num_pages: 6
description: A bestseller that gripped the nation when it was first published, The Old Curiosity Shop is a novel of sharp contrasts: of life and death, youth and age, desire and innocence, humour and villainy.For the character of Little Nell, the beautiful child thrown into a shadowy, terrifying world, Dickens drew on a tragedy in his own life, the death at the age of seventeen of his sister-in-law Mary Hogarth. Five years later he wrote, 'the desire to be buried next her is as strong upon me now ... and I know (for I don't think there ever was love like that I bear her) that it will never diminish.'The sorrows of Nell and her grandfather are offset by Dickens's creation of a dazzling contemporary world inhabited by some of his most brilliantly drawn characters -- the eloquent ne'er-do-well Dick Swiveller; the hungry maid known as the 'Marchioness'; the mannish lawyer Sally Brass; Quilp's brow-beaten mother-in-law, and Quilp himself, the lustful, vengeful dwarf, whose demonic energy makes a vivid counterpoint to Nell's purity.
language: English
title: David Copperfield
titlecomplete: David Copperfield (Penguin Classics)
characters: James Steerforth, Miss Dartle, Dr. Strong, Martha Endell, Mrs. Clara Copperfield, Little Emily, Mr. Jorkens, Littimer, Miss Julia Mills, Mr. Francis Spenlow, Mrs. Gummidge, The Rev. Horace Crewler, Mr. Spenlow, Mr. Omer, Mr. Quinion, Mrs. Creakle, Master Wilkins Micawber, Richard Babley, Clara Peggotty, Daniel Peggotty, Mr. Creakle, Mr. Joram, Miss Lavina Spenlow, Mrs. Crupp, Miss Clarissa Spenlow, Miss Betsey Trotwood, Ham Peggotty, Mr. Mills, Miss Dora Spenlow, Mrs. Steerforth, Mrs. Emma Micawber, Miss Emma Micawber, Mr. Wilkins  Micawber, Thomas Traddles, Mr. Edward Murdstone, Mr. Wickfield, David Copperfield, Uriah Heep, Mrs. Heep, Agnes Wickfield, Little Em'ly, Mrs. Annie Strong, Minnie Omer, Jack Maldon, Mr. Charles Mell, Mr. Chillip, Miss Creakle, Rosa Dartle, Mr. Tiffey, Doady, Miss Lavinia, Anne Strong, Miss Mowcher, Sophy Crewler, Mrs. Crewler, Mr. Barkis, Mrs. Marckleham, Miss Jane Murdstone
genres: Literature, British Literature, Audiobook, Classics, Novels, Victorian, 19th Century, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Classic Literature
ratings_count: 231372
places: London, England, Dover, Kent, England, Kent, England, England, Great Yarmouth, England, Canterbury, Kent, England
awards: awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Audie Award
category: Fiction of Nonfiction Licenses or Distributed for Martin Jarvis
publisher: Penguin