The Charles Dickens Value Collection: The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnab Ridge, A Tale of Two Cities [Abridged, Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Charles Dickens (Author), Dramatization (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 6, 1999

The Old Curiosity Shop is a story of contrasts:  youth and old age, beauty and deformity, freedom and restraint. Expansively comic, sentimentally tragic, it it sometimes fairytale and sometimes myth.

Barnaby Rudge, Dickens' magnificent tale of private lives and public events takes place in the seething unrest of the 1780's London.  With a richly diverse cast of characters, Dickens weaves the complex themes of public authority and rebellion with the private conflicts of fathers and sons in a spellbinding, fictional recreation of the Gordon Riots.

The spectre of the revolution, the flaming chateaux, the ferocious mobs, the rumbling of the death carts, the hiss and thud of the guillotine, the storming of the Bastille - all are vividly portrayed in Charles Dickens' great French Revolutionary romance, A Tale of Two Cities which dashes back and forth from London to Paris during the nightmare of The Terror.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

The Old Curiosity Shop is a story of contrasts:  youth and old age, beauty and deformity, freedom and restraint. Expansively comic, sentimentally tragic, it it sometimes fairytale and sometimes myth.

Barnaby Rudge, Dickens' magnificent tale of private lives and public events takes place in the seething unrest of the 1780's London.  With a richly diverse cast of characters, Dickens weaves the complex themes of public authority and rebellion with the private conflicts of fathers and sons in a spellbinding, fictional recreation of the Gordon Riots.

The spectre of the revolution, the flaming chateaux, the ferocious mobs, the rumbling of the death carts, the hiss and thud of the guillotine, the storming of the Bastille - all are vividly portrayed in Charles Dickens' great French Revolutionary romance, A Tale of Two Cities which dashes back and forth from London to Paris during the nightmare of The Terror.

About the Author

Charles Dickens was born in Portsea, England in 1812.  He grew up in poverty, and was forced to leave school and go to work, at age eleven, in a London warehouse.  Dickens returned to school when the family fortunes improved, and later became an office boy, a newspaper reporter, and finally, an author.  With Pickwick Papers, he achieved immediate fame; in a few years, he was the most popular and respected author of his time.  Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, and The Old Curiosity Shop were all huge successes for Dickens. A Christmas  Carol, Bleak House and Hard Times reveal his deepening concern for the injustices of British society, while A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations complete his major works.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Random House Audio; Unabridged edition (July 6, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553526286
• ISBN-13: 978-0553526288
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 4.2 x 2.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,144,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Books on Cassette > Authors, A-Z > ( D ) > Dickens, Charles

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good book, July 19, 2001

By 

Svetlana Ostrovskaya (Naperville, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Charles Dickens Value Collection: The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnab Ridge, A Tale of Two Cities (Audio Cassette)

I was encouraged to buy another set of audio cassetes after listening to "Death in Holy Orders", which made our long trips in the car more enjoyable. Charles Dickens audio collection even more interesting. The only problem that we had is when characters' speech went too fast and it was hard to understand it. But for native English speakers it should be OK.