Samuel Pickwick: an exuberant old gentleman who gallivants around England with fellow members of his very own “Pickwick Club. But I found Nell's death near the end an unmotivated tear-jerking cheat that adds nothing; Dickens' apologia for death rings hollow. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. It was initially published in monthly installments that began in February 1837 and ended in April 1839. From the wise words of Pickwick’s street-smart valet to the wild tales of a ubiquitous charlatan, the stories within these stories demonstrate Dickens’ ability to juggle countless plots while still holding fast to readers’ attentions.

This is where Lucie meets and falls in love with Charles Darnay, a wealthy Frenchman who nevertheless takes a progressive stance against the poor treatment of the lower classes. You are immediately swept up in the story and can't wait to follow the development of the characters and the social implications he tries to convey.But when her grandfather (who’s never named) loses all their money in a desperate gamble, Nell must take the reins to lead them out of London — and, god willing, to a better life. He leaves after beating the crap out of the vicious schoolmaster (Wackford Squeers – another of Dickens' marvelously named villains), then moving the family to London to become a private secretary, constantly undercut by Ralph, who is busy trying, with his equally vile associates, to gain control of a young heiress's fortune. But readers who commit to this task will find rewards in the form of sharp observations and, as usual, a heavy dose of drama as the Jarndyces battle it out.

Quick to capitalize on his newfound status as the Christmas Bard, Dickens followed up the success of A Christmas Carol with a number of moral novellas set around the holiday season. The Pickwick Papers, also known as The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club,was the first novel of Charles Dickens. If you're looking for more literary classics to satisfy your inner English major, check out this list of 100 books you have to read in a lifetime (with two entries courtesy of Dickens!The second half deals mainly with a massive anti-Catholic uprising in London in 1780, into which Barnaby, in his dull innocence, is dragged by a reprehensible lout from the Maypole who has an innate ability to lead others to destruction.