Showing results for "charles dickens" in Education & Learning

A sinister masterpiece, Our Mutual Friend was Dickens' last completed novel. It is perhaps his ultimate vision of a dark, macabre London and the corrupting power of money.

In a gloomy, neglected house Miss Havisham sits, as she has sat year after year, in a wedding dress and veil that were once white, and are now faded and yellow with age. Her face is like a death’s head; her dark eyes burn with bitterness and hate. By her side sits a proud and beautiful girl, and in front of her, trembling with fear in his thick country boots, stands young Pip.

"The Lamplighter" is ironic and iconic Dickens. A story within a story about dreams of wealth, with Dickensian wit throughout. A treat for Dickens fans who have not heard this lovely story before. (American accent narration.)

"She? That’s Little Dorrit. She’s nothing. She’s just a whim.’ Poor Little Dorrit. Her future looks as bleak as her past and her present. Born and brought up in a debtors’ prison, she relies on her sewing skills to help support her father. Little does she know that her sewing will soon present an opportunity for change. When change arrives in the form of Arthur Clennam, it is accompanied by secrets and dangers. Who is he? What are his motives for wanting to help Little Dorrit?

Charles Dickens' classic novel of mystery, read by Alex Jennings. A body is found in the River Thames and is identified as John Harmon. He was due to inherit a great fortune on the condition that he marry a young woman called Bella Wilfer. And so the story begins and unravels and we are introduced to the mysterious John Rokesmith, Our Mutual Friend.

Charles Dickens' brilliant comic adventure of a lamplighter, Tom Grig, who is called into the house of an eccentric astronomer who is searching for the philosopher's stone. He declares that the stars have foretold that Tom will marry the astronomer's niece and inherit the secret of the philosopher's stone, which will make him the richest man on earth.

London in the 1830s was no place to be if you were a hungry 10-year-old boy, an orphan without friends or family, with no home to go to, and only a penny in your pocket to buy a piece of bread.But Oliver Twist finds some friends – Fagin, the Artful Dodger, and Charley Bates. They give him food and shelter, and play games with him, but it is not until some days later that Oliver finds out what kind of friends they are and what kind of ’games’ they play. An Oxford Bookworms Library reader for learners of English, adapted from the Charles Dickens original by Richard Rogers.

On New Year's Eve, an elderly ticket porter, Toby "Trotty" Veck, a hardworking but poor man, is disillusioned with the state of the world. He is appalled by newspaper reports of crime and immorality, and fears for the future prospects of his daughter, Meg, who is to be married on New Year's Day. Trotty has always fancied that the bell chimes of the nearby church offer him encouragement when he is most in need. On this particular night, he is drawn to the church tower, where he is greeted by the spirits of the bells and their goblin attendants who show him a vision of the future.

’Please, Mr Murdstone! Don’t beat me! I’ve tried to learn my lessons, really I have, sir!’ sobs David. Although he is only eight years old, Mr Murdstone does beat him, and David is so frightened that he bites his cruel stepfather’s hand. For that, he is kept locked in his room for five days and nights, and nobody is allowed to speak to him. As David grows up, he learns that life is full of trouble and misery and cruelty. But he also finds laughter and kindness, trust and friendship . . . and love.

The Marquis lay there, like stone, with a knife pushed into his heart. On his chest lay a piece of paper, with the words: Drive him fast to the grave. This is from JACQUES. ’The French Revolution brings terror and death to many people. But even in these troubled times people can still love and be kind. They can be generous and true-hearted . . . and brave. An Oxford Bookworms Library reader for learners of English, adapted from the Charles Dickens original by Ralph Mowat.

Charles Dickens is known not only for his novels, but also for his short stories, particularly "A Christmas Carol." In the latter genre, interestingly, these stories had a powerful commercial impulse, for they were serialized in magazines at the Christmas season.

Great Expectations is hailed as Charles Dickens' masterpiece. A gripping tale of love and loss, aspiration and moral redemption, the story follows the young orphan Xiaomao (Pip) from poverty to a life of unexpected opportunity and wealth. Mandarin Companion is a series of easy-to-listen-to novels in Chinese that are fun to listen to and proven to accelerate language learning.

Great Expectations is hailed as Charles Dickens' masterpiece. A gripping tale of love and loss, aspiration and moral redemption, the story follows the young orphan Xiaomao (Pip) from poverty to a life of unexpected opportunity and wealth. In part two, Xiaomao (Pip) leaves his life of poverty behind to seek his fortunes in Shanghai and win the heart of the beautiful yet cold-hearted Bingbing (Estella). Xiaomao’s world is turned upside down when his mysterious benefactor is revealed and his deepest secrets are brought into the light of day. 

Charles Dickens was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity. THE SHIPWRECK: Never had I seen a year going out, or going on, under quieter circumstances. Eighteen hundred and fifty-nine had but another day to live, and truly its end was Peace on that sea-shore that morning.

Improve your English without any extra studying, with audiobooks by Read Stories - Learn English. We meet: a signalman who has a terrible secret working on a lonely railway line; two men who are the only guests in a hotel where strange things keep happening; a painter who meets a mysterious young woman on a train and is asked to paint her portrait; an old professor with many sad memories, who is given a choice: Does he want to forget his past?

Christmas is humbug, Scrooge says - just a time when you find yourself a year older and not a penny richer. The only thing that matters to Scrooge is business, and making money. But on Christmas Eve three spirits come to visit him. They take him travelling on the wings of the night to see the shadows of Christmas past, present, and future - and Scrooge learns a lesson that he will never forget.