Rating: 
Summary: Impressive passages, some near-dead wood
Review: (I should note I read this novel without the benefit of the Penguin or World's Classics notes.)This might turn out to be a novel to read in its entirety once, and later to read with a little skimming here and there. There are numerous sequences with the capering, grimacing, grinning, over-the-top villain Quilp or with the rather intense narrative of the flight of Little Nell that have much imaginative power, but some of the passages about Kit or Dick are a bit tedious. For me the book was certainly worth one complete reading at least.
Rating: 
Summary: Arrogant to proclaim, but this is truly perfect, pure
Review: ...reading delight. Whenever I get depressed or feel like I can't start another book, I re-read some passages of this book written by Charles Dickens. It is one of the best books written in English. Intentionally syrupy and over-sweet, Dickens writes so perfectly as to make the reader wonder how anyone could ever write so gorgeously. If you pass this one up, you're cheating yourself. I couldn't put the book down. It's a rare and special novel that keeps me in bed over the weekend reading from dawn to sleep.
Rating:
Summary: Arrogant to proclaim, but this is truly perfect, pure
Review: ...reading delight. Whenever I get depressed or feel like I can't start another book, I re-read some passages of this book written by Charles Dickens. It is one of the best books written in English. Intentionally syrupy and over-sweet, Dickens writes so perfectly as to make the reader wonder how anyone could ever write so gorgeously. If you pass this one up, you're cheating yourself. I couldn't put the book down. It's a rare and special novel that keeps me in bed over the weekend reading from dawn to sleep.
Rating:
Summary: the death of little nell
Review: a story in the tradition of the picaresque novel, but with a twist. instead of a young man rambling through the countryside in search of fun and frolick, dickens sends a young girl and her grandfather through the countryside in flight from their unhappy and troubled urban lives. the writing is closer to oliver twist than nicholas nickleby, albeit w/o the caustic tone of the former. this is a tale of pure fantasy; dickens didn't have an axe to grind in penning the curiosity shop. on the whole, a decent novel. ... not dickens' best but still worth reading. one question remains, however: why did he kill nell? yes, there is poetic justice in taking the little girl from the old man as punishment for his stupidity. but this is a very harsh penalty to visit on a senile old dolt. i rather suspect the death of nell is related to the death of dickens' sister-in-law, a young girl whom dickens was very fond of who died at the age of 16 or 17. dickens was reportedly devastated by the loss and forever remembered and idealized her as a sweet and virtuous girl. i suspect the death of nell is the fictionalized version of the death of his sister-in-law. in a way dickens tried to deal with his own grief by writing about it in this book. indeed, when dickens writes near the end of the book that (and i paraphrase) "unless one has had a similar loss it's hard to imagine the sense of emptiness felt by the grandfather", it's not hard to imagine dickens is speaking for himself. i was surprised by the emotional power of the death scene. it's one of the most famous in literature, and yet, it has not played well with more recent audiences who have found it too sentimental. it is the scene of which oscar wilde famously said, "unless you have a heart of stone, it is impossible not to laugh at the death of little nell". well, not only didn't i laugh but i found i had to suppress a tear. although dickens is clearly TRYING to make us cry, i believe his sincerity and depth of true feeling shines through and raises the writing above the sentimentalist accusations. the death of nell, like the death of dickens' in-law, is a tragedy.
