A Christmas Carol
The most accessible introduction to Dickens's characteristic blend of social criticism, sentiment, humor, and supernatural fiction.
Author guide
Charles Dickens Books in Order
Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812–1870) was a major English Victorian novelist, journalist, editor, playwright, and social critic. He published fifteen completed full-length novels and left The Mystery of Edwin Drood unfinished, alongside novellas, short-story collections, travel writing, essays, journalism, plays, speeches, and a posthumously published religious memoir. His fiction was commonly serialized and is noted for comic invention, memorable characters, narrative experimentation, and criticism of institutions including debtors’ prisons, schools, courts, workhouses, and factories. Dickens edited Household Words and All the Year Round and collaborated theatrically and fictionally with other writers, especially Wilkie Collins.
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Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
David Copperfield
A widely representative, largely self-contained bildungsroman that showcases Dickens's narrative voice and character range.
Bleak House
A strong starting point for readers interested in Dickens's mature social criticism, complex plotting, and institutional satire.
Read in order
Books by series
novella-series · complete
Christmas Books
A sequence of five separately published Christmas novellas issued by Dickens between 1843 and 1848.
- 1 A Christmas Carol
Book 1 · novella · 1843
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens. It was first published by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. It tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation resulting from a…
- 2 The Chimes
Book 2 · novella · 1844
The story of Trotty Veck, a poor ticket porter, whose outlook is changed from despair to hope by the spirits of the chimes on New Year's Eve. Newly designed and typeset for modern readers by Waking Lion Press.
- 3 The Cricket on the Hearth
Book 3 · novella · 1845
One of Charles Dickens' Christmas Books John Peerybingle, a carrier, lives with his young wife Dot, their baby boy and their nanny Tilly Slowboy. A cricket chirps on the hearth and acts as a guardian angel to the family. One day a…
- 4 The Battle of Life
Book 4 · novella · 1846
Once upon a time, it matters little when, and in stalwart England, it matters little where, a fierce battle was fought. It was fought upon a long summer day when the waving grass was green. Many a wild flower formed by the Almighty Hand…
- 5 The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain
Book 5 · novella · 1848
Everybody said so. Far be it from me to assert that what everybody says must be true. Everybody is, often, as likely to be wrong as right. In the general experience, everybody has been wrong so often, and it has taken, in most instances,…
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (16)
- The Pickwick Papers
novel · 1836
> Blockquote Dickens’ first novel was originally written and published as a serial. It is a comedy relating the misadventures of the members of The Pickwick Club, whose main purpose is to discover and relate quaint and curious phenomena…
- Oliver Twist
novel · 1837
Oliver Twist, OR: the Parish Boy's Progress, is Charles Dickens's second novel, and was first published as a serial from 1837 to 1839. The story centres on orphan Oliver Twist, born in a workhouse and sold into apprenticeship with an…
- Nicholas Nickleby
novel · 1838
- The Old Curiosity Shop
novel · 1840
The emotional tale of Little Nell and her doting grandfather, played out against the backdrop of a cold and brutal London. The twosome abandon their home to escape debt and roam the countryside as beggars. Relentlessly pursued by a…
- Barnaby Rudge
novel · 1841
Set against the backdrop of the Gordon Riots of 1780, Barnaby Rudge is a story of mystery and suspense which begins with an unsolved double murder and goes on to involve conspiracy, blackmail, abduction and retribution. Through the course…
- Martin Chuzzlewit
novel · 1843
The greed of his family has led wealthy old Martin Chuzzlewit to become suspicious and misanthropic, leaving his grandson and namesake to make his own way in the world. And so young Martin sets out from the Wiltshire home of his supposed…
- Dombey and Son
novel · 1846
Set amid the teeming bustle of Victorian England, Dombey and Son is Dickens's story of a powerful man whose coldhearted neglect of his family causes his professional and personal downfall. This Modern Library Paperback Classic reprints…
- David Copperfield
novel · 1849
T adds to the charm of this book to remember that it is virtually a picture of the author's own boyhood. It is an excellent picture of the life of a struggling English youth in the middle of the last century. The pictures of Canterbury…
- A Child's History of England
nonfiction · 1851
IF you look at a Map of the World, you will see, in the left-hand upper corner of the Eastern Hemisphere, two Islands lying in the sea. They are England and Scotland, and Ireland. England and Scotland form the greater part of these…
- Bleak House
novel · 1852
As the interminable case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce grinds its way through the Court of Chancery, it draws together a disparate group of people: Ada and Richard Clare, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; Esther…
- Hard Times
novel · 1854
Dickens scathing portrait of Victorian industrial society and its misapplied utilitarian philosophy, Hard Times features schoolmaster Thomas Gradgrind, one of his most richly dimensional, memorable characters. Filled with the details and…
- Little Dorrit
novel · 1855
An abridgement and retelling of the Dicken's novel, a tale of satire and protest that presents a young protagonist, Amy Dorrit, who was born within the walls of Marshalsea, a debtors prison.
