'The one great principle of the English law is, to make business for itself' 'Jarndyce and Jardyce' is an infamous lawsuit that has been in process for generations. Nobody can remember exactly how the case started but many different individuals have found their fortunes caught up in it. Esther Summerson watches as her friends and neighbours are consumed by their hopes and disappointments with the proceedings. But while the intricate puzzles of the lawsuit are being debated by lawyers, other more dramatic mysteries are unfolding that involve heartbreak, lost children, blackmail and murder.
Paul Dombey is an ambitious, calculating London merchant. He pins all his hopes for the future of his shipping firm on his fragile son whilst his daughter, Florence, goes unnoticed and neglected. It is only when the firm faces ruin, and Dombey is staring at a life of desolate solitude that Florence may finally be valued.
The youngest child of debtor William Dorrit, Amy is born in the Marshalsea prison. She is befriended by Arthur Clennam, whose mother employs 'Little Dorrit' as a seamstress. Then, following the discovery of a large and unexpected inheritance, the fortunes of the Dorrits undergo an extreme change and the family moves to Italy.
Charles Dickens died half way through writing "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", and ever since speculation has been rife as to how the tale might have unfolded. This title indicates how the great author might have finished this masterpiece, drawing from those leads a modern story of obsessive love, betrayal and murder.
Described as a "tragedy of sorrows", the tale of Little Nell gripped the nation when it first appeared in 1841. It tells the story of Nell, uprooted from a secure and innocent childhood and cast into a world where evil takes many shapes, including Swiveller, Nubbles and the lecherous dwarf Quilp.
