible discovery.

Professionally Framed English lithographer around 1840 (Pollock figurines and scenes of "Oliver Twist") Art Poster Print - 13x19 with RichAndFramous Black Wood Frame

Amazon Price: $85.00 (as of 02/16/2012)

Nicholas Nickleby (Penguin Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $3.99 (as of 02/16/2012)

Left penniless by the death of his improvident father, young Nicholas Nickleby assumes responsibility for his mother and sister and seeks help from his Scrooge-like Uncle Ralph. Instantly disliking Nicholas, Ralph sends him to teach in a school run by the stupidly sadistic Wackford Squeers. Nicholas decides to escape, taking with him the orphan Smike, one of Squeers's most abused young charges, and the two embark on a series of adventurous encounters with an array of humanity's worst and best-greedy fools, corrupt lechers, cheery innocents, and selfless benefactors.

Though one of Dickens's earliest works, Nicholas Nickleby features many of his familiar trademarks: a long, complex plot full of surprising twists, unexpected revelations, and jaw-dropping coincidences; a crowded cast of colorful (and memorably named) characters, among them Vincent Crummles, Newman Noggs, and Sir Mulberry Hawk; and an emotionally potent mix of wildly exuberant comedy, deeply moving melodrama, and passionate social criticism fueled by Dickens's own childhood experiences of poverty and injustice.

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

Amazon Price: $44.63 (as of 02/16/2012)

Yes, it's nine hours long. Yes, it's Charles Dickens, he of the 900-page novels you had to read in high school. And, yes, it's a film of a play. But the Royal Shakespeare Company's Tony Award-winning 1981 production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby at London's Old Vic Theatre was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and those of us who missed its Emmy-winning PBS broadcast can be thankful for A&E's superb video boxed set. Dickens's story of greed, poverty, and cruelty in Victorian England is handled deftly by director Jim Goddard and set designer John Napier, who never deny their film's staginess but instead seek to exploit it, unafraid to show the viewer the skeletal nature of the theater and, in one instance, boldly using actors as props. The RSC makes excellent use of this mise en scène, bringing to life Dickens's characters with intensity, verve, and just the right notes of melodrama--this being a Dickens story, after all.
Roger Rees plays the young, earnest Nicholas, whose father's death prompts him; his sister, Kate (Emily Richard); and their mother (Jane Downs) to make their way to London to seek out the financial assistance of Nicholas's cold, calculating uncle, Ralph Nickleby (played to scowly perfection by John Woodvine). Ralph grudgingly provides his nephew with employment at a Yorkshire school for abandoned boys under the cartoonishly vile Wackford Squeers (Alun Armstrong), but Nicholas can't stomach the physical abuse Squeers heaps on his students. After lashing out at the sadistic schoolmaster during a particularly savage beating of a child, Nicholas escapes the school, taking with him the most wretched of the young creatures, a limping, crooked-backed boy named Smike (played heart-wrenchingly by David Threlfall). The story unfolds from there, with the now-itinerant Nicholas forced to make his way in the world while adhering to his principles and protecting Kate and their mother from his scheming uncle, who is eventually forced to come to terms with his emotions in the story's shocking conclusion. Typically Dickensian, the characters are neatly divided between good and evil, with little ambiguity. Still, each of the 39 actors in the ensemble does a wonderful job, making it a production that figures to linger in the memory long after you're done clapping. --Steve Landau

Nicholas Nickleby

Amazon Price: $49.00 (as of 02/16/2012)

A vengeful uncle, a headmaster from hell, upper-class wastrels and twin benefactors. These are just some of the larger-than-life Dickens' characters portrayed to perfection in this lavish new production from Britain's Channel Four. Featuring Charles Dance (The Jewel in the Crown) as Ralph Nickleby, the wealthy and cold-hearted uncle whom Nicholas (James D'Arcy) and his sister Kate (Sophia Myles) turn to when their father's death leaves them destitute. Nicholas eagerly takes on a teaching job at a boy's boarding school, but flees after rebelling against the unspeakable horrors there. Meanwhile, his sister's beauty attracts menacing attention from a group of rich, boorish swells. With powerful enemies marshaled against him, Nicholas struggles to find his way in the world and rescue his family. DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE: cast filmographies, Charles Dickens materials and scene index.

Nicholas Nickelby

Amazon Price: $9.99 (as of 02/16/2012)

After the death of his father, Nicholas Nickleby (Derek Bond), and his mother (Mary Merrall) and sister (Sally Ann Howes) are cared for by his greedy uncle Ralph (Cedric Hardwicke), who accepts the duty rather unwillingly. Ralph arranges for Nicholas to get a job at a notoriously brutal school for boys, where he befriends one of the ill-treated students, Smike. He and Smike flee the school and join a theatrical troop. Nicholas then has to protect Smike, while trying to stop his Uncle Ralph from taking advantage of his sister and later his sweetheart, Madeline Bray, whose father is in debtors prison.

