Charles Dickens' Story Readings

A condensed version of Dickens's classic and sentimental novel about the ghosts of Christmas who help old Ebenezer Scrooge find salvation. Dickens cut several scenes from the novel to shorten the presentation. Still included is most of the opening scene in his counting house, the visit of his deceased partner Jacob Marley, the Christmas dance with his previous employer Fezziwig, Christmas with the Cratchit family, the sale of Scrooge's possessions after his death, the scene of mourning at the Cratchit's, the scene in the graveyard with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, and the final redemption of Scrooge. (70 min)

A story of two young children who try to run away and get married as told by their servant, Boots. Boots had previously worked as a gardener for the boy's family and how works at the Holly Tree Inn where the two children arrive one day by coach without any adults. The boy says they are off to be married and Boots has to entertain them while the owner of the Inn fetches the boy's father. A sweet story of young love and the care of Boots for their feelings. (25 min)

One of Dickens' annual series of Christmas stories written in 1851 for his twopenny weekly Household Words. This is not really a story so much as reminiscences of Christmases past and what Christmas means to an older adult. It briefly traces thoughts of how Christmas was celebrated as a child, then as a young person in love with someone, and then as a newlywed. It then moves on to Christmas in the prime of one's life and finally in one's older years. At this point all are welcome around our Christmas tree, including those who we have lost in our lifetimes. The piece extolls the virtue of celebrating Christmas with family members that are with us and those we remember. (13 min)

A generally humorous story of Doctor Marigold who is a "cheap-jack" who hawks sundries from a traveling cart he inhabits with his wife and his daughter Sophy. The mother beats Sophy, but Marigold, feeling powerless, does nothing to stop her. When the child dies of a fever, her guilt-wracked mother commits suicide. His lonely fortunes reverse when he adopts a deaf and mute girl. Marigold invents and teaches Sophy his own system of sign language and finally sends her to a "deaf-and-dumb establishment" in London to complete her education. Sophy falls in love with another student and follows him on business to China. The story culminates in Sophy's return at Christmas time where he meets his granddaughter. (54 min)

A selection from The Pickwick Papers where this story is told in chapter 28. The story revolves around Gabriel Grub, a surly, ill-humored sexton who digs a graves at the churchyard. While doing so he sees a chorus of goblins who pull him down into a subterranean lair. They show him tableaus of the world above depicting the lives of everyday people displaying good cheer and goodwill despite their hard lives. Gabriel begins to understand the error of his ways and awakens the next day a reformed man. This story was written shortly before A Christmas Carol and one finds in it precursors to the Scrooge character and some of the latter's themes. (25 min)

In this story, a practical-minded narrator meets a railway worker who works as a signalman on a stretch of railroad coming out of a dark tunnel in a deep gorge who has been seeing strange visions that he cannot explain. The narrator doubts the man at first, but agrees to visit him the next evening to try to help him figure out their significance. The story concludes with a strange supernatural event makes him a believer. (33 min)

Starting with the same tone as his earlier, comic pieces, this tale follows two apprentices during their travels. They stop at a house with a haunted chamber, and – just as the clock strikes – an old man with glowing eyes and a throttled neck visits them with all of the pomp, seriousness, and duty of the Ancient Mariner (whose morbid ritual of storytelling he mimics). Humorous at first due to the apprentices’ idiotic inability to realize that they are speaking with the burning-eyed ghost of a hanged man, the story slides off into darkness as he tells of his sadistic neglect of his young and innocent wife, of how he bloodily murdered her suspicious admirer after she had wasted away, and of how the tree where he buried the body began to take… different shapes. The story is fantastic, eerie, and certainly influenced M. R. James in more ways than one (cf. “Martin’s Close,” “The Ash Tree,” “Stalls of Barchester Cathedral”). Definitely an under-appreciated gem of his oeuvre. (32 min)

A selection from chapter 11 of The Pickwick Papers (1836). The story is narrated from the first person narrator. A man, imprisoned in a sanatorium, writes down his live in a retrospective: One day, when he was still small, he got to know that a hereditary madness existed in his family and people kept telling each other, that some day, he would become a doomed madman himself. Finally, he had no doubt he was mad, and he was also sure that no one else except him had already noticed it. He lead quite a merry life, for he suddenly became a rich man by an unexpected inheritance. A young girl was driven by her poor and needy relatives to marry him, although she actually loved another. He became jealous and angry with his wife’s relatives and so made up his mind to kill her but failed. He was told by doctors that his wife was mad and she soon died. He eventually killed her brother and revealed himself as mad. He was arrested and locked up in a cell where he tells this tale. (20 min)