- A Tale of Two Cities
novel · 1859
After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille the aging Dr. Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There, two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney…
- Great Expectations
novel · 1860
In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens chronicles the life of Pip, an ordinary country boy led astray by the trappings of London society as well as his desire to improve himself and become a gentleman. Along the way, Pip meets the…
- Our Mutual Friend
novel · 1864
*Our Mutual Friend* is a satiric masterpiece about money. The last novel Dickens completed, and perhaps his most angry, it sounds all the great themes of his later work: the innocence and venality of the aspiring poor, the hollow…
- The Mystery of Edwin Drood
unfinished-novel · 1870
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final, uncompleted novel by Charles Dickens. John Jasper is a choirmaster who is in love with one of his pupils, Rosa Bud. She is the fiancee of his nephew, Edwin Drood. A hot-tempered man from Ceylon…
Nonfiction (4)
- Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi
memoir · 1838
- American Notes for General Circulation
travel-writing · 1842
- Pictures from Italy
travel-writing · 1846
From the book:If the readers of this volume will be so kind as to take their credentials for the different places which are the subject of its author's reminiscences, from the Author himself, perhaps they may visit them, in fancy, the…
- The Life of Our Lord
memoir · 1934
**In this charming, simple retelling of the life of Jesus Christ, adapted from the Gospel of St. Luke, Dickens hoped to teach his young children about religion and faith.**---Goodreads **The author of such works as "Oliver Twist" and "A…
Short fiction (2)
- Sketches by Boz
short-story-collection · 1836
How much is conveyed in those two short words - 'The Parish!' And with how many tales of distress and misery, of broken fortune and ruined hopes, too often of unrelieved wretchedness and successful knavery, are they associated! A poor…
- A Holiday Romance
short-story-collection · 1868
Essays and speeches (4)
- Sunday Under Three Heads
pamphlet · 1836
Charles Dickens is considered one of the greatest English authors of all time. Dickens often used the pen name Boz. Much of his work first appeared in periodicals and magazines in serialized form. Unlike many writers of his time Dickens…
- Sketches of Young Gentlemen
essay-collection · 1838
When we consider Dickens's life and work, in comparison with that of the two great poets we have been studying, the contrast is startling. While Tennyson and Browning were being educated for the life of literature, and shielded most…
- Sketches of Young Couples
essay-collection · 1840
- The Uncommercial Traveller
essay-collection · 1861
A collection of seventeen sketches which grew out of Dickens' insomnia. He took long walks through London at night and his observations resulted in these sketches.
Plays (7)
- The Village Coquettes
play · 1836
- The Strange Gentleman
play · 1837
- Is She His Wife?; or, Something Singular!
play · 1837
- Mr. Nightingale's Diary
play · 1851
- The Frozen Deep
play · 1866
The final crack at a play begun by Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens, The Frozen Deep is inspired by the fateful Franklin Expedition, a naval voyage that was stranded in the Arctic in the 1840s, and is still making headlines today. Four…
- No Thoroughfare
play · 1867
- The Lamplighter
play · 1879
Dickens is considered to be one of the greatest British writers. He was a social activist who wrote plays and novels during the Victorian period. His most famous novels include Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, and David Copperfield This…
Frequently asked questions about Charles Dickens
Who was Charles Dickens?
Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was an English Victorian novelist, journalist, editor, playwright, and social critic. He became one of the nineteenth century’s most influential writers, known for vivid characters and concern with poverty and social injustice.
Sources: poetryfoundation.org (opens in a new tab)dickensmuseum.com (opens in a new tab)
What was Charles Dickens’s childhood like?
Dickens grew up amid family financial instability. At age 12, after his father was imprisoned for debt, he worked in a London blacking warehouse; the experience strongly influenced his lifelong concern for vulnerable children and the poor.
Sources: poetryfoundation.org (opens in a new tab)dickensmuseum.com (opens in a new tab)
How did Charles Dickens begin his writing career?
He began as a journalist reporting on Parliament and published early sketches under the nickname “Boz.” His first novel, The Pickwick Papers, was serialized from 1836 to 1837 and established his public reputation.
Sources: collections.dickensmuseum.com (opens in a new tab)collections.dickensmuseum.com (opens in a new tab)
What influenced Charles Dickens’s writing?
His childhood poverty and factory work shaped his sympathy for neglected children and the working poor. His years as a parliamentary reporter also gave him firsthand knowledge of London life, public institutions, and social problems.
Sources: poetryfoundation.org (opens in a new tab)collections.dickensmuseum.com (opens in a new tab)
Why is Charles Dickens still important today?
Dickens remains important for combining memorable storytelling with sharp criticism of poverty, exploitation, and institutional failure. His characters and phrases remain part of popular culture, while scholars continue to find his social concerns relevant.
Sources: dickensmuseum.com (opens in a new tab)dickens.ucsc.edu (opens in a new tab)