Nicholas Nickleby

Amazon Price: $9.30 (as of 02/16/2012)

The BBC brought this Charles Dickens adaptation to the screen with a young Nigel Havers (CHARIOTS OF FIRE) starring as the title character.

Fanny Squeers And Nicholas Nickleby From Dickens Print

Amazon Price: $24.99 (as of 02/16/2012)

VINTAGE PRINT from . CHARACTER SKETCHES FROM DICKENS 1924 . PLATES IN COLOUR BY HAROLD COPPING . size 10.5 x 7.5 ( 265 x 190 )

The Old Curiosity Shop (Penguin Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $5.88 (as of 02/16/2012)

Nell is on her way home to the dusty shop where she and her grandfather live a rather mysterious life. The old man disappears every night--visiting gambling dens with the naive hope of winning a fortune. Instead he sinks deeper and deeper into debt. Enter Daniel Quilp, moneylender, who becomes furious upon learning that the grandfather is a pauper and will never be able to repay his tremendous debt. Quilp seizes the curiosity shop and begins making lecherous overtures to Nell, so she and her grandfather steal away one morning to seek their fortunes elsewhere. But the demonic dwarf is never far behind.

The Old Curiosity Shop

Amazon Price: $10.63 (as of 02/16/2012)

In this definitive BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens classic a thirteen year-old girl lives with her gambling-addicted grandfather in a run down London antique shop. Starring Natalie Ogle Sebastian Shaw Chris Fairbank Trevor Peacock Colin Jeavons. System Requirements:Running Time 270 Mins.

The Old Curiosity Shop/Great Expectations

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Two Great Dickens' Novels Brought to Life
the Old Curiosity Shop
No other author in the English language is as adept as Charles Dickens at making characters leap from the pages of his novels, and The Old Curiosity Shop is no exception. An intricate tapestry of good and evil, its main character is a kindhearted man who is haunted by the vices within him.

Great Expectations
Charles Dickens' immortal tale of Pip, an orphan given the opportunity to break free from poverty to live life as an educated gentleman.

The Charles Dickens Collection, Vol. 2 (David Copperfield / The Pickwick Papers / The Old Curiosity Shop / Dombey and Son)

Amazon Price: $38.93 (as of 02/16/2012)

For Dickens aficionados who own the first DVD Collection, but still want some more, this four-disc set collects four sterling BBC productions of some of the author's essential masterworks. The best of the lot is David Copperfield, starring a pre-Harry Potter Daniel Radcliffe as the tragically put-upon young Copperfield. Shot on film, this impeccable 1999 production is an embarrassment of riches, with a cast that includes Academy Award-winner Maggie Smith, who earned an Emmy nomination as the formidable Aunt Betsey, Oscar-nominee Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings) as the cruel and sadistic teacher Mr. Creakle, a wonderful Bob Hoskins as the debt-ridden Micawber, Trevor Eve as David's loathsome stepfather Mr. Murdstone, and Nicholas Lyndhurst as the dastardly clerk Uriah Heap. Holding his own with this formidable ensemble is Ciaran McMenamin as the adult David, whose ultimate triumph is particularly hard earned. Rich with incident and populated by some of literature's most memorable characters, this production does satisfying justice to one of Dickens's most beloved and oft-told sagas. When it comes to a series of unfortunate events, Lemony Snicket has nothing on Dickens.
The Old Curiosity Shop, from 1979, stars Sebastian Shaw as the grandfather determined to provide a better life for his beloved and beautiful granddaughter, Nell (the winning Natalie Ogle). But his gambling leaves them at the mercy to the bent and malignant Quilp (Trevor Peacock). The lesser known Dombey and Son, from 1983, is a tale of foolish pride, comeuppance, and redemption starring Julian Glover as Mr. Dombey, so determined that his son take over his business that he cruelly neglects his daughter, Florence (the heartbreaking Lysette Anthony). The Pickwick Papers, from 1985, is a welcome comic change of pace that follows the misadventures of "the immortal" (and comically rotund) Mr. Pickwick (Nigel Stock) and his three friends as they embark on the first expedition of "the corresponding society of the Pickwick Club." Shot on video, the latter three miniseries are somewhat stodgy in appearance. The adaptations are faithful to a fault, but Dickens' masterful tales provide inspiration enough for the casts who grandly rise to the occasion. --Donald Liebenson

Barnaby Rudge (Penguin Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $7.00 (as of 02/16/2012)

In the year 1775, there stood upon the borders of Epping Forest, at a distance of about twelve miles from London - measuring from the Standard in Cornhill or rather from the spot on or near to which the Standard used to be in days of yore - a house of public entertainment called the Maypole;1 which fact was demonstrated to all such travellers as could neither read nor write (and sixty-six years ago2 a vast number both of travellers and stay-at-homes were in this condition) by the emblem reared on the roadside over against the house, which, if not of those goodly proportions that Maypoles were wont to present in olden times, was a fair young ash, thirty feet in height, and straight as any arrow that ever English yeoman drew.

