Fine reading of rambling tale

I had never read The Old Curiosity Shop, and thought I would grab the chance of hearing it via an audio book. For the second time I found myself listening to Anton Lesser, and he is one of the best readers I have heard on audio books, bringing the characters to life and moving the story along. Unfortunately I found Dickens' story less than involving. I know his novels are often 'picaresque', ie following a character as they wander around the countryside, into whatever adventures they have. This one takes the picaresque to new extremes - some of the people encountered by Little Nell and her grandfather are frankly uninteresting, and I don't know why Dickens bothered with them. Some of his descriptive writing is superb, however. Kit is an interesting character, though like Nell, a bit too good to be true. And Quilp is surely too bad to be true - the worst of Dickens' monsters, though he has been cut from cardboard. I got very tired of Quilp in his first, very long appearance in the novel, and in the last few chapters of the book, I could not wait for him to die. Nell is definitely too good to be true too - but I do know she is a famous character in literature, and feel glad to have made her acquaintance. On the whole, though, this novel made me feel I had had enough of Dickens for quite a few years (the other novel I have heard is Dombey and Son, which I enjoyed more - also read by Anton Lesser I am sure).

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Brilliant Dickens

Yet another tale of amazing characters told as only Charles Dickens can. Perfect narration by Anton Lesser

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Fantastic performance

This is worth listening to for Anton Lesser’s performance alone, particularly of the villainous Quilp. The story is not Dickens’ best but still entertains and casts light on social evils relevant today.

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excellent

Anton lesser delivers a fantastic performance once again and Dickens,superb and historical in his tales of everyday life.

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Astonishing narration brings Little Nell to life

This is not Dickens' greatest novel but Anton Lesser's compelling, witty narration, as well as his mastery of the Dickensian style (and some of Dickens longest sentences), makes this audio book thoroughly engaging as well as heart wrenching. Mr Lesser's ability to bring the dozens of characters (male and female) to life with their various personalities and totally different voices is nothing short of astonishing and I frequently had to remind myself that I was listening to only one reader - note especially his virtuosic handling of Daniel Quilp and Solomon Brass. The story is rambling but engrossing and, while Dickens has been accused of drawing one-dimensional characters, they are memorable and endlessly amusing. This is the novel that introduced the world to the frail but courageous Little Nell and it's worth listening to if only to see where the 19th century trend for angelic but oppressed little girls began.

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1 person found this helpful

Dickens in all his glory

Extraordinarily well read. The variety and character in the voices was really impressive. The story itself is a well-woven web that is so beautifully told with that wonderful Dickensian description and characterisation.

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A good performance but could have been better...

the performance of the voice of Nel is too sentimental. A good story but average to Dickens' finest works.

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