Penguin Classics Old Curiosity Shop [Paperback]

"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.

The story, like most of his plots, depends a great deal
on coincidences, so you have to suspend your scepticism to
enjoy it. Dickens begins by introducing us to one of the
most innocent little girls in literature, Little Nell, and
to her most unhappy grand-father. Quickly we discover that
instead of the old man taking care of the child, she is the
one responsible. We then meet one of Dickens' great villains
- the evil, corrupt, mean, and nasty Quilp - a man, if that
term can be used, who has absolutely no redeeming qualities,
one who finds pleasure in inflicting pain on all he meets.

Thinking that the old man has secret riches, Quilp
advances him money to support his gambling habit.
Unfortunately Nell's grandfather never wins, and the debt
grows ever larger. Finally Quilp forecloses on the curiosity
shop that the old man owns (thus the name of the book) and
tries to keep the two captive in order to discover the money
that he still believes is hidden somewhere. While the
household is asleep, however, Nell and her grandfather
escape and begin wandering across England in a search for
sanctuary.

On that journey, Dickens introduces us to a series of
minor characters who either befriend or try to take
advantage of our heroine. He's in no hurry to continue the
main story, so just sit back and enjoy the vivid
characterizations that are typical of any good Dickens
novel.

In the meantime, we follow the adventures of young Kit,
a boy who was one of Nell's best friends until Quilp turned
her grandfather against him. Here we find one of Dickens'
favorite sub-plots, the poor but honest boy who supports his
widowed mother and younger brother. Thanks to his honesty,
Kit finds a good position, but then evil Quilp enters the
picture and has him arrested as a thief!

Of course, we have the kind and mysterious elderly
gentlemen who take an interest in Kit and Nell for reasons
that we don't fully understand until the end of the book. We
are certain, however, that they will help ensure that
justice prevails in the end.

This is not a book for those in a hurry. Dickens tells
his stories in a meandering fashion, and the stops along the
way are just as important for your enjoyment as the journey itself. That can be frustrating at time, especially as you enter the second half and are anxious to see how things turn out. I try never to cheat by reading the end of a book before I finish, but it is tempting with Dickens. At times I wanted to tell him, "I don't want to meet anyone else; tell me what happens to Nell and Kit!" But I know the side journeys will prove rewarding, so I just have to be patient. Anyway, I am in better shape than his first readers; he wrote in weekly installments, so
they had to wait!

If you have and enjoyed other Dickens' novels, you will enjoy this one as well. If this is your first time (or perhaps the first time since you were in high school), you are in for a treat.