American Notes for General Circulation (Penguin Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $7.49 (as of 02/16/2012)

Charles Dickens was the most famous of many travelers of his time who journeyed to America, curious about the revolutionary new civilization that had captured the English imagination. His frank, often humorous descriptions in his 1842 account cover everything from his uncomfortable sea voyage to an ecstatic narrative of his visit to Niagara Falls. Yet Dickens is also critical of American society, its preoccupation with money, and reliance on slavery, as well as the rude, unsavory manners of Americans and their corrupt press. Above all, American Notes is a lively chronicle of what was for Dickens an illuminating encounter with the New World.

Martin Chuzzlewit (Penguin Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $6.75 (as of 02/16/2012)

The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (serialized 1843-1844) is a novel by Charles Dickens, considered the last of his picaresque novels. Like nearly all of Dickens' novels, Martin Chuzzlewit was released to the public in monthly installments. Early sales of the monthly parts were disappointing, compared to previous works, so Dickens changed the plot to send the title character to America. This allowed the author to satirically portray America, which he had recently visited, as a near wilderness, whose pockets of civilization were filled with deceptive and self-promoting hucksters.
The main theme of the novel, according to a Preface by Dickens, is selfishness, portrayed in a satirical fashion using all the members of the Chuzzlewit family. The novel is also notable for one of Dickens' great villains, Seth Pecksniff. It is dedicated to Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, a friend of Dickens.

Martin Chuzzlewit

Amazon Price: $6.83 (as of 02/16/2012)

Greed, selfishness, and hypocrisy drive another rollicking story from Charles Dickens. Martin Chuzzlewit features two Martin Chuzzlewits: An elderly and extremely wealthy one (the magnificent Paul Scofield, A Man for All Seasons), who loathes the sleazy, grasping relatives that hope to profit from his death; and his grandson (Ben Walden), a well-intentioned but self-absorbed young man who has fallen in love with his grandfather's ward, Mary Graham (Pauline Turner)--and because the elder Martin disapproves, the younger Martin has been disowned. In the gap between these two are a host of schemers, crooks, and even one or two good people--but at the center of it all is the pompous and oily Seth Pecksniff (Tom Wilkinson, In the Bedroom, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), whose manipulations and lechery make him one of Dicken's most memorable villains. Whirling in his orbit are the goodhearted but ineffectual Tom Pinch (Philip Franks); the brutish Jonas Chuzzlewit (Keith Allen); Pecksniff's daughters, the "volatile hummingbird" Mercy (Julia Sawalha, Absolutely Fabulous) and the bitter, overlooked Charity (Emma Chambers, The Vicar of Dibley); and a host of other vivid Dickensian creations, all given juice and vitality by dozens of outstanding British actors, anchored by Scofield's magisterial presence. Because of his characters' outsized personalities and his plots' wild reversals of fortune, Dickens is ideally suited to dramatization, and Martin Chuzzlewit takes full advantage of his strengths. Lurid events like murder and blackmail contrast with rich psychological portraits, making Martin Chuzzlewit an opulent narrative feast. --Bret Fetzer

The Charles Dickens Collection, Vol. 1 (Oliver Twist / Martin Chuzzlewit / Bleak House / Hard Times / Great Expectations / Our Mutual Friend)

Amazon Price: $98.88 (as of 02/16/2012)

