Charles Dickens Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Standalone Novels
The Pickwick Papers | (1837) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Adventures of Oliver Twist | (1838) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby | (1839) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Barnaby Rudge | (1841) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Master Humphrey's Clock | (1841) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Old Curiosity Shop | (1841) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Christmas Carol | (1843) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit | (1844) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Chimes | (1844) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Cricket on the Hearth | (1845) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Battle of Life | (1846) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Dombey and Son | (1848) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain | (1848) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
David Copperfield | (1850) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Bleak House | (1853) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Hard Times | (1854) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Child's History of England | (1854) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Little Dorrit | (1855) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Hanged Man's Bride | (1857) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Tale of Two Cities | (1859) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Great Expectations | (1861) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Our Mutual Friend | (1865) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
No Thoroughfare | (1867) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Mystery of Edwin Drood | (1870) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas
The Black Veil | (1836) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Holly Tree Inn | (1850) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A House to Let | (1858) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Haunted House | (1859) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Doctor Marigold | (1866) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Magic Fishbone | (1867) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
George Silverman's Explanation | (1868) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
Sketches by Boz | (1836) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Master Humphrey's Clock, Volume 2 | (1841) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
To Be Read at Dusk | (1852) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Poor Traveller / Boots at the Holly-Tree Inn | (1858) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Reprinted Pieces | (1861) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Complete Ghost Stories of Charles Dickens | (1866) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Mudfog and Other Papers Contributed to Bentley's Miscellany | (1880) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Select Short Fiction | (1976) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Signalman & Other Ghost Stories | (1984) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Hunted Down | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Night Walks and Other Essays | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Collections
Three Ghost Stories | (1998) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Wicked Wit of Charles Dickens | (2002) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Elizabeth Gaskell Short Stories/Novellas
Publication Order of Wilkie Collins Short Stories/Novellas
Publication Order of Collins Big Cat Books
Horses’ Holiday | (2005) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
I Want a Pet! | (2005) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Shapes on the Seashore: Band 02A/Red A | (2005) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to Draw Cartoons: Band 08/Purple | (2006) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Farmer’s Lunch: Band 01A/Pink A | (2009) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Rat Naps: Band 01B/Pink B | (2009) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Morris Plays Hide and Seek | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Mountain Mona | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Were They Real?: Band 08/Purple | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Oliver | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Jodie the Juggler | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Great Expectations: Band 15/Emerald | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Midsummer Night's Dream | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Tempest | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Helper Bird: Band 03/Yellow | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Time-Traveller’s Guide to the Bronze Age | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Antony and Cleopatra | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Lonely Penguin | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Woman who Fooled the Fairies | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Olympic Heroes | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Letter to New Zealand | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
If | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Magic Pen | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How The Elephant Got His Trunk | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Lion and the Mouse | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Amazing Adventures of Batbird | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Brave Baby | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Chewy Hughie | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Porridge Pincher | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What’s Underground | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Journey of Humpback Whales | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Fire! Fire! | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What Is CGI? | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tod and the Trumpet | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Around the World | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Crunch and Munch | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Building High | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Wild Weather | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
When Arthur Wouldn’t Sleep | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Stone Cutter | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Mary Anning | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Swimming with Dolphins: Band 09/Gold | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Very Wet Dog | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Pet Detectives | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Day Out | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Sneezles | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Living Dinosaurs | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to be a Pirate | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Monster Mess | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Bart the Shark | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tig in the Dumps | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Pet Detectives: Tortoise Trouble | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Chicken Licken | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Pot of Gold | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
One Night in the Zoo | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Fabulous Creatures – Are they Real? | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Unusual Traditions | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Famous Explorers: Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Catching Flies | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Melrose and Croc Beside the Sea | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Where on Earth? | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Hercules: Superhero | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
I'm Growing a Truck in the Garden | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Puss in Boots | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to Be a Viking | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Spider McDrew and the Egyptians | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Great Architects | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to be an Ancient Egyptian | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tara Binns: High-Flying Pilot | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Story of Nian | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Fisherman and his Wife | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Monster in the Mirror | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Bungleman | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Caribbean Carnival | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Spider’s Big Match | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Plants, Pollen and Pollinators | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
You Are Here: Maps and Why We Use Them | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Olympic Games | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tara Binns: Big Idea Engineer | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Early Kings of England | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to be a Roman | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Flash Harriet and the Mystery of the Fiendish Footprints | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Games Player of Zob | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Boudica | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to Build a House | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Great Greek Myths | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
As You Like It | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Arabian Desert | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to be an Ancient Greek | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Shang Dynasty | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The World’s First Women Doctors | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Secret Garden | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Nightmare | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Fearless Flynn and Other Tales | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How to be a Victorian in 16 Easy Stages | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Story of the Suffragettes | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Story of the Electric Guitar | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
King Lear | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Spotlight on Russia | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Anthologies
The Lock and Key Library Classic Mystery and Detective Stories | (1909) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror | (1931) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
World's Great Mystery Stories | (1943) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Echoes Of Terror | (1980) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Alfred Hitchcock's Fatal Attractions | (1983) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Ghost Stories | (1986) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Great Law and Order Stories | (1990) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Little Book of Horrors: Tiny Tales of Terror | (1992) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
H.P. Lovecraft's Book of Horror | (1993) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
100 Dastardly Little Detective Stories | (1993) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories | (1993) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales | (1993) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Thrillers | (1994) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Children's Christmas Stories and Poems | (1995) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Classic Sea Stories | (1996) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Classic Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories | (1996) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Writing New York | (1998) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tales of Terror: Between Heaven and the Earth | (2002) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The World's Greatest Horror Stories | (2004) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
50 Classic Novellas | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
London Stories | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Round the Christmas Fire | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Phantom Coach | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
That Glimpse of Truth | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Chilling Ghost Stories | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Fireside Ghost Stories for Christmas Eve | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Wimbourne Book of Victorian Ghost Stories: Volume 2 | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Greatest Books of All Time #4 | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Writers: Their Lives and Works | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Occult Fiction Collection | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Greatest Ghost and Horror Stories Ever Written: volume 3 | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
30 Eternal Masterpieces of Humorous Stories | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
30 Occult & Supernatural Masterpieces You Have to Read Before You Die | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Victorian Anthologies of Classic Spectral Stories to Chill and Thrill the Senses | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Terrifying Ghosts Short Stories | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Hungry for Blood – Ultimate Halloween Collection | (2023) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Dover Anthology of Classic Christmas Stories | (2023) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The most popular novelist in English literature, Charles Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 at the Commercial Road Landport, Portsea in Hampshire. His father, John Dickens was a clerk in the navy pay office. It was not easy for him to make both ends meet so he incurred debts and after struggling with them for many years, he finally shifted to Chatham when Charles was nine years of age.