Rating:
Summary: the death of little nell
Review: Charles Dickens's 1840-1 novel, "The Old Curiosity Shop," is an emotionally draining, melancholic, melodramatic, and often super bizarre, even surreal novel. Dickens takes on, as usual, a number of social issues, including child abuse, child labour, gambling addiction, and the inadequacy of the legal system (again, as usual). Centering around the fatiguing wanderings of young Nell Trent and her grandfather, "The Old Curiosity Shop" offers a stark dichotomy between the country and the city in terms of moral virtues, and gives us a quest for the seemingly forever fading good life. A life of ease is a difficult pursuit, surely, but no more so than in this novel. "The Old Curiosity Shop" begins as Little Nell, almost 14 years old, makes her way through the dark alleys of London back to her aged grandfather's old curiosity shop (hence the name). Her grandfather absolutely doats upon Nell, and all of his misguided energies - he is a totally reckless gambler - are devoted to providing for her future wellbeing. Their peace is constantly threatened by one of Dickens's most insistently evil characters, the dwarf Daniel Quilp, who is a loan shark among other things. When Quilp finds out (though he is nearly omnipresent, in spirit, if not in person throughout the novel, and prides himself on his piercing awareness) that Nell's grandfather has gambled away all of Quilp's loans to him, Quilp takes possession of the old curiosity shop, and one morning, seeking a new life of freedom in the country, Nell and her grandfather run off. Believing the grandfather to have a pile of untapped wealth secreted away somewhere, Quilp enacts a number of schemes to track and trap them, which gets us into the main action of the novel - Nell's wanderings and Quilp's pursuit. The Old Curiosity Shop itself is really only a symbol, as it isn't in the action of the novel for very long - it seems to represent the decaying past of the future, if that makes any sense. It is the future decay of the city in the hearts of Nell and her grandfather as they seek the ever elusive peace and quiet of the open country. Perhaps foreshadowing the dark, cramped, undulating bits within Mr. Venus's shop in "Our Mutual Friend," here, the curiosities are largely encountered out in the world. The astonishing mass of humanity that Nell and her increasingly mentally-enfeebled grandfather encounter on their Tennysonian quest toward the western horizon are the curiosities in this book. Good, evil, and ambivalent, the people who populate the curiosity shop that is the world of the novel are a strange lot. Dickens was seemingly always at his best with his minor characters - here we get the magnificently rendered Dick Swiveller (who may be considered a protagonist), the faithful Kit Nubbles, the difficult pony Whiskers, the abused wife Mrs. Quilp, the Marchioness, Mrs. Jarley the wax-work owner, the misanthropist Tom Codlin and his partner Short Trotters the puppet-show masters, and a cast of dancing dogs are some of the most important and impressive of the minor characters. Dickens is very good at melancholy and melodrama, but "The Old Curiosity Shop" takes all that to almost an absurd extreme. Having a very young teenage girl practically leading her dotard grandfather on foot aimlessly through trial, pursuit, and outrageous physical privations - it is a formula tailor-made for a festival of crying. The treatment the nameless (how's that for abuse?) Marchioness receives at the hands of her mistress, Sally Brass, is likewise one of the most reprehensible situations I've ever encountered in literature, as well as one of the most fascinating. Dickens uses setting in this novel to enhance the drama of the situations - though the novel moves steadily from London to within sight of Wales, few of the points between have names - most are simply types of crowded, dirty cities, humble hovels, roadside inns, and the pastoral settings themselves seem simply to be taken from a primer on idylls. This allows Dickens to play out his dramas on interchangeable sets, and gives Quilp's relentless pursuit an intensity underscored by the fact that we are never sure where we are. In "The Old Curiosity Shop," melodrama is always teetering on the brink of either blissful dream or outright nightmare. The one problem I have with this Penguin edition, as with several others, especially of Dickens's works, is that the editorial notes, helpful and exhaustive as they are, have a disturbing tendency to give away key plot elements, sometimes hundreds of pages before they occur. Best, when reading the Penguin, especially for the first time, to refrain as much as possible from the explanatory notes. Otherwise, this is Dickens, and the novel itself is remarkable.