As can be clearly seen from the care lavished on these six BBC adaptions of Charles Dickens' novels, the British love their Dickens! And why not--Dickens is ideally suited to television, with his elaborate but vigorous plots, each a compendium of comically odious personalities (and one or two nice folk, just to keep things from getting too awful). Actors dig into these meaty roles with zeal, delighting in the hairpin turns from macabre horror to sweet sentiment. The more popular (and most frequently adapted) of the books at hand--Great Expectations and Oliver Twist--are the most conventional. The 1981 mini-series Expectations (in which young Pip learns the pitfalls of wealth through his relationship with the rich and bitter Mrs. Havishamand and her warped ward, Estella) is dutiful to its source but not adapted with much inspiration. Twist, from 1985, fares better; it's a zippy treatment of this tale of childhood deprivation and juvenile delinquency, and the horrors of Victorian orphanages will raise your hackles. The adaptation is capable but a little flat--still, any story where an undertaker observes, "Every tear is another shilling in the till," is clearly not lacking in wicked wit.
Fortunately, the others are considerably juicier: Martin Chuzzlewit, a lesser-known but richly satirical book, has a star-studded production from 1994, featuring Paul Scofield, Tom Wilkinson, Pete Postlethwaite, and Julia Sawalha, among others. The wealthy Martin Chuzzlewit, deeply suspicious of all mankind due to being hounded by greedy, grasping relatives, threatens the happiness of his ward Mary and his namesake grandson. In addition to the sterling and energetic cast, Chuzzlewit has outstanding production values, as does the 1998 version of Our Mutual Friend, which goes to great lengths to evoke the textures of life in Dickens' London. The mysterious death of a man about to inherit a great fortune sets in motion a complex plot that intertwines two love stories (it's one of Dickens' most romantic works), social scheming, and murderous obsession. The names aren't quite as famous (such as Paul McGann, Timothy Spall, Anna Friel, and Keeley Hawes), but the performances are top-notch and the script is particularly dynamic.

Bleak House, a Kafka-esque story of young innocents caught in an all-consuming, multi-generational lawsuit, cultivates a rich and potent Gothic horror; the 19th century seems like an unnerving alien world, through which lawyers and policemen stride like cruel predators. Diana Rigg is the most famous face in this 1985 production, but strong performances abound. The final component of this box set is the most curious: A 1994 version of Hard Times starring Alan Bates and Richard E. Grant, which turns this dark story--about a schoolmaster/politician who raises his children on reason at the expense of all feeling and finally reaps the bitter rewards--into a compact, theatrical feature film that's so swift it's almost jaunty. Adapted and directed by Peter Barnes (writer of The Ruling Class), it's the most stylized production of the bunch, and while lacking the depth and narrative detail of the others, it effectively cuts to the essence of Dickens. --Bret Fetzer

Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol: The Heirloom Edition

by: Charles Dickens, Christian Birmingham

Amazon Price: $49.99 (as of 02/16/2012)

Glowing, full-color artwork by the esteemed British illustrator Christian Birmingham brings Charles Dickens's scenes and characters to life in this keepsake edition of the engrossing holiday classic, sure to be cherished for years. This deluxe, cloth-bound volume is beautifully designed and crafted, featuring a debossed front cover illustration with tipped-on artwork, plus lavish gold and silver foil stamped accents. A ribbon marker with Christmas charm, vellum title-page insert, and heavy matte stock complete the luxurious presentation.

A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings (Penguin Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $4.62 (as of 02/16/2012)

This new selection of Dickens's Christmas writings confirms his lasting influence upon our idea of the Christmas spirit: that Christmas is a time for celebration, charity, and memory. In addition to the beloved A Christmas Carol, this volume includes such festive works as "Christmas Festivities," "The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton," "A Christmas Tree," "The Seven Poor Travellers," The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain, and a Christmas episode from Master Humphrey's Clock.

About the Author
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was born in Portsmouth, England, one of eight children, grew up in poverty, had little formal education, and yet became the most prominent and revered English Victorian writer as well as a political reporter and journalist. Michael Slater is an emeritus professor at Birkbeck College, London, and past president of the Dickens Fellowship and the Dickens Society of America.

A Christmas Carol

Amazon Price: $3.60 (as of 02/16/2012)

This 1938 MGM version of the Dickens classic is not the most rewarding of the various adaptations (that honor goes to Biran Desmond Hurst's 1951 film, starring Alistair Sim), but it has a strong if narrow performance by Reginald Owen as the miser Ebenezer Scrooge. Directed by Edward L. Marin, the movie is stiffer and less imaginative than it ought to be, but there are some compensations in the supporting cast, including Leo G. Carroll, and the film debut of little June Lockhart. --Tom Keogh

A Christmas Carol

Amazon Price: $8.48 (as of 02/16/2012)

Standing out in the crowded field of screen adaptations of the classic Dickens novel A Christmas Carol is hard to do, but this version pulls it off. When a transparent Jacob Marley walks through Ebenezer Scrooge's apartment door, you know you're seeing something both timeless and contemporary. Other strategically placed special effects--a funnel cloud that transports Scrooge and the ghost of Christmas present, the hollow specter of Christmas future--keep you riveted without slipping into anachronism.
But, as good as the technology is, the performances are what really power this 93-minute TNT interpretation. Patrick Stewart brings a depth to Scrooge that allows the character to go beyond the cartoonish qualities that have made him a Christmas mainstay. That doesn't mean he's any less heartless with his hapless employee Bob Cratchit (Richard E. Grant) or any less dismissive of his well-meaning nephew. A frail-looking Joel Grey makes an excellent ghost of Christmas past, and a superb British cast ably fill the remaining roles.

