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Cover of Old Curiosity Shop

Old Curiosity Shop

Charles Dickens

Summary

The Old Curiosity Shop was published in full as a separate volume in 1841 but was originally supposed to be part of the Master Humphrey’s Clock series and is indeed narrated at the start by Master Humphreys (see Barnaby Rudge ). A curiosity shop was, in Dickens’ time, a place where one could buy second hand goods of a precious, ornamental or antique variety. Little Nell Trent looks after her grandfather in the gloomy environs of such a shop and she is one of many Dickens heroines to be utterly devoted and kind (see Little Dorrit etc). Their fortunes go sharply downhill as the grandfather’s money is wasted by a spendthrift son-in-law and Fred Trent, Nell’s brother. In this unfortunate situation, the grandfather borrows money from the appalling Daniel Quilp, an unpleasant-looking dwarf. He attempts to gamble it into a larger sum for Nell’s sake but fails and Quilp, realising where his money has gone, seizes the shop. This leaves the old man and Nell to flee and face the torments of life wandering the country to avoid the vengeful and malicious Quilp. There is something of an improvement in their fortunes, but eventually both die, in Nell’s case in a particularly sentimental way that Dickens is often criticised for. There is also some justice however, for Quilp, and the minor characters such as Kit Nubbles (who adores Nell) provide some relief from the grimness of the novel’s portrait of the world.

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