Maxima Library

Merry Christmas, everyone! “Bah!” said Scrooge. “Humbug!” With those famous words unfolds a tale that renews the joy and caring that are Christmas. Whether we read it aloud with our family and friends or open the pages on a chill winter evening to savor the story in solitude, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is a very special holiday experience. It is the one book that every year will warm our hearts with favorite memories of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future—and will remind us with laughter and tears that the true Christmas spirit comes from giving with love.

Masterful tale unfolded in the carnage, horror and idealism of the French Revolution. Political upheaval frames the story, but Dickens delights in indicting aristocratic tyranny and revolutionary excesses. A young Englishman, Sydney Carton, gets swept up in the chaos and ends by heroically sacrificing himself. For the love of a woman he can never have, he exchanges places with his friend and twin, Charles Darnay, sentenced to death on the guillotine and goes to a "far, far better place."

Barnaby Rudge is an early Dickens novel, his first historical novel, of the Gordon riots of 1780, about fifty years before his time. One of Dickens strong points is atmosphere, and this novel is one of his best in that department. His description of the Maypole Inn and its proprietor, slow John, is marvelous. Much of the book describes the riots and their effect on various characters. Barnaby himself is an idiot, but such an excellent character for all that. The villians actually have good qualities in this book. Dickens is one of my favourite authors, and I took up this book simply because I wanted to read all his books. Barnaby Rudge, though is a little different than some of Dickens other works. For one its about a true historical happening. The riots of 1780 actually did occur. Its one of his shorter books, and it was written earlier on in his career. The book is really not where a reader should start with Dickens books, but it should be read nonetheless. It still has the same great characterizations and atmosphere that we expect from Dickens, and its still a good story. Barnaby is quite the character. We have to laugh at his antics, and Slow John at the Maypole Inn is absolutely wonderful. And by the way, the Raven Grip is supposedly the model for Poes raven. I would not start reading Dickens with Barnaby, but even though its not as well known as ten other of his novels, I can highly recommend if you like other Dickens to give this book a read. I intend to reread it in my next round of Dickens rereading.

Soon after she returns to Bleak House, Esther decides to go to London to see Mr. Guppy. First, she visits Caddy and Prince Turveydrop. Taken aback by Esther's scarred face, Guppy emphatically retracts his former marriage proposal to Esther. Esther obtains from him a promise to "relinquish all idea of . . . serving me." She no longer needs Guppy's assistance in helping her learn her real identity, and Guppy's presence could possibly endanger her attempt to be secret about what she has learned from Lady Dedlock.

In his early childhood days, a young boy, David Copperfield, had been living with his mother and their servant Peggotty. His mother marries a very cruel man, Mr. Murdstone and David is being sent away to Salem House where it is not very safe at all. It was a run-down London boarding school where Mr. Creakle beats up young boys. David’s mother soon gives birth to a son by Mr. Murdstone. Unfortunately she dies after a while. David was dragged out of school and was forced to work at a wine warehouse with Mr. Murdstone. David runs from work and lives with his great-aunt, Miss Betsey Trotwood, where he lives a happier life. She soon adopts him and sends him off to Dr. Strong’s school in Canterbury. When David was done with his education at Dr. Strong’s school, he goes to work at the law firm of Mr. Spenlow and Jorkins. He meets his significant other, Dora Spenlow and falls in love with with her. After that, they were engaged to each other.

They had their very first child but Dora becomes ill and dies after giving birth, along with the child. It was a sad life for David but he tries to move on. He had traveled abroad for several years and realizes he truly loves this other woman, Agnes Wickfield. David becomes a famous writer and marries Agnes. They live happily ever after along with their friends.

From the 1894 Chapman and Hall "Christmas Stories"

Mr. Dombey, a wealthy London merchant, puts all his hopes in his sickly son Paul to succeed him in running the firm, and ignores his good daughter Florence. The firm is nearly ruined by a trusted employee named Carker who also runs away with Dombey's second wife, the scheming Edith Granger. This was the first novel in which Dickens attempted to portray the upper classes as well as the lower, and it also features strong female characters of all types and moral persuasions, if not a lot of depth. Another primary theme played out by various characters is the way in which adults mold (and ruin) their children.

Great Expectations chronicles the progress of Pip from childhood through adulthood. As he moves from the marshes of Kent to London society, he encounters a variety of extraordinary characters: from Magwitch, the escaped convict, to Miss Havisham and her ward, the arrogant and beautiful Estella. In this fascinating story, Dickens shows the dangers of being driven by a desire for wealth and social status. Pip must establish a sense of self against the plans which others seem to have for him — and somehow discover a firm set of values and priorities.

The dehumanizing effects of heavy industrialization are given form and bitter indictment in this Dickens novel. Raised by a hard, pragmatic father concerned only with sterile principles, Tom and Louisa Gradgrind grow up with little imagination, culture or concern for others. Louisa chooses Josiah Bounderby for a husband, a vulgar man who owns a bank and a mill, whom she leaves after a while and returns to her father's house. Her unscrupulous brother adds to the family crises by robbing his brother-in-law's bank. The father finally sees how his cold, principled upbringing has damaged his children's lives.