Director David Jones, shooting on location in England and at London's Ealing Studios, has achieved a balance of science and sentiment that will help this version hold up for many years to come. --Kimberly Heinrichs

A Christmas Carol

Amazon Price: $7.00 (as of 02/16/2012)

In the same year that he directed a handsome version of The Scarlet Pimpernel for television, Clive Donner also made this worthy 1984 small-screen production of the Dickens tale. George C. Scott can't quite muster a decent English accent, but he does bring some new colors to this movie's interpretation of Scrooge, making the character less nasty for the sake of nastiness and more a product of a life of lovelessness. The supporting cast is first-rate, and the production is far more handsome than most TV fare. --Tom Keogh

Product Description
Christmas elicits nothing more than "Bah, humbug!" from Ebenezer Scrooge (Scott), a miser whose sole pursuit of financial success has left him a bitter and lonely old man. But a Christmas Eve visit from the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future ultimately teaches him to open his heart to the spirit of Christmas and to the joys of friends and family.

Mr. Fezziwig's Ball, from "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens (1812-70) 1843 Framed Art Poster Print by John Leech, 19x22

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Print Title: Mr. Fezziwig's Ball, from "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens (1812-70) 1843
Artist: John Leech
Size: 19 x 22 inches

Inge-Glas A Christmas Carol Ornaments, Set of 8

Amazon Price: $190.00 (as of 02/16/2012)

"A Christmas Carol" heirloom ornament Gift Set, by Inge-Glas of Germany, "The original star of the holidays"
Item #40100907
8-Piece Set

Mouth blown and hand-painted glass ornaments
Each ornament features the Inge-Glas trademark 5-point gold star crown
Approximate Dimensions: 3"-4"H
Includes decorative wooden gift box and official Inge story card
"Yesterday's craftsmanship, today's treasures, tomorrow's heirlooms..." Inge-Glas is a family operated business that has been handcrafting glass ornaments with skills that have been passed on for generations.

Box set includes:
Bob Cratchit
Mrs. Cratchit
Tiny Tim
Ebenezer Scrooge
Ghost of Jacob Marley
Ghost of Christmas Past
Ghost of Christmas Present
Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

Byers' Choice A Christmas Carol - Marley's Ghost

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Byers Choice Carolers have clay heads and real fabric clothing, and are made in Pennsylvania.
13" high.

Kurt Adler Steinbach 16-Inch German Nutcracker Christmas Carol Series, Mrs. Cratchit

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10th Edition of to the "Christmas Carol" Series Limited Edition of 7,500
16-Inch Steinbach Mrs. Cratchit Nutcracker
Made in Germany
Wood

Dickens A Christmas Carol Village from Department 56 The Church At Cornhill

Amazon Price: $81.67 (as of 02/16/2012)

ChemArt A Christmas Carol Globe Ornament

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ChemArt A Christmas Carol Globe Ornament
Solid brass, finished in sparkling 24-karat gold
It takes 17 pairs of hands to create each keepsake before you touch the piece. Each is hand-assembled and packaged in an elegant gift box for gift-giving or collecting.
Keepsakes Etched InTime
Story Time Globe Collection

Charles Dickens Christmas Set

by: Charles Dickens, Jerry Robbins

Amazon Price: $692.16 (as of 02/16/2012)

The Chimes

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $5.95 (as of 02/16/2012)

There are not many people - and as it is desirable that a story-teller and a story-reader should establish a mutual understanding as soon as possible, I beg it to be noticed that I confine this observation neither to young people nor to little people, but extend it to all conditions of people: little and big, young and old: yet growing up, or already growing down again - there are not, I say, many people who would care to sleep in a church.

The Cricket on the Hearth

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $8.45 (as of 02/16/2012)

Dickens was a Victorian novelist and social campaigner. This novella published in 1845 is a Christmas story. Instead of chapters this book is divided into Chirps. The story revolves around a family with a cricket in the house. The cricket is their guardian angel. At one point the cricket warns the master that his wife may be having an affair. Even though this seems to be a tragic occurrence all is well in the end. Love prevails and a girl may regain her sight. This is a Christmas tale after all.

Dombey & Son (Oxford World's Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $5.87 (as of 02/16/2012)

DOMBEY sat in the corner of the darkened room in the great armchair by the bedside, and Son lay tucked up warm in a little basket bedstead, carefully disposed on a low settee immediately in front of the fire and close to it, as if his constitution were analogous to that of a muffin, and it was essential to toast him brown while he was very new.