This selection is a combination of two stories written by Dickens in 1859 for his collection of stories called "The Haunted House." This collection included stories by Dickens and others all centering around a fictional haunted house. The selection includes Dickens' opening story "Mortals in the House" and portions of the final story "Ghost in the Corner Room." The story starts when the narrator espies a deserted house from his railway carriage, and he cannot resist the challenge of taking up residence in a place no one else will inhabit. Local legend has terrified the nearby villagers, and they, in turn, convince his servants to abandon ship. Undaunted, he and his sister invite a group of friends to join them. After each spends a year in the house with the narrator and his sister, they gather in the final evening to compare notes of their stay. (36 min)

Several of Dickens' ghost stories involve Christmas since, at that time, Christmas still retained some of its pagan supernatural traditions. This story is an amalgam of short ghostly stories all told around Christmas time. (18 min)

In 1861 Dickens was publishing the weekly literary magazine "All the Year Round." In September he published "Four Stories" which were all ghost stories. This presentation is the first of those that concerns a painter who met a young woman on a train. He carries on a polite conversation with her and then never sees her again. He goes on to paint portraits for two friends and in doing so, encounters supernatural experience. This story was later modified a bit and republished as “The Portrait-Painter’s Story.” (11 min)

A legal drama, this follows the adventure of a juror who is visited by the ghost of a murder victim. The waxy-faced phantom exposes his slashed throat, discredits witnesses, and harasses his murderer – all while being invisible to all but the juror. Although the tale is rife with promise (eagerly harvested by Le Fanu and in James in more stories than one), it is largely a cynical satire which suggests that the only way the justice system can be expected to work (in spite of its corruption, stupidity, and foolishness) is through supernatural intervention. (28 min)

This brace of tales is said to have been Dickens’ first exposure to terror: bedtime stories whispered to him in candlelight by his childhood nursemaid.  The pair are indeed gruesome. In the first, Captain Murder is a Bluebeard who cuts his wives throats and cannibalizes them. When he butchers one fair maiden, her willy (and arguably insane) sister knowingly marries the brute, poisoning herself just before being slain, and ensuring that Captain Murder bites off more than he can chew. In the other – a truly Lovecraftian tale of hopeless fate – a ship’s carpenter resists a deal with the devil (one which all of his forefather’s have made), but ultimately gives in, with disastrous consequences to his shipmates. In this one, the devil is particularly sinister, and is accompanied by a talking rat (something which Le Fanu, Stoker, and Lovecraft would later adopt). (28 min)

A selection from chapter 14 of The Pickwick Papers where it was called "The Bagman's Story." The Queer Chair is a story of an old chair in the room of a vagabond salesman who has taken lodging for the night. The chair has very human features. The legs and arms of this chair become like those of a man like and the seat speaks to him. The chair fears it will go up for sale, like its brothers and sisters. The chair tells Tom to marry a widow and not the scoundrel who has taken lodgings in the inn that the man has taken for the night. (35 min)

This is a brilliant little tale that inspired Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Now, Poe fans – and I am one – we need to give this one its due, because the evidence is really undeniable. Between this and “A Madman’s Manuscript” (which smacks of “The Black Cat,” “Tell-Tale,” and “The Imp of the Perverse”), it’s clear that Dickens had some sway with the American Master of Terror. The story follows a man who loathes his sister-in-law, and vice versa. Her eyes haunt and condemn him. After her death, his brother reconciles with him on his own deathbed, and the man takes charge of his orphaned nephew. But his eyes are like those of his mother, and they torment him, torturing him with feelings of guilt, shame, and wickedness. Eventually – unable to take it – he slaughters the child and burries him in his lawn. When visitors come he is so paranoid (the grave has become a monomania) that he places a chair directly over it while they chat. But then a pack of bloodhounds break into the garden. And they are hungry. A truly excellent, chilling, and literary tale. (17 min)

The first of Dickens' ghost stories it is found The Pickwick Papers. This rather humorous story begins with a poor lawyer taking up residence in a mouldering old apartment. He attempts to tidy the place up and he sits down by a weak fire where he considers chopping up the old cabinet that came with the room for firewood. He hears a groan coming from the cabinet and it opens revealing a raggedy man inside. He turns out to be the ghost of a man who died in the apartment years ago. He warns off the lawyer, but the lawyer is not put-off. He asks the ghost why he spends his afterlife in a moldy apartment when he could travel to the world. The ghost had never considered this, and disappears to find a better place to live. (8 min)

A humorous selection from Chapter 31 of The Pickwick Papers describing a party with the older Samuel Pickwick and his younger friends Bob Sawyer and his friends in medical school. The alcohol-enhanced frivolity is interrupted by Sawyer's landlady who demands rent and later complains of the noise. (28 min)

This humorous story, with a moral, is from Dickens' Christmas Stories, and tells the tale of  Mr Chops, a dwarf exhibited at a circus sideshow who has ambitions of “going into society.” After winning the lottery, Mr Chops attempts to do so, but he is taken advantage of by his servants and retreats back to the sideshow manager, Magsman. As he explains to Magsman that "society, taken in the lump, is all dwarfs." (21 min)

