Bleak House

Our Mutual Friend, Dickens' last complete novel, gives one of his most comprehensive and penetrating accounts of Victorian society. Its vision of a culture stifled by materialistic values emerges not just through its central narratives, but through its apparently incidental characters and scenes. The chief of its several plots centres on John Harmon who returns to England as his father's heir. He is believed drowned under suspicious circumstances - a situation convenient to his wish for anonymity until he can evaluate Bella Wilfer whom he must marry to secure his inheritance. The story is filled with colourful characters and incidents - the faded aristocrats and parvenus gathered at the Veneering's dinner table, Betty Higden and her terror of the workhouse and the greedy plottings of Silas...

This novel, based on George Eliot's own experiences of provincial life, is a masterpiece of ambiguity in which moral choice is subjected to the hypocrisy of the Victorian age. As the headstrong Maggie Tulliver grows into womanhood, the deep love which she has for her brother Tom turns into conflict, because she cannot reconcile his bourgeois standards with her own lively intelligence. Maggie is unable to adapt to her community or break free from it, and the result, on more than one level, is tragedy.

Introduction and Notes by Deborah Parsons, University of Birmingham. „I am writing to a rhythm and not to a plot”, Virginia Woolf stated of her eighth novel, The Waves. Widely regarded as one of her greatest and most original works, it conveys the rhythms of life in synchrony with the cycle of nature and the passage of time. Six children – Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny and Louis – meet in a garden close to the sea, their voices sounding over the constant echo of the waves that roll back and forth from the shore. The subsequent continuity of these six main characters, as they develop from childhood to maturity and follow different passions and ambitions, is interspersed with interludes from the timeless and unifying chorus of nature. In pure stream-of-consciousness style, Wo...

When the Cuthberts send to an orphanage for a boy to help them at Green Gables, their farm in Canada, they are astonished when a talkative little girl steps off the train. Anne, red-headed, pugnacious and incurably romantic, causes chaos at Green Gables and in the village, but her wit and good nature deligh the fictional community of Prince Edward Island, Canada, and ensure that Anne of Green Gables continues to be a firm favourite with readers worldwide. Anne of Avonlea continues Anne's story. Now half-past sixteen but as strong-headed and romantic as ever, Anne becomes a teacher at her old school and dreams of its improvement. But her responsible position and mature ambitions do not prevent her entanglement in the scrapes that still seem to beset her in spite of her best intentions. Thor...

Unusually for Dickens, Hard Times is set, not in London, but in the imaginary mid-Victorian Northern industrial town of Coketown with its blackened factories, downtrodden workers and polluted environment. This is the soulless domain of the strict utilitarian Thomas Gradgrind and the heartless factory owner Josiah Bounderby. However human joy is not excluded thanks to 'Mr Sleary's Horse-Riding' circus, a gin-soaked and hilarious troupe of open-hearted and affectionate people who act as an antidote to all the drudgery and misery endured by the ordinary citizens of Coketown.

Anna Karenina is one of the most loved and memorable heroines of literature. Her overwhelming charm dominates a novel of unparalleled richness and density. Tolstoy considered this book to be his first real attempt at a novel form, and it addresses the very nature of society at all levels of destiny, death, human relationships and the irreconcilable contradictions of existence. It ends tragically, and there is much that evokes despair, yet set beside this is an abounding joy in life's many ephemeral pleasures, and a profusion of comic relief.

Russia in the 1840s. There is a stranger in town, and he is behaving oddly. The unctuous Pavel Chichikov goes around the local estates buying up 'dead souls'. These are the papers relating to serfs who have died since the last census, but who remain on the record and still attract a tax demand. Chichikov is willing to relieve their owners of the tax burden by buying the titles for a song. What he does not say is that he then proposes to take out a huge mortgage against these fictitious citizens and buy himself a nice estate in Eastern Russia. Will he get away with it? Who will rumble him? Does this narrative contain a deeper message about Russia itself or the spiritual health of humanity? There is much interest and some suspense in considering these issues, but the real pleasure of this st...

