Audiobook · read by volunteers
Old Curiosity Shop
Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
Read by Euthymius · 73 chapters · 23 h 23
About the book
Little Nell is a gentle, serious child who lives with her grandfather in a dim old shop crammed with curiosities. She loves him dearly, but she senses that something is wrong, for the old man grows secretive, anxious and driven by a hope he will not explain. Into their quiet world come the wicked moneylender Daniel Quilp, a cheerful young clerk named Dick Swiveller and a host of other memorable figures, funny and menacing by turns. When the shop is taken from them, Nell and her grandfather take to the road, wandering through fairs, villages and industrial towns, and meeting kindness and cruelty along the way. Charles Dickens first published the tale in weekly instalments, and it enthralled readers on both sides of the Atlantic. This recording presents all seventy-three chapters in about twenty-three and a half hours, read by a single voice, a long and richly populated journey.
Introduction
Charles Dickens, who lived from 1812 to 1870, was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian age. The Old Curiosity Shop was published in 1841, in weekly parts, in a periodical he edited. The serial format meant that his readers followed the fortunes of the characters week after week, and the public response was strong.
The novel mixes comedy and pathos, and it is remembered for its vivid villain Quilp, for the lively Dick Swiveller and for the long wandering of Nell and her grandfather. Opinions on its sentiment have shifted over the years, but its energy and invention have rarely been denied. Dickens uses the journey to show many sides of English life, from the fairground to the factory town.
The LibriVox recording contains seventy-three chapters and lasts about twenty-three and a half hours, all read by one volunteer. Listening to a novel of this length is a pleasure of its own, in the manner of the original serial: you can take a few chapters at a time and let the story build. It remains a fine way to get to know Dickens's imagination, his humour and his sympathy for the vulnerable. The sheer variety of the cast, from the sweet and the sinister to the ridiculous, is a good reason to listen. Dickens's talent for giving each character a way of speaking comes across especially well in audio, and long journeys, whether on foot or by car, are a fine setting for a book that is itself about travelling.
Public domain
Charles Dickens died in 1870: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text