Penguin Classics - Official partners of Dickens 2012
Welcome to the home of
Penguin Classics for Dickens 2012
We've got a lot to share with you - beautiful new paperback jackets with illustrations from the original novels, marvellous box sets of Dickens's greatest works and stunning new clothbound editions - as well as fantastic competitions and promotions throughout the year. You can also find all the details of the London City Read of Oliver Twist, the biggest city read that's ever been done. And in the Penguin Classics offices we're reading our way through every Dickens book in Penguin Classics, to remind everyone of just how readable his writing still is.
So join us, as we celebrate the works of this remarkable, influential, magnificent writer.
Who is the nation's favourite Dickens character?
We asked. You voted. And the results are in: Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol
The Dickens Gallery
Oliver Twist
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.
£7.99
Pickwick Papers
Few first novels have created as much popular excitement as The Pickwick Papers – a comic masterpiece that catapulted its twenty-four-year-old author to immediate fame. Readers were captivated by the adventures of the poet Snodgrass, the lover Tupman, the sportsman Winkle and, above all, by that quintessentially English Quixote, Mr Pickwick, and his cockney Sancho Panza, Sam Weller.
£8.99
Nicholas Nickleby
When Nicholas Nickleby is left penniless after his father's death, he appeals to his wealthy uncle to help him find work and to protect his mother and sister. But Ralph Nickleby proves both hard-hearted and unscrupulous, and Nicholas finds himself forced to make his own way in the world. Nicholas's adventures gave Dickens the opportunity to portray a extraordinary gallery of rogues and eccentrics.
£8.99
Barnaby Rudge
Set against the backdrop of the Gordon Riots of 1780, Barnaby Rudge is a story of mystery and suspense which begins with an unsolved double murder and goes on to involve conspiracy, blackmail, abduction and retribution. Through the course of the novel fathers and sons become opposed, apprentices plot against their masters and Protestants clash with Catholics on the streets.
£8.99
A Christmas Carol
Dickens's story of solitary miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught the true meaning of Christmas by a series of ghostly visitors, has proved one of his most well-loved works. Ever since it was published in 1843 it has had an enduring influence on the way we think about the traditions of Christmas.
£7.99
Martin Chuzzlewit
Set partly in America, which Dickens had visited in 1842, the novel includes a searing satire on the United States. Martin Chuzzlewit is the story of two Chuzzlewits, Martin and Jonas, who have inherited the characteristic Chuzzlewit selfishness. It contrasts their diverse fates of moral redemption and worldly success for one, with increasingly desperate crime for the other.
£9.99
Dombey and Son
To Paul Dombey, business is everything. He runs his domestic affairs as he runs his firm: coldly, calculatingly and commercially, neglecting his two wives and his daughter Florence. In Dombey's mercantile terms, she is 'merely a base coin that couldn't be invested'. Through this portrayal of a dysfunctional family, where hearts have no market value, Dickens creates a broader picture of a society that places profit above compassion.
£9.99
David Copperfield
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 brilliant, but ultimately unworthy school-friend Steerforth; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; his nemesis, the eternally humble Uriah Heep.
£7.99
Bleak House
As the interminable case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce grinds its way through the Court of Chancery, it draws together a disparate group of people: Ada and Richard Clare, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; Esther Summerson, a ward of court, whose parentage is a source of deepening mystery; the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn; the determined sleuth Inspector Bucket; and even Jo, the destitute little crossing-sweeper.
£9.99
Hard Times
Coketown is dominated by the figure of Mr Thomas Gradgrind, school headmaster and model of Utilitarian success. Feeding both his pupils and family with facts, he bans fancy and wonder from any young minds. As a consequence his obedient daughter Louisa marries the loveless businessman and ‘bully of humanity’ Mr Bounderby, and his son Tom rebels to become embroiled in gambling and robbery.
£6.99
A Tale of Two Cities
After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille the aging Dr Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette.
£6.99
Great Expectations
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens begins with a terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor – these form a series of events that change the orphaned Pip's life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman.
£6.99
Our Mutual Friend
Our Mutual Friend centres on an inheritance - Old Harmon's profitable dust heaps - and its legatees, young John Harmon, presumed drowned when a body is pulled out of the River Thames, and kindly dustman Mr Boffin, to whom the fortune defaults. With brilliant satire, Dickens portrays a dark, macabre London, inhabited by such disparate characters as Gaffer Hexam, scavenging the river for corpses.
£9.99
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Edwin Drood is contracted to marry orphan Rosa when he comes of age, but when they find that duty has gradually replaced affection, they agree to break the engagement off. Shortly afterwards, in the middle of a storm on Christmas Eve, Edwin Drood disappears, leaving nothing but some personal belongings and the suspicion that his jealous uncle John Jasper, madly in love with Rosa, is the killer.
£8.99
Little Dorrit
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. A masterly evocation of the state and psychology of imprisonment, Little Dorrit is one of the supreme works of Dickens’s maturity.
£8.99
Great Novels of Dickens
Whether you're a Dickens fanatic wanting to get reacquainted with old friends, or are yet to encounter the likes of Alfred Jingle or the Artful Dodger, The Great Novels of Charles Dickens is the perfect way to experience the very best of Charles Dickens.
£65
Charles Dickens: A Life
Claire Tomalin, author of 'Whitbread Book of the Year' Samuel Pepys, paints an unforgettable portrait of Dickens, capturing brilliantly the complex character of this great genius. Charles Dickens: A Life is the examination of Dickens we deserve.
£30
Go hands-free with Dickens digital audiobooks
Ten classic Dickens audiobooks, digitally remastered and abridged to approximately 5 hrs in length, perfect for on-the-go- listening. Listen to the audio samples below. Which one will you be downloading?
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON DICKENS 2012 VISIT WWW.DICKENS2012.ORG
© 1995 - Penguin Books Ltd
» Terms & Conditions
» Privacy Policy & Cookies
Registered Number: 861590 England
Registered Office: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
Visit our other Penguin group sites