One of the great classics of western literature, Les Misérables is a magisterial work which is rich in both character portrayal and meticulous historical description. Characters such as the absurdly criminalised Valjean, the street urchin Gavroche, the rascal Thenardier, the implacable detective Javert, and the pitiful figure of the prostitute Fantine and her daughter Cosette, have entered the pantheon of literary dramatis personae. The reader is also treated to the unforgettable descriptions of the Battle of Waterloo and Valjean?s flight through the Paris sewers.

Little Dorrit is a classic tale of imprisonment, both literal and metaphorical, while Dickens' working title for the novel, Nobody's Fault, highlights its concern with personal responsibility in private and public life. Dickens' childhood experiences inform the vivid scenes in Marshalsea debtor's prison, while his adult perceptions of governmental failures shape his satirical picture of the Circumlocution Office. The novel's range of characters - the honest, the crooked, the selfish and the self-denying - offers a portrait of society about whose values Dickens had profound doubts. Little Dorrit is indisputably one of Dickens' finest works, written at the height of his powers. George Bernard Shaw called it ‘a masterpiece among masterpices’, a vedict shared by the novel's many admirers.

Following the success of Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby was hailed as a comic triumph and firmly established Dickens as a 'literary gentleman'. It has a full supporting cast of delectable characters that range from the iniquitous Wackford Squeers and his family, to the delightful Mrs Nickleby, taking in the eccentric Crummles and his travelling players, the Mantalinis, the Kenwigs and many more. Combining these with typically Dickensian elements of burlesque and farce, the novel is eminently suited to dramatic adaptation. So great was the impact as it left Dickens' pen that many pirated versions appeared in print before the original was even finished. Often neglected by critics, Nicholas Nickleby has never ceased to delight readers and is widely regarded as one of the...

Set in the mid-19th century, and written from the author's first-hand experience, North and South follows the story of the heroine's movement from the tranquil but moribund ways of southern England to the vital but turbulent north. Elizabeth Gaskell's skilful narrative uses an unusual love story to show how personal and public lives were woven together in a newly industrial society. This is a tale of hard-won triumphs - of rational thought over prejudice and of humane care over blind deference to the market. Readers in the twenty-first century will find themselves absorbed as this Victorian novel traces the origins of problems and possibilities which are still challenging a hundred and fifty years later: the complex relationships, public and private, between men and women of different clas...

Dickens had already achieved renown with The Pickwick Papers. With Oliver Twist his reputation was enhanced and strengthened. The novel contains many classic Dickensian themes - grinding poverty, desperation, fear, temptation and the eventual triumph of good in the face of great adversity. Oliver Twist features some of the author's most enduring characters, such as Oliver himself (who dares to ask for more), the tyrannical Bumble, the diabolical Fagin, the menacing Bill Sikes, Nancy and 'the Artful Dodger'. For any reader wishing to delve into the works of the great Victorian literary colossus, Oliver Twist is, without doubt, an essential title.

Klub Pickwicka to powieść Charlesa Dickensa, która została pierwotnie opublikowana w formie odcinków w latach 1836-1837. Jest to jedno z najwcześniejszych dzieł tego autora. Nazwa powieści odnosi się do fikcyjnego klubu literackiego o nazwie Klub Pickwicka, którego członkowie podróżują przez Anglię, doświadczając różnych przygód i zawirowań. Komedia obyczajowa, która stanowi satyrę na społeczeństwo i obyczaje ówczesnej Anglii. Pełna humoru, absurdalnych sytuacji oraz błyskotliwych spostrzeżeń dotyczących ludzkiego charakteru. Dickensa styl pisania, jego zdolność do obserwacji ludzkiego życia i umiejętność tworzenia barwnych postaci sprawiają, że powieść ta cieszy się popularnością do dziś.

Klasyka światowa literatury młodzieżowej Tytułowy bohater, Olivier Twist, chłopiec urodzony w schronisku dla bezdomnych, trafia do sierocińca, w którym panują głód, zimno i przemoc. W tych nieludzkich warunkach przeżywa niewiele dzieci, Oliverowi się to jednak udaje. W dniu dziewiątych urodzin chłopiec zostaje odesłany do kolejnego sierocińca, w którym ma się `nauczyć` fachu, a w którym warunki są równie straszliwe, jak w poprzednim. Wyrzucony z sierocińca pod byle pretekstem, musi liczyć sam na siebie. W ten sposób trafia do szajki młodocianych złodziejaszków. Pewnego dnia na drodze Oliviera, dziecka bezwzględnie wykorzystywanego od początku życia, stanie jednak ktoś, kto poda mu pomocną dłoń i dzięki komu życie chłopca się zmieni. `Olivier Twist`...