Dombey and Son

Amazon Price: $5.82 (as of 02/16/2012)

Mr. Dombey (played by Julian Glover) is a proud and successful merchant but he is desperate for an heir to carry on the family business. He is delighted when his son and successor Paul is finally born but sadly the child's mother dies during childbirth. Dombey's daughter Florence adores her brother but suffers as a result of her father's neglect. Tragically Paul is a sickly child who passes away at a young age. Embittered by his son's untimely death Dombey takes a new wife the beautiful Edith Granger who eventually tires of her husband's ways and leaves him. Alone without his fortune son or wife Dombey must put his trust in those he abandoned.

David Copperfield (Penguin Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $3.52 (as of 02/16/2012)

David Copperfield is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr. Murdstone; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble yet treacherous Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora; and the magnificently impecunious Micawber, one of literature's great comic creations. In David Copperfield-the novel he described as his "favorite child"-Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of his most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure.

David Copperfield

Amazon Price: $9.99 (as of 02/16/2012)

The classic David Copperfield was not just Charles Dickens' favorite work. It has been the most popular of his books since it was first published 150 years ago. Micawber Peggotty Betsey Trotwood Uriah Heep Mr. Creakle Mrs. Crupp and Mr. Dick... never were so many of Dickens' famous and vest-loved characters gathered together in just one of his works.They are all brought to life by a world-class cast including Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) Oscar-winner Maggie Smith (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) Bob Hoskins (Hook) Nicholas Lyndhurst (Bullshot) and Pauline Quirke (The Elephant Man) in this sparkling adaptation.The most autobiographical of Dickens' work David Copperfield often echoes the writer's own life. It tells a moving story of David's journey from birth to maturity a journey which inextricably links his life with some of Dickens' most colorful and extraordinary families.Special DVD features include: Cast list; Masterpiece Theatre poster gallery; access to David Copperfield Web site featuring production notes interviews with the cast and crew a Dickens timeline a guide to the featured characters and more; scene selection

David Copperfield

Amazon Price: $12.63 (as of 02/16/2012)

"We are friends for life." The man speaking: Micawber, played by W.C. Fields with great comedic charm and human warmth. The child addressed: David, played by Freddie Bartholomew in his Hollywood debut. The movie: David Copperfield, still one of the best-ever screen adaptations of a Charles Dickens novel. "To call the casting inspired is to underrate it," historian David Shipman wrote in his The Story of Cinema. Lionel Barrymore, Edna May Oliver, Maureen O'Sullivan, Basil Rathbone and more joined Fields and Bartholomew in portraying the eccentrics, cads and loving family of this film directed by George Cukor. David O. Selznick produced, insisting on an attention to Dickensian detail that included matching the sets to the first edition's illustrations. The result: one of the greatest page-to-screen adaptations ever.

David Copperfield (BBC)

Amazon Price: $78.98 (as of 02/16/2012)

In this definitive BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens classic David Copperfield struggles to fulfill his potential after enduring the hardships of cruelty poverty and injustice. Starring David Yelland Arthur Lowe Martin Jarvis Liz Smith Patricia Routledge.

Bleak House (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $6.05 (as of 02/16/2012)

Often considered Charles Dickens's masterpiece, Bleak House blends together several literary genres-detective fiction, romance, melodrama, and satire-to create an unforgettable portrait of the decay and corruption at the heart of English law and society in the Victorian era.

Opening in the swirling mists of London, the novel revolves around a court case that has dragged on for decades-the infamous Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit, in which an inheritance is gradually devoured by legal costs. As Dickens takes us through the case's history, he presents a cast of characters as idiosyncratic and memorable as any he ever created, including the beautiful Lady Dedlock, who hides a shocking secret about an illegitimate child and a long-lost love; Mr. Bucket, one of the first detectives to appear in English fiction; and the hilarious Mrs. Jellyby, whose endless philanthropy has left her utterly unconcerned about her own family.

As a question of inheritance becomes a question of murder, the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, struggles to discover the truth about her birth and her unknown mother's tragic life. Can the resilience of her love transform a bleak house? And-more devastatingly-will justice prevail?

Bleak House

Amazon Price: $7.01 (as of 02/16/2012)

Dickens' classic tale of the infamous Jarndyce case which has been dragging through the courts for years ruining lives and leaving entire families devastated.