Rating: 
Summary: An Emotionally Draining and Often Bizarre Novel
Review: Charles Dickens's 1840-1 novel, "The Old Curiosity Shop," is an emotionally draining, melancholic, melodramatic, and often super bizarre, even surreal novel. Dickens takes on, as usual, a number of social issues, including child abuse, child labour, gambling addiction, and the inadequacy of the legal system (again, as usual). Centering around the fatiguing wanderings of young Nell Trent and her grandfather, "The Old Curiosity Shop" offers a stark dichotomy between the country and the city in terms of moral virtues, and gives us a quest for the seemingly forever fading good life. A life of ease is a difficult pursuit, surely, but no more so than in this novel. "The Old Curiosity Shop" begins as Little Nell, almost 14 years old, makes her way through the dark alleys of London back to her aged grandfather's old curiosity shop (hence the name). Her grandfather absolutely doats upon Nell, and all of his misguided energies - he is a totally reckless gambler - are devoted to providing for her future wellbeing. Their peace is constantly threatened by one of Dickens's most insistently evil characters, the dwarf Daniel Quilp, who is a loan shark among other things. When Quilp finds out (though he is nearly omnipresent, in spirit, if not in person throughout the novel, and prides himself on his piercing awareness) that Nell's grandfather has gambled away all of Quilp's loans to him, Quilp takes possession of the old curiosity shop, and one morning, seeking a new life of freedom in the country, Nell and her grandfather run off. Believing the grandfather to have a pile of untapped wealth secreted away somewhere, Quilp enacts a number of schemes to track and trap them, which gets us into the main action of the novel - Nell's wanderings and Quilp's pursuit. The Old Curiosity Shop itself is really only a symbol, as it isn't in the action of the novel for very long - it seems to represent the decaying past of the future, if that makes any sense. It is the future decay of the city in the hearts of Nell and her grandfather as they seek the ever elusive peace and quiet of the open country. Perhaps foreshadowing the dark, cramped, undulating bits within Mr. Venus's shop in "Our Mutual Friend," here, the curiosities are largely encountered out in the world. The astonishing mass of humanity that Nell and her increasingly mentally-enfeebled grandfather encounter on their Tennysonian quest toward the western horizon are the curiosities in this book. Good, evil, and ambivalent, the people who populate the curiosity shop that is the world of the novel are a strange lot. Dickens was seemingly always at his best with his minor characters - here we get the magnificently rendered Dick Swiveller (who may be considered a protagonist), the faithful Kit Nubbles, the difficult pony Whiskers, the abused wife Mrs. Quilp, the Marchioness, Mrs. Jarley the wax-work owner, the misanthropist Tom Codlin and his partner Short Trotters the puppet-show masters, and a cast of dancing dogs are some of the most important and impressive of the minor characters. Dickens is very good at melancholy and melodrama, but "The Old Curiosity Shop" takes all that to almost an absurd extreme. Having a very young teenage girl practically leading her dotard grandfather on foot aimlessly through trial, pursuit, and outrageous physical privations - it is a formula tailor-made for a festival of crying. The treatment the nameless (how's that for abuse?) Marchioness receives at the hands of her mistress, Sally Brass, is likewise one of the most reprehensible situations I've ever encountered in literature, as well as one of the most fascinating. Dickens uses setting in this novel to enhance the drama of the situations - though the novel moves steadily from London to within sight of Wales, few of the points between have names - most are simply types of crowded, dirty cities, humble hovels, roadside inns, and the pastoral settings themselves seem simply to be taken from a primer on idylls. This allows Dickens to play out his dramas on interchangeable sets, and gives Quilp's relentless pursuit an intensity underscored by the fact that we are never sure where we are. In "The Old Curiosity Shop," melodrama is always teetering on the brink of either blissful dream or outright nightmare. The one problem I have with this Penguin edition, as with several others, especially of Dickens's works, is that the editorial notes, helpful and exhaustive as they are, have a disturbing tendency to give away key plot elements, sometimes hundreds of pages before they occur. Best, when reading the Penguin, especially for the first time, to refrain as much as possible from the explanatory notes. Otherwise, this is Dickens, and the novel itself is remarkable.
Rating:
Summary: Gets off to a rough start but still a good novel
Review: Dickens wrote a lot of great books under installments, but this one really could have used a re-write. Some of his characters change chapter by chapter (Kit Nubbles can barely read in one chapter and is seen writing a letter in another) and the beginning is an absolute mess. This novel (along with Barnaby Rudge) is started as being told by a member of a storytellers group, but then that approach is abandoned completely.