Puffin Classics: the definitive collection of timeless stories, for every child Full of tragedy and comedy in equal measure and based in part on the author's own life, David Copperfield remains one of the most enduring and popular of Dickens' novels. Among the memorable cast of characters he encounters along the way are his brutal stepfather, Mr Murdstone; bubbly Nurse Peggotty; his brilliant, but unworthy schoolmate Steerforth, his eccentric aunt, Betsy Trotwood, the scheming clerk Uriah Heep, the enchanting Dora and the magnificent Mr Macawber - a character much like Dickens' own father.

This brilliantly coloured tale of the French Revolution is an historical romance set in Paris and London. Famous for the character of Sidney Carton who sacrifices himself upon the guillotine' it is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done '- the novel is also a powerful study of crowd psychology and the dark emotions aroused by the Revolution, illuminated by Dickens' lively comedy

Skuteczna nauka przez czytanie. Let’s read! Ebenezer Scrooge nienawidzi Świąt Bożego Narodzenia. Uważa, że wszyscy powinni pracować, a nie trwonić czas i pieniądze. Tym razem jednak święta są wyjątkowe. Scrooge’a odwiedza duch jego wspólnika Marleya. Ostrzega go, że jeśli nie zmieni swojego życia, będzie cierpiał po śmierci. W przemianie Scooge’a mają pomóc trzy tajemnicze postaci. Przypominają mu jego przeszłość, pokazują teraźniejszość, a także sugerują, jak zakończy się jego los. Czy Scrooge zdoła zmienić swoje życie i odwrócić bieg wydarzeń? Poznaj Duchy Świąt Bożego Narodzenia i ucz się angielskiego! Wybierz angielskie książki dla dzieci z serii Czytam po angielsku i przywołaj klimat świątecznych opowieści. Obawiasz się, że twoj...

Ponadczasowa opowieść o dojrzewaniu i przemianie. Poruszająca powieść dziewiętnastowiecznego mistrza pióra, Charlesa Dickensa, która doczekała się blisko dwudziestu filmowych adaptacji. Osierocony Pip mieszka z siostrą i jej mężem kowalem. Pewnego dnia chłopiec pomaga ukrywającemu się zbiegowi. Mijają lata, Pip pracuje jako czeladnik u swojego szwagra. Jest nieszczęśliwie zakochany w Estelli, pięknej dziewczynce, wychowywanej przez bogatą, zdziwaczałą starą pannę Havisham. Młodych ludzi dzieli jeden z najbardziej prozaicznych powodów – status majątkowy. Pewnego dnia okazuje się jednak, że życie Pipa może ulec diametralnej zmianie. Młodzieniec otrzymuje od anonimowego darczyńcy ogromną sumę pieniędzy. Jest jednak jeden warunek – Pip ma wyjechać do L...

Poczujcie ducha świąt Bożego Narodzenia dzięki dickensowskiej Opowieści wigilijnej w wydaniu ilustrowanym – wymarzonym dla młodych czytelników. W mroźny wigilijny wieczór bogaty chciwiec, Ebenezer Scrooge, pracuje do późna w swoim „kantorze” przy brukowanej londyńskiej uliczce i nie pozwala spędzić świąt z rodziną swojemu pracownikowi – biednemu jak mysz kościelna Bobowi Cratchitowi. Scrooge nie ma pojęcia, że jego dawny wspólnik – nieżyjący od siedmiu lat Jakub Marley – zamierza złożyć mu upiorną wizytę. Planuje ostrzec skąpca, że niedługo przyjdą do niego trzy duchy: Minionych, Obecnych i Przyszłych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia, aby przekonać go do zmiany postępowania, zanim będzie za późno! Dzięki spotkaniom z Duchami, Scrooge zaczyna dos...