It was in Chatham that he started his early schooling. He was a devout reader and preferred to gruel himself up in a corner with books rather than taking part in the mildest of physical activity. He lived in harmony for some years but soon the days of happiness came to an end. His father was arrested for non-payment of debts and sentenced for short term imprisonment.
It was under the stress of such financial conditions that Charles had to leave the school at the age of twelve. He had a find a job in the blacking factory and it was really painful to see such a promising young man working from dawn to dusk for few pennies. He was, however, relieved from this suffering when he received a small legacy from one of his relatives. His father was also set free and Charles Dickens joined Wellington House Academy at the age of sixteen. It was a brutal place and its principal was famous as the most ignorant and tyrant person. He did not learn anything at this place but the experience he gained at the school proved a fruitful source in writing Nicholas Nickleby. This novel exposes the weakness of Yorkshire schools and ignorant teachers who were in charge of young students. In 2002, director Douglas McGrath adopted this novel in the movie and its cast featured Anne Hathaway, Charlie Hunnam, and Jamie Bell.
He left the school in disgust and again went to work, but this time as a clerk in a lawyer’s office. He also began to study shorthand in order to achieve success in his career as a reporter. His progress was swift and he became a parliamentary reporter in 1830. It was largely during this period that he gained his extraordinary knowledge of London, which he used effectively in his sketches of London life.
Charles Dickens began his career as a writer with Sketches by Boz in 1836. It was a series dealing with London life in the manner and style of Leigh Hunt. However, the earliest of Charles Dicken’s work that caught appreciation was Pickwick Papers which was published in 1836. It was written at the suggestion of an editor, for serial publication. It contains some seventy distinct situations and more than four hundred characters, some of them coming on the stage only once to win for them an immortal place in our hearts.
Charles Dickens also traveled to the United States at the invitation of Washington Irving. He left for the United States in 1841 and was warmly received by the people there. But soon their praised was damped when they learned that he had strongly criticized slavery system in the United States in his Martin Chuzzlewit and American Notes. But this controversy died out when he made his second visit to the US in 1867. It was after this period that he wrote David Copperfield and Great Expectations. These two novels were also made into movies and Television series. Great Expectation was first released in 1946 and David Copperfield in 1999.
Charles Dickens is the representative of the Victorian London- the England of 1820s and 30s. He presented the capital city in all its colors, its shops, offices, slums and people. He knew the spirit of his people and gave them exactly what they wanted. His novels were not written, they were born. They were created by him for his people. He is just like the Ancient Mariner of S.T. Coleridge.
Further, his novels are also remarkable for preposterously rhetoric style and heavy moralizing. The middle class morality is always an important element of his novels. Thomas Hardy’s Tess was greeted with abuses when she tried to break the taboos but Charles Dickens prefer to stick to the public taste. Sex is carefully dramatized as it was a taboo in victorian age. It was the period of the readers who did not wish to go beyond their moral boundaries and Charles Dickens was perfectly aware of this.
The plots of his novels lack unity and are coherent. They are marked with diffuseness and discursiveness. There are elaborate passages of description and redundant detail which don’t seem to have a bearing on the development of the story. In other words, his novels are like satchel in which different objects of varying sizes and shapes have been stuffed. They contain something for everybody and the part you don’t like you can more or less ignore.
As a matter of fact, Charles Dickens was more interested in characters than in manners. Hin interest was in men and women rather than incidents. So characters are the main thing in his novels and plots are subordinate to characters. He perfectly agreed with the idea that a story should begin with characters and not with the plot. Once he had invented his characters and let them loose, he believed strongly that it was their business to tell the tale. This was the base of his novels and he developed into an art which he alone could master.
Charles Dickens died in 1870 and over his unfinished Edwin Drood and was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey. “No death since 1866,” wrote Carlyle to his wife, “has fallen on me with such a stroke. The good, the gentle, high gifted, over friendly and noble Dickens-every inch of him an honest man.”
The greatest merit of Dickens’ stories is that he brought to the service of literature an imagination, which though never poetic was elastic to the highest degree and with the help of this imagination, he created a dreamland which had a distinct reality of its own. It was only achieved by Shelley and Coleridge before him.
Book Series In Order » Authors »
Brilliant Site. It makes reading more enjoyable as you can relate the writer’s development in style as you follow his/her novels. Keep up the good work!