"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"—it was the tumultuous era of the French Revolution. Rich in drama and romance, this deftly plotted tale of adventure and courage by the most popular of English novelists bristles with suspense, culminating in a daring prison escape in the shadow of the guillotine.

Considered by many to be Dickens' finest novel, Great Expectations traces the growth of the book's narrator, Philip Pirrip (Pip), from a boy of shallow dreams to a man with depth of character. From its famous dramatic opening on the bleak Kentish marshes, the story abounds with some of Dickens' most memorable characters. Among them are the kindly blacksmith Joe Gargery, the mysterious convict Abel Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Haversham and her beautiful ward Estella, Pip's good-hearted room-mate Herbert Pocket and the pompous Pumblechook. As Pip unravels the truth behind his own 'great expectations' in his quest to become a gentleman, the mysteries of the past and the convolutions of fate through a series of thrilling adventures serve to steer him towards maturity and his most importan

'What a jolly thing it is for a man to have written books like these and just filled people's hearts with pity.' (Robert Louis Stevenson)

An unsurpassed blending of vibrant storytelling and social conscience, A Christmas Carol is one of Dickens's most perennially popular stories. It tells of Scrooge, now a byword for misanthropy and avarice, who is transported through time to the Christmasses of his childhood, of.the present and of the future. Heeding the dreadful warning of what is to be if Scrooge does not mend his ways, the old miser repents and is suffused with Christmas spirit. Along with The Chimes and The Cricket on the Hearth, A Christmas Carol celebrates the joys of the festive season. Each of these books is politically provocative and aims to
stimulate the

The story of the orphan Oliver, who runs away from the workhouse only to be taken in by a den of thieves, shocked readers when it was first published. Dickens’s tale of childhood innocence beset by evil depicts the dark criminal underworld of a London peopled by vivid and memorable characters – the arch-villain Fagin, the artful Dodger, the menacing Bill Sikes and the prostitute Nancy. Combining elements of Gothic Romance, the Newgate Novel and popular melodrama, in Oliver Twist Dickens created an entirely new kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society, and pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery.

Pip is a poor orphan whose life is changed forever by two very different meetings – one with an escaped convict and the other with an eccentric old lady and the beautiful girl who lives with her. And who is the mysterious person who leaves him a fortune?

His mother is dead, so little Oliver Twist is brought up in the workhouse. Beaten and starved, he runs away to London, where he joins Fagin’s gang of thieves. By chance he also finds good new friends – but can they protect him from people who rob and murder without mercy?

Scrooge is a cold, hard man. He loves money, and he doesn’t like people. He really doesn’t like Christmas. But when some ghosts visit him, they show him his past life, his life now, and a possible future. Will Scrooge learn from the ghosts? Can he change?

David Copperfield’s happy life suddenly changes when his mother marries again. Her new husband is cruel to him and sends him away to school. When David’s mother dies, he is sent to work in London. He hates his job so he runs away. He has no money for food or for travelling. But it is the beginning of his life of adventure.