Bleak House

Amazon Price: $32.99 (as of 02/16/2012)

Andrew Davies isn't much of household name in the U.S., but he's the king of the BBC mini-series. His skillfully adapted scripts for Pride & Prejudice (the beloved Colin Firth version) and many, many more are peerless examples of classic novels done right--cunningly edited and shaped to let all the rich emotion and sharp intelligence spill over with zip and vigor. Bleak House is no exception; it's one of the best Dickens adaptations to date. The mini-series form allows Dickens' panoramic view, brimming with eccentric characters and complex turns of plot, to sprawl out without losing an iota of suspense or momentum. Two innocent young orphans (Patrick Kennedy and Carey Mulligan) are the potential heirs to a fortune, but their fates are snarled in a monumental legal battle known as Jarndyce and Jarndyce. But the heart of the story is another orphan, Esther Summerson (Anna Maxwell Martin), whose mysterious parentage proves to be intertwined with the fate of the Jarndyce wards and the aloof Lady Dedlock (Gillian Anderson, The X-Files). Dickens' story twines through an excoriating vision of the legal system to heartbreaking domestic drama to a murder investigation to near-Gothic horror, all broken into utterly delicious half-hour segments (after the hour-long opening episode). Martin is utterly beguiling, homely at one moment and luminous the next; Anderson's grippingly eerie and brittle performance will delight her fans. But to single out anyone seems absurd, because every character--from the vicious lawyer Tulkinghorn (Charles Dance, White Mischief) to the foppish parasite Skimpole (Nathaniel Parker, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries) to the simpering clerk Guppy (Burn Gorman)--is intricately drawn, all hitting a mesmerizing balance between caricature and stark emotional honesty. Bleak House demonstrates that humor, pathos, and social criticism can all be contained in one wonderfully entertaining package. --Bret Fetzer

Hard Times (Signet Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $2.04 (as of 02/16/2012)

In Dickens's story of the horrors of a utilitarian upbringing, reason and facts are everything, and imagination and creativity are nothing.

Little Dorrit (Penguin Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $6.11 (as of 02/16/2012)

When Arthur Clennam returns to England after many years abroad, he takes a kindly interest in Amy Dorrit, his mother's seamstress, and in the affairs of Amy's father, William Dorrit, a man of shabby grandeur, long imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea. As Arthur soon discovers, the dark shadow of the prison stretches far beyond its walls to affect the lives of many, from the kindly Mr. Pancks, the reluctant rent-collector of Bleeding Heart Yard, and the tipsily garrulous Flora Finching, to Merdle, an unscrupulous financier, and the bureaucratic Barnacles in the Circumlocution Office. A masterly evocation of the state and psychology of imprisonment, Little Dorrit is one of the supreme works of Dickens's maturity.

A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $4.41 (as of 02/16/2012)

It was the best of times,' it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

A Tale of Two Cities

Amazon Price: $4.99 (as of 02/16/2012)

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...." Charles Dickens' tale of love and tumult during the French Revolution comes to the screen in a sumptuous film version by the producer famed for nurturing sprawling literary works: David O. Selznick (David Copperfield, Anna Karenina, Gone with the Wind). Ronald Colman (The Prisoner of Zenda) stars as Sydney Carton ? sardonic, dissolute, a wastrel...and destined to redeem himself in an act of courageous sacrifice. "It's a far, far better thing I do than I've ever done," Carton muses at that defining moment. This is far, far better filmmaking, too: a Golden Era marvel of uncanny performances top to bottom, eye-filling crowd scenes (the storming of the Bastille, thronged courtrooms, an eerie festival of public execution) and lasting emotional power. Revolution is in the air!

A Tale of Two Cities (Masterpiece Theatre)

Amazon Price: $59.47 (as of 02/16/2012)

How far will one man go for true love? Charles Dickens' epic love story comes alive in this exciting Masterpiece Theatre presentation, filmed on location in Bordeaux and Manchester.
In the dock of a British courtroom, French aristocrat Charles Darnay stands accused of spying for the King of France. The outlook appears grim until some last-minute help comes from his astonishing lookalike, Sydney Carton. As Darnay goes free and makes plans to marry Lucie Manette, Carton keeps his secret desire for her to himself, yet assures her that he would make the ultimate sacrifice for her, "or for anyone you love." As Lucie and Charles settle into blissful married life in London, the French Revolution is exploding. Carton is in Paris on his own mysterious business just as the Darnays return to rescue a faithful servant from the chaos, only to be captured by a crowd thirsty for the blood of aristocrats. The guillotine beckons as does the promise Sydney made to his beloved Lucie years earlier. Amidst the turmoil of one of history's most barbaric eras, will one man's simple devotion be enough to quell the madness?

A Tale of Two Cities

Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 02/16/2012)

Product Description
The ultimate tale of love honor and sacrifice during the bloodstained French Revolution is movingly brought to life in this sumptuous production. The dashing Chris Sarandon (The Princess Bride) stars in dual roles as the cynical lawyer Sydney Carton and the disenchanted aristocrat Charles Darnay both in love with the same woman (Alice Krige Star Trek: First Contact). Also starring Peter Cushing (Star Wars) this Golden Globe-nominated version of the Charles Dickens classic thrillingly captures all the drama and emotion of one of history's most explosive eras.