When Dickens eventually does find his footing, the novel gets a lot better. His characters are wonderful as always. Nell meets a sad end, but is one of Dickens' better protagonists (well he did prefer his daughters to his sons...). Quilp is incredibly creepy, and the romance between Dick Swiveller and the Marchioness is incredibly sweet and fun. Not one of Dickens better novels, but the Old Curiosity Shop still has a lot to offer. And on the ending... I didn't cry, but I didn't exactly laugh either (guess I have a "heart of stone" if Oscar Wilde has anything to say about it).
Rating:
Summary: Tear Jerker, Victorian Style
Review: Every night grandfather slips out ...for what purpose? How Daniel Quilp would like to know. For Quilp, a prototype of Fagin, has fronted Grandfather money and grandfather has lost it all. Poor Nell. How she suffers. The two are evicted from their home and shop and take to the highways and byways of Merry Olde England, pursued by Quilp who would like to see them tossed in the debtor's prison. Those who hate the old stories with the 'happily ever after ending' will find relief here. The ending is a bit sappy and sad.
Rating:
Summary: A Notable Story, But Not Dickens' Best Effort.
Review: For those of you who follow my reviews, you know that I felt "Martin Chuzzlewit" was Dickens' worst book. "The Old Curiosity Shop" is better, but not by much. Now on one hand, the story has captivating elements. The relationship between Trent and Nell is well done, and their flight together offers generous amounts of suspense. Images are well drawn, tension is tightened and released at appropriate intervals, and it is unlikely that you will get bored. Swiveller and the abused servant girl provide an interesting subplot. (For any other author, this would have been excellent. But this does not represent Dickens' finer efforts.) Nell does not hit us the way characters like Lizzie Hexham ("Our Mutual Friend"), Amy Dorrit ("Little Dorrit"), Louisa Gradgrind ("Hard Times"), Agnes ("David Copperfield"), or Florence Dombey ("Dombey and Son") do. Kit is handled somewhat awkwardly. The end does not seem to fit. I understand that Dickens may have been trying to make the end ironic, but it just does not seem to fit well. Benevolent characters like Martin and Swiveller are handled fairly well, but we don't really get to know them the way we get to know benevolent characters like Sam Weller ("The Pickwick Papers") or Mr. Micawber ("David Copperfield"). In all honesty, Quilp seems to be the most fascinating character in this book. He displayed pure terror, but he was also funny, and even likable at times! While I was going through this book, I found myself waiting for Quilp to reenter! Gradually, I found myself leaning towards Quilp's side. I could not believe how awkwardly he died. Perhaps while Dickens was writing this, he was not sure of how to end it, and decided not to use too much effort on something that was not his best work. I guess my biggest complaint is that compared to Quilp, the benevolent characters seem dull and flat. (Don't get me wrong. I understand that Dickens loved to make his villains more fascinating than repulsive.) But benevolent characters like Mr Pickwick, Sam Weller, ("Pickwick Papers"), Agnes, Mr. Micawber ("David Copperfield"), Captain Cuttle ("Dombey and Son"), Dr. Manette ("A Tale of Two Cities"), Jo ("Great Expectations"), and John Harmon ("Our Mutual Friend"), have captivating qualities that match those of the villains. Once again, this IS a good book, but it does not (in my opinion) reflect Dickens' better efforts.
Rating:
Summary: Not his best effort
Review: Full of gorgeous prose of course, but a very pointless and disappointing storyline, and strangely unsympathetic main characters (Nell and her grandfather). Many members of the supporting cast are much more endearing. One of Dickens' earlier works, and an outgrowth of the "Master Humphrey's Clock" periodical experiment, which perhaps explains some of its lack of cohesion. If you're new to Dickens skip this and go for Bleak House, Martin Chuzzlewit, or even Little Dorrit (wherein the devoted young girl and elderly father/grandfather theme is revisited much more effectively).
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