Charles Dickens

The teenage son of an Appalachian single mother who dies when he is eleven uses his good looks, wit, and instincts to survive foster care, child labor, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival....

Gathered round the fire at the Maypole Inn, in the village of Chigwell, on a foul weather evening in the year 1775 were John Willet, proprietor of the Maypole, and his three cronies. One of the three, Soloman Daisy, tells a stranger at the inn a well-known local tale of the murder of Reuben Haredale which had occurred 22 years ago that very day. Reuben had been owner of the Warren, an estate in the area, now the residence of the deceased Reuben's...

Charles Dickens wrote a number of supernatural and horror stories, some of which were included in his longer works, while others were published in magazines. This collection gathers them together in one volume, providing an invaluable insight into the author's storytelling apprenticeship and his steady growth towards excellence. As well as offering a further dimension to the world of his better-known masterpieces, these tales - from 'The Story of...

Recounts the adventurous life of a poor orphan who is born in the workhouse and runs away in search of a better life, only to be lured into a life of crime. Justice and truth must triumph, as Oliver discovers the true identity of his mother.

John Jasper, a choirmaster and opium addict, struggles with fits of paranoia and jealousy as he watches the women he loves fall in love with his nephew, Edwin Drood; Fanny Price, a young impoverished woman, arrives at her uncle's country estate, and is snubbed by everyone except her cousin Edmund, whom she soon grows to love; mystery surrounds a pretty Victorian governess and her two young charges as the children become possessed by ghostly spells;...

When Arthur Clennam returns to London after several years abroad, he wants to learn more about his mother's new seamstress, young Amy Dorrit. His search brings him to the Marshalsea Debtors Prison, where he learns the truth about struggle and hardship in 1820s England.

John Jasper is haunted and restless. Unhappily settled as choirmaster in the provincial cathedral town of Cloisterham, Jasper finds himself striving for the divine in his music even as he struggles against madness brought on by ennui and opiates. Aware of his unraveling, Jasper believes his salvation may be found in the arms of Rosa, his prized pupil. His only obstacle is her fiance, Edwin Drood -- Jasper's nephew.