Great Expectations (Penguin Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $4.95 (as of 02/16/2012)

Great Expectations, described by G. K. Chesterton as a "study in human weakness and the slow human surrender," may be called Charles Dickens's finest moment in a remarkably illustrious literary career.

In an overgrown churchyard, a grizzled convict springs upon an orphan named Pip. The convict terrifies the young boy and threatens to kill him unless Pip helps further his escape. Later, Pip finds himself in the ruined garden where he meets the bitter and crazy Miss Havisham and her foster child Estella, with whom he immediately falls in love. After a secret benefactor gives him a fortune, Pip moves to London, where he cultivates great expectations for a life which would allow him to discard his impoverished beginnings and socialize with the idle upper class. As Pip struggles to become a gentleman and is tormented endlessly by the beautiful Estella, he slowly learns the truth about himself and his illusions.

Written in the last decade of his life, Great Expectations reveals Dickens's dark attitudes toward Victorian society, its inherent class structure, and its materialism. Yet this novel persists as one of Dickens's most popular. Richly comic and immensely readable, Great Expectations overspills with vividly drawn characters, moral maelstroms, and the sorrow and pity of love.

Our Mutual Friend (Modern Library Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $6.98 (as of 02/16/2012)

Our Mutual Friend was the last novel Charles Dickens completed and is, arguably, his darkest and most complex. The basic plot is vintage Dickens: an inheritance up for grabs, a murder, a rocky romance or two, plenty of skullduggery, and a host of unforgettable secondary characters. But in this final outing the author's heroes are more flawed, his villains more sympathetic, and the story as a whole more harrowing and less sentimental. The mood is set in the opening scene in which a riverman, Gaffer Hexam, and his daughter Lizzie troll the Thames searching for drowned men whose pockets Gaffer will rifle before turning the body over to the authorities. On this particular night Gaffer finds a corpse that is later identified as that of John Harmon, who was returning from abroad to claim a large fortune when he was apparently murdered and thrown into the river.
Harmon's death is the catalyst for everything else that happens in the novel. It seems the fortune was left to the young man on the condition that he marry a girl he'd never met, Bella Wilfer. His death, however, brings a new heir onto the scene, Nicodemus Boffin, the kind-hearted but low-born assistant to Harmon's father. Boffin and his wife adopt young Bella, who is determined to marry money, and also hire a mysterious young secretary, John Rokesmith, who takes an uncommon interest in their ward. Not content with just one plot, Dickens throws in a secondary love story featuring the riverman's daughter, Lizzie Hexam; a dissolute young upper-class lawyer, Eugene Wrayburn; and his rival, the headmaster Bradley Headstone. Dark as the novel is, Dickens is careful to leaven it with secondary characters who are as funny as they are menacing--blackmailing Silas Wegg and his accomplice Mr. Venus, the avaricious Lammles, and self-centered Charlie Hexam. Our Mutual Friend is one of Dickens's most satisfying novels, and a fitting denouement to his prolific career. --Alix Wilber

The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Penguin Classics)

by: Charles Dickens

Amazon Price: $6.74 (as of 02/16/2012)

Edwin Drood is contracted to marry Orphan Rosa, but they break the engagement off-and soon afterwards Edwin disappears. Is it murder? And is his jealous uncle-a sinister choirmaster with a double life and designs on Rosa-the killer? Dickens died before completing the story, leaving the mystery unsolved and encouraging successive generations of readers to turn detective. In addition to its tantalizing crime, the novel also offers a characteristically Dickensian mix of the fantastical world of the imagination and a vibrantly journalistic depiction of gritty reality.

This edition features a new critical introduction that assesses the evidence to show whether the mystery can truly be solved, as well as a chronology, illustrations, appendixes (including one on opium use in the nineteenth century).

Edited with an introduction and notes by David Paroissien.

Charles Dickens Action Figure

Amazon Price: $6.98 (as of 02/16/2012)

Charles Dickens, action figure
Other classic authors available.

Department 56 Dickens' Village Series? Charles And Catherine Dickens

Amazon Price: $10.63 (as of 02/16/2012)

People the world over know the name of Charles Dickens, but not many know the name of his wife. "Catherine And Charles Dickens" portrays this newly-wedded couple as they hurry to their honeymoon cottage. The hand-painted porcelain figurine is designed to coordinate with "Chalk Cottage" (item number 56.58734). Both items are part of the Dickens' Village Series which is designed and produced by Department 56.
Other Dickens characters and scenes available.

Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi

Amazon Price: $199.00 (as of 02/16/2012)

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