Charles Dickens’s bestselling story of Little Nell, the beautiful child thrown into a shadowy, terrifying world, by now seems to belong less to the history of the Victorian novel than to folklore, fairy tale, or myth.

Dickens's portrayal of the innocent Nell made The Old Curiosity Shop an instant bestseller that captured the hearts of the world, even as critics such as Oscar Wilde criticized it for its sentimentality.

Nell Trent lives in the gloom of an old curiosity shop with her ailing grandfather, for whom she cares with selfless devotion.

When they are finally unable to pay their debts, Little Nell and her grandfather are left with no choice but to flee London.

Pursued relentlessly by their moneylender, a cruel and ruthless dwarf named Quilp, Nell and her grandfather flee through scenes ranging from the pastoral simplicity of village life to the hellish industrial wastelands of Victorian England, thrown into a shadowy universe in which there seems to be no safe haven.

Dickens's creation of a contemporary world inhabited by some of his most brilliantly drawn characters is a literary tour-de-force: the eloquent slacker Dick Swiveller; the aggressive lawyer Sally Brass; Quilp's downtrodden mother-in-law; and Quilp himself, the lustful dwarf, whose seemingly demonic energy is a vivid counterpoint to Nell's purity.

Regardless of time or place, Dickens’s timeless saga has left an indelible mark on readers' imaginations long after Nell's story ends.

CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) transformed the art of fiction. The author of numerous novels and short stories, including Great Expectations, A Tale Of Two Cities, David Copperfield, and Bleak House, he is considered a literary colossus, and a central figure in the development of the modern novel.