Beautiful, honest Nell Trent lives with her devoted Grandfather in his Old Curiosity Shop, an enchanting shop of odds and ends. Desperate to make a better life for his Nell, Grandfather secretly gambles and gets deeply into debt with the unscrupulous Quilp. When what little money they have is lost in a game of cards, Quilp claims The Old Curiosity Shop as payment for the loans

Released in installments from 1840 to 1841, Charles Dicken's The

Dip into a classic work of fiction that many critics regard as one of the novels that helped to usher in the modern era of literature. When it was originally published, Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native rocked Victorian England with its frank discussion of titillating subjects such as out-of-wedlock relationships. Today, the novel offers readers a fascinating glimpse into the mores and moral constraints of a bygone era.