Two boys from the Foundling Hospital are given the same name, with disastrous consequences in adulthood. Two associates, wishing to right the wrong, are commissioned to find a missing heir. Their quest takes them from fungous wine cellars in the City of London to the sunshine of the Mediterranean — across the Alps in winter. Danger and treachery would prevail were it not for the courage of the heroine and the faithful company servant.
The story contains crafted descriptions, well-drawn and diverse characters, eerie and exotic backgrounds, mystery, semi-concealed identities, brinkmanship with death, romance, the eventual triumph of Good over Evil, and many other elements expected ...
Het weesje Nelly leeft bij haar grootvader die grote schulden heeft. Samen proberen zij de armoede en de schande te ontvluchten. Uiteindelijk vinden zij een rustige plaats om te leven ...
Zoals een winkel voor Antiek en Curiosa een bonte verzameling van kunst en kitsch bevat, zo bevat dit boek een groteske verzameling van menselijke- en zelfs dierlijke karakters. (Samenvatting door Marcel Coenders)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens. It is a mystery indeed; the serial novel was just half completed at the time of Dickens’ death – leading to much speculation how it might have ended.
The novel is named after Edwin Drood, one of the characters, but it mostly tells the story of his uncle, a choirmaster named John Jasper, who is in love with his pupil, Rosa Bud. Miss Bud is Drood’s fiancée, and has also caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless! Landless comes from Ceylon with his twin sister, Helena. Neville Landless and Edwin Drood take a dislike to one another the moment they meet.
The story is set in Cloisterham, a...
Originally published in monthly installments between 1855 and 1857, the novel focuses on the various forms of imprisonment, both physical and psychological, while also concentrating on dysfunctional family ties. Accordingly, Dickens avidly criticizes the social deficiencies of the time including injustice, social hypocrisy, the austerity of the Marshalsea debtors’ prison, and bureaucratic inefficiency.
The novel kicks off with the introduction of William Dorrit, the oldest prisoner in the Marshalsea prison, who is also referred to as The Father of the Marshalsea. His imprisonment is owed to poor business decisions, which have secured him a place in the debtors’ prison in Lon...
Dickens thought it was “in a hundred points, immeasurably the best” of his stories. Yet it was also one of his greatest flops. Compared to his other novels, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit was a dismal failure in terms of sales and the main reason for Dickens falling out with his long term publisher Chapman & Hall. They invoked a penalty clause and demanded that he pay back a portion of the advance which he refused. Martin Chuzzlewit was also dimly received in Dickens friendly America. Its vitriolic satire of American customs and manners was met with astonished rage on the other side of the Atlantic and Dickens began to receive masses of hate mail from offend...
De familie Dorrit verblijft door schulden belast meer dan 20 jaar in de schuldengevangenis de Marshalsea in Londen. Zullen zij ontlast worden van hun schulden? Zullen de heldin en de ridder op het witte paard met elkaar trouwen in dit inktzwarte sprookje?
Een satire op rijkdom, status en macht waarbij zowel de publieke-(politieke) als de private- (financiele) sector belachelijk worden gemaakt. Bijna alle personages zijn gevangen in hun eigen verslaving aan waardeloos geld en valse roem. Helaas heeft dit boek niets aan actualiteitswaarde verloren, want luidruchtigheid en begeerigheid, aanmatiging, hoogmoed en ijdelheid bijven voortwoekeren tot de laatste dag.
A House to Let is a novella originally published in 1858 in the Christmas edition of Dickens’ Household Words magazine. Each of the contributors wrote a chapter (stories within a story, and in the case of Adelaide Anne Procter, as a story in verse) and the whole was edited by Dickens.
The plot concerns an elderly woman, Sophonisba, who notices signs of life in a supposedly empty dilapidated house (the eponymous “House to Let”) opposite her own, and employs the efforts of an elderly admirer, Jabez Jarber, and her servant, Trottle, to discover what is happening within.
Vertaling van:
- “Hunted Down” (1859) een misdaadverhaal.
- “Holiday Romance” (1868) vier verhalen van en voor kinderen.
- “George Silverman’s Explanation” (1868) Een levens- en liefdes verhaal.
(Introductie door Marcel Coenders)
Dombey and Son is a novel by the Victorian author Charles Dickens. The story concerns Paul Dombey, the wealthy owner of the shipping company of the book’s title, whose dream is to have a son to continue his business. The book begins when his son is born, and Dombey’s wife dies shortly after giving birth.
As with most of Dickens’ work, a number of socially significant themes are to be found in this book. In particular the book deals with the then-prevalent common practice of arranged marriages for financial gain. Other themes to be detected within this work include child cruelty (particularly in Dombey’s treatment of Florence), familial relationships, and as ever in Dickens, betra...
Our hero Toby ("Trotty") Veck is a poor but hard-working man, whose beloved daughter Meg is due to marry on New Year's Day. Trotty, who is appalled by newspaper reports of crime and immorality, is further depressed by his encounters with the rich and in...