This is a humorous selection from The Pickwick Papers (1836). This was a collection of character sketches and adventures befalling the members of the Pickwick Club. This was Dickens' first successful work and began to establish his fame. It was published in serial form and later collected into a book. This selection concerns a trial of Samuel Pickwick, an elderly, jovial man who was the founder of the Pickwick Club. The trial concerns Miss Bardle, Mr. Pickwick's landlady, who mistakenly believes that Mr. Pickwick has proposed marriage and when he does not keep his "promise" she successfully sues him for breach of promise to marry. (28 min)

Mrs. Gamp is a character from Dickens' 1843 monthly series  "The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit." She was very popular at his time and this reading was one of his favorites. His audiences, however, were split over its entertainment value. Mrs. Gamp is is a nurse of sorts whose specialty lies in the polar extremities of life, the lying in and the laying out. She often partakes of the spirits and has a distinctive character, that is why Dickens loved to play her. In this selection Mrs. Gamp is hired to look out for the bookkeeper of a man who died. She engages with the previous nurse, Mrs. Prig in some rather amusing ways. (19 min)

The reading is one chapter of Mugby Junction, stories about the railroads through the fictitious town of Rugby, is "The Boy at Mugby." The boy thoroughly enjoys preying upon society, and he revels in his chosen occupation as 'a most highly delicious lark'. He depicts his exploits with gusto. He gleefully brags about poor service and the unpalatable food and beverages inflicted upon the travelling public at the Mugby train station. The story also recounts the activities of the "Our Missis," the martinet in charge who upholds the tradition of poor service in this establishment and who reports back about her trip to France to observe its appalling tradition of good food and service at their train stations. (15 min)

A selection from the book published first in serial from 1849 to 1850. The selections focus on the relationship David has with a family in Yarmouth that he frequently visited as a child. The family is composed of Mr. Peggoty, an old fisherman; his nephew Ham, who he raised as an orphan; his adopted niece, Emily, who he also raised as an orphan; and Mrs. Gummidge, the widow of his deceased partner. In the selections, taking place years later, Ham has proposed to Emily, but she has run off with a man that David had introduced to them, his old schoolmate Steerforth. Mr. Peggoty goes off to find his nice. We also encounter Mr. and Mrs. Micawber who are always in financial difficulties and David's fiancee and then wife, Dora, who is simply not able to cope with adulthood. The selection ends with a dramatic storm at sea involving some of the characters. (80 min)

Selections from the novel of the same name that is a rather grim, devastating attack on the Yorkshire schools to which unwanted children were dispatched. Nickleby just started at Mr. Squeer's school as scholastic assistant. He traveled to the school where he found the boys very poorly treated by Squeers and his wife who run the school only to take money from the parents of the boys. Nickleby befriends one of the boys, named Smike, who is an unpaid servant of Squeers. It is a story of how Nickleby finally overcomes the evil of Squeers. (41 min)

Selections from chapters 7 and 9 of A Tale of Two Cities (1859). This is the story of the Monseigneur who holds a ball and the behavior of his guests showing their indifference to their countrymen and the growing storm of revolution. One of his guests, Monsieur the Marquis, leaves the ball and his racing coach kills a small child. He brushes this off, insults the people of the town, and goes home. The story ends at his home as he goes to bed and senses something is amiss in the night. He goes to sleep and his fate catches up to him. (19 min)

A selection from the novel of the same name published serially from 1846 to 1848. Paul Dombey is the wealthy owner of a shipping company. He dreams of passing his business on to his son, whose mother died shortly after his birth. Dombey dotes on his son, and neglects and mistreats his daughter. The son is however incapable of assuming control of the business. The son is wise beyond his years, but is weak and sickly and does not socialize normally. Eventually he dies when only six years old. This condensed version focusses on the son's short life. It has moments of humor in some of the young men who go to school with the son and scenes of sadness, yet with hope. (131 min)

A selection from Oliver Twist. The murderous robber Bill Sikes effects the kidnapping of Oliver, through the agency of his wife Nancy, who soon regrets her part in the crime. Nancy reveals the kidnapping In a secret meeting with Oliver's former caretakers and her betrayal is passed on to Sikes. Fearing its effect on himself and his gang, Sikes confronts her and, in his rage, murders her. This was one of Dickens' most dramatic, and popular, readings. (25 min)

A selection from Great Expectations. This story summarizes the progress of Pip from childhood in the marshes of Kent through often painful experiences to adulthood in commercial London. He encounters a variety of extraordinary characters including Magwitch, the escaped convict. (2 hr 30 min)

A selection from Tale of Two Cities. The story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. This was one of Dickens' favorite readings. (25 min)

A selection from The Seven Poor Travellers. A story told at Christmas time at a charity hospice where poor travelers tell stories to one another. This story is about Richard Doubledick who joins the army and engages in several battles. His good friend is killed and he eventually finds closure later in life. (18 min)