The Writings of Charles Dickens: The Old Curiosity Shop

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Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009 - 378 pages
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: thee ? Nothing more than that he would see me to-morrow or next day ? That was in the note. Nothing more, said the child. Shall I go to him again to-morrow, dear grandfather? Very early ? I will be there and back, before breakfast. The old man shook his head, and, sighing mournfully, drew her towards him. 'T would be of no use, my dear, no earthly use. But if he deserts me, Nell, at this moment ? if he deserts me now, when I should, with his assistance, be recompensed for all the time and money I have lost, and all the agony of mind I have undergone, which makes me what you see, I am ruined, and ? worse, far worse than that ? have ruined thee, for whom I ventured all. If we are beggars ?! What if we are? said the child boldly. Let us be beggars and be happy. Beggars ? and happy ! said the old man. Poor child ! Dear grandfather, cried the girl, with an energy which shone in her flushed face, trembling voice, and impassioned gesture, I am not a child in that, I think; but even if I am. oh hear me pray that we may beg, or work in open roads or fields, to earn a scanty living, rather than live as we do now. Nelly ! said the old man. Yes, yes, rather than live as we do now, the child repeated, more earnestly than before. If you are sorrowful, let me know why and be sorrowful too; if you waste away and are paler and weaker every day, let me be your nurse and try to comfort you. If you are poor, let us be poor together; but let me be with you, do let me be with you; do not let me see such change and not know why, or I shall break my heart and die. Dear grandfather, let us leave this sad place to-morrow, and beg our way from door to door. The old man covered his face with his hands, and hid it in the pillow of the couch on w...

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About the author (2009)

Charles Dickens, perhaps the best British novelist of the Victorian era, was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England on February 7, 1812. His happy early childhood was interrupted when his father was sent to debtors' prison, and young Dickens had to go to work in a factory at age twelve. Later, he took jobs as an office boy and journalist before publishing essays and stories in the 1830s. His first novel, The Pickwick Papers, made him a famous and popular author at the age of twenty-five. Subsequent works were published serially in periodicals and cemented his reputation as a master of colorful characterization, and as a harsh critic of social evils and corrupt institutions. His many books include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, A Christmas Carol, and A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens married Catherine Hogarth in 1836, and the couple had nine children before separating in 1858 when he began a long affair with Ellen Ternan, a young actress. Despite the scandal, Dickens remained a public figure, appearing often to read his fiction. He died in 1870, leaving his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished.

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