Superb collection of Dickens' best, includes five of his major novels. The Pickwick Papers, The Adventures of Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, and Tale of Two Cities.

Charles Dickens iS almost as popular today as he was with readers in Victorian England．His novels are literary classics，still as flesh and enjoyable as when theywcrc written in the nineteenth century．

Dickens，who was born in Portsea，England，in 1812，into a large，impover-ished family,knew from firsthand experi-cnce how crucl and brutal the world couldbe．But he was able tO retain his sense ofthe ridiculous and the absurd．He knewno one was defeated as long as he or shecould laugh．

Many critics consider GreatExpectationsto be Dickens’s masterpiece．It followsPhilip Pirrip—Pip—from his humble originsand his attempts to become a gentlemanto his ultimate understanding of what a“gentleman”truly is．Pip experiencesmuch of the pain and humiliation thatDickens had known in his own childhood， and the novelis written with great insightand understanding of the difficulties of ahard childhood and a young man’sattempt to build a satisfying life．

In Hard Times，Dickens satirized theindustrialization that was taking place inEngland．Gradgrind with his cry of“Inthis life，we want nothing but Facts、sir；nothing but Facts!”rcpresents the lack ofhumanity in mechanization．Dickensbelieved that the machine could notovercome human feeling and compassion．

A Christmas Carol，a classic amongChristmas stories、is one of Dickens’s mostpopular works．It is the story of EbenezerScrooge，a selfish miser，who is saved by achange of heart and becomes a warm，happy man．

In A Tale of Two Cities，set in Paris andLondon during the French Revolution，Dickens examines the injustices inherentin the revolution．Acts of violence andfalse imprisonment are entwined with thelove story of Lucie and Charles Darnay,their life together made possible by theheroic sacrifice of Sydney Carton．

Everyone has his or her favoritemoments in a Dickens novel：MissHaversham from Great Expectations sit-ting in her faded bridal finery，surroundedby the ruin of her wedding reception；Madame Defarge calmly knitting as headsroll from the guillotine in A Tale of TwoCities；Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carolwaving his little crutch and declaring、“God bless US，every one．”Reading theseclassics will reacquaint many people withtheir favorite passages and reafhrm for everyone Dickens’s position as one of theEnglish langauge’s greatest storytellers．

Foreword

Great Expectations

Hard Times

A Christmas Carol

A Tale of Two Cities