Doce relatos fantasmales: Historia de un loco. La historia de un viajante de comercio. La historia de los duendes que secuestraron a un enterrador. La historia del tío del viajante. El barón de Grozwich. Una confesión encontrada en la prisión de la época de Calos II. Para leer al atardecer. Juicio por asesinato. Fantasmas por Navidad. La novia del ahorcado. La visita del señor testador. La casa hechizada.

Ĉi tiu amhistorio (The Battle of Life, 1846) estas la kvara el la kvin «Kristnaskaj rakontoj» de Ĉ. Dikenso kaj unu el la unuaj tradukoj en Esperanton.

La traduko estas de L.L. Zamenhof, unue publikigita en la gazeto «La Esperantisto» (1891, februaro–novembro); ĝi prezentas specialan intereson kiel teksto en la frua Esperanto.

W. Auld komencis kunlabori kun la eldonejo Sezonoj ekde la Viena UK, 1992. Dum 1993–2001 ni ĉiujare eldonis unu libron de Auld, entute, naŭ libroj dum naŭ jaroj.

La elekto de Bill por la deka estis plia mondliteratura ĉefverko – La postlasitaj paperoj de la Klubo Pikvika de Charles Dickens, kio devus kroni lian literaturan karieron. Ni komencis ricevi la tradukon, kiun li sendadis el Skotlando poĉapitre.

Bedaŭrinde, la sanstato de Bill malprogresis. Li sukcesis traduki kaj tajpi nur sep ĉapitrojn kaj verki kelkajn notojn. La cetero restis netradukita. Fiaskis la provo formi teamon, kiu daŭrigus la tradukon laŭ la stilo de la skota tradukmajstro.

Ni povus resti la du unikaj personoj, kiuj havus la privilegion ĝui Pikvikon en Esperanto. Sed ni decidis dividi ĉi tiun ĝuon kun ĉiuj, kiuj ŝatas legi beletrajn tekstojn en Esperanto.

From the 1894 Chapman and Hall "Christmas Stories"

One of Dickens’ most enduringly popular stories is Oliver Twist, an early work published 1837-8. Like many of his later novels, its central theme is the hardship faced by the dispossessed and those of the outside of ‘polite’ society. Oliver himself is born in a workhouse and treated cruelly there as was the norm at the time for pauper children, in particular by Bumble, a parish council official or ‘beadle’. The story follows Oliver as he escapes the workhouse and runs away to London. Here he receives an education in villainy from the criminal gang of Fagin that includes the brutal thief Bill Sikes, the famous ‘Artful Dodger’ and Nancy, Bill’s whore. Oliver is rescued by the intervention of a benefactor — Mr Brownlow — but the mysterious Monks gets the gang to kidnap the boy again. Nancy intervenes but is murdered viciously by Sikes after she has showed some redeeming qualities and has discovered Monk’s sinister intention. The story closes happily and with justice for Bumble and the cruel Monks who has hidden the truth of Oliver’s parentage out of malice. Accusations were made that the book glamorised crime (like the ‘Newgate Group’ of the period) but Dickens wisely disassociated himself from criminal romances. His achievement was in fact in presenting the underworld and problems of poverty to the well-off in a way rarely attempted previously.

Left penniless by the death of his improvident father, young Nicholas Nickleby assumes responsibility for his mother and sister and seeks help from his Scrooge-like Uncle Ralph. Instantly disliking Nicholas, Ralph sends him to teach in a school run by the stupidly sadistic Wackford Squeers. Nicholas decides to escape, taking with him the orphan Smike, one of Squeers’s most abused young charges, and the two embark on a series of adventurous encounters with an array of humanity’s worst and best—greedy fools, corrupt lechers, cheery innocents, and selfless benefactors.

The first genuine mystery novel written by Dickens was never finished and was published posthumously in 1870 leaving the mystery unsolved forever. The choirmaster of Cloisterham, Jack Jasper, has a ward named Edwin Drood, a respectable young man engaged to Rosa Bud. Underneath the respectability Drood is an opium addict and no longer loves Rosa, the secret love of Jasper. Drood breaks the engagement and disappears completely. Also in love with Rosa, Neville Landless is arrested for Drood's murder, but released for lack of a body. Fearing Rosa's feelings for Landless, Jasper confesses his love and threatens to further implicate Landless in the murder unless she returns his love. The manuscript ends as Datchery, a shadowy character bedeviling Jasper, is introduced. Speculation abounds, but the mystery remains.

The Pickwick Papers was Charles Dickens’s first and personal favourite novel. It was serialised under the title “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club” between April 1836 and November 1837 when its author was only in his mid-twenties. Unlike some of his later works it is extremely episodic and comic. It always shows its origins in a periodical with its cliff-hangers and the way Dickens changes the story and various characters’ position in the novel as it grows and according to their popularity (such the Wellers).

Mr Samuel Pickwick is the founder and chairman of the absurd Pickwick Club which consists of Tupman, Snodgrass and Winkle who go through various amusing and often quite ridiculous adventures that are scantily interconnected and never amount to a complex sequence of events until perhaps Pickwick’s disastrous misunderstanding with Mrs Bardell.