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The Old Curiosity Shop (Penguin Classics) |  | Author: Charles Dickens
Creator: Alec McCowen
Publisher: Penguin Audiobooks
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy Used: £5.00
as of 14/3/2010 09:12 MDT details
You Save: £4.99 (50%)
Used (5) from £5.00
Seller: reactive6
Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 1192126
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Media: Audio Cassette
Edition: abridged edition
Number Of Items: 4
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 4.4 x 1.4
ISBN: 0140860770
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780140860771
ASIN: 0140860770
Publication Date: February 23, 1995
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
 Highly imperfect but irresistible nonetheless December 31, 2009
A. Butterfield (UK)
Finally I've read The Old Curiosity Shop. For years I've thought of it as the one where Little Nell [insert tragedy] and the reader weeps because he is so beguiled by her.
But now I realise it's just Dickens himself who's beguiled by Little Nell. Well I certainly wasn't. She's a bit spineless and useless, but then so is the rest of her family and especially her appalling grandfather. You may be more susceptible to Nell's charms, but I bet you'll tire of Dickens going on and on (and on) about 'the child' and her devoted nature.
So I was a bit surprised at that. But there are other, much more interesting stories in this novel. Some of them get a bit forgotten until they are briefly and too-neatly tied up at the end.
There's the story of Kitt, and the story of the sadistic dwarf Quilp, and Samson Brass, and Dick Swiveller... all these characters' histories are much more interesting than Little Nell's.
The story is at its best when things get nasty, and that usually involves Quilp. I've seen one or two Quilps on screen, but none get even close to the hideous little creature that I have in my head. He's one of Dickens' most vivid characters. I doubt a writer today would dare pen one like him.
All the affection and sympathy I was supposed to feel for Nell I felt for Kitt instead, and he's a character you really feel for, even if what happens to him is a bit predictable.
Dick Swiveller is another very interesting anti-hero character who's especially well drawn. It's surprising that Dickens didn't let him have a little more of the limelight, and especially surprising that the end of his story is tossed off in a couple of paragraphs, or so it seems.
There are some odd faults: the opening few chapters are narrated in the first-person by an old gentleman. Then, suddenly, the narrative switches to the third-person and stays that way as though Dickens suddenly realised he wasn't going to be able to tell the story like he originally intended.
It's not really explained how Mrs Quilp could have married such a creature as her husband, nor why Quilp himself would have ever put up with her mother. And why would Quilp, shrewd as he is, have lent Nell's grandfather such a large sum of money? I think there are several holes in the plot that you can't help noticing.
Anyway, instead of following the dim witted Nell's seemingly endless journey to nowhere, we could have been enjoying much more of Quilp and Dick Swiveller.
Nonetheless, it's a story you stick with through thick and thin. The good bits ensure you can't put it down.
So it could have been a lot better, but it is Dickens and it's what Dickens does. If you can stand the dull bits that usually involve Nell, there is plenty to reward your forbearance.
 Curiosity Shop June 21, 2009
John Stark (Glasgow)
This is the first Dickens novel I have read since childhood and it certainly won't be the last. It is relatively short by Dickens standards but not the sort of book you would want to put down until you have finished it. It is not a book for those readers who like a 'happy ending'.
A Good Read September 7, 2007
L. Spurling (London, England)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have just finished reading this book and I must say that I found it a little disjointed, although there were some real gems of characters in it - Swiveller, the Brasses, Quilp. That's why I've given it a 4 instead of a 3. The "good" characters were, as often in Dickens, rather boring and just too good to be true. Some things were left unsaid: for instance, how did Quilp's wife ever get to marry him!!!! There was a little note at the end that said her mother coerced her, but that part of the story might have been a lot better. All in all worth a read and, despite my criticisms, I wish I could write a fraction as good as Dickens!
Twee heroine but revel in the characters August 3, 2006
David Morley (Brighton, UK)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
The basic set up of this story may have pulled at Victorian heart stings but I thought it just silly : Nell, a young girl (12 I think) is brought into poverty by her uselss gambler of a grandfather and so decides they should both escape from the evil clutches of Quilp and run away to live as travellers in the countryside.
As is often the case in Dickens the good characters are dull and Nell is certainly this. Dull and niave the book drags when it's just her and her ga ga grandfather trapssing around the countryside. However, what saves the books is the great characters around them. Mrs Jaffery who runs the wax works, Richard Swiveller and the Marchioness, the noble, trustworthy Kit and of course the vile Quilp. Quilp is the star of the book, evil incarnate he steals every scene he's in. I'd love a really dark version of this story to be made for tv or the cinema.
The essence of Charles Dickens July 28, 2006
Catfish (Cambridge, UK)
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
This is the story of a little girl called Nell, who together with her grandfather, must run away from a succession of villains in an almost epic journey! You'll find everything here that you love about Charles Dickens: humour, satire, drama, unforgettable characters, laughter, and tears (I read somewhere that when Dickens read The Old Curiosity Shop at his public readings, the audience would actually burst into mass tears!) There are moments of heart-warming joy and moments of despair, and I think anyone with empathy and imagination will love this classic tale of good and evil.
A word of warning though: if you buy an edition with annotations, don't read them!! I made this fatal mistake, and was informed by a note in the middle of the novel about the fate of one of the main characters and what happens to the person at the end. What a spoiler! It ruined the whole pleasure of reading for me and I only managed to finish because the narrative was so lovely... if it had been any other novel I would surely not have bothered to go on to the end. Allow yourself the pleasure of reading this novel for its warmth and literary greatness - don't touch the notes.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
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