Biblioteche dell'Alto Adige

Abstract: Qualcuno ha detto che il Natale è un'invenzione di Charles Dickens e in effetti queste pagine strabordano di tutto ciò che ci si può aspettare da un vero Natale: tetti coperti di neve, tacchini ripieni, alberi illuminati, focolari accesi, cori di bambini, campane... ma soprattutto buoni sentimenti e i miracoli di cui solo il cuore è capace. Un volume dall'accattivante look vintage che, da Canto di Natale, capostipite di tutte le novelle natalizie, agli altri Christmas Books e Stories, fino a brani dall'amatissimo Il circolo Pickwick, raccoglie venti racconti più uno per vivere la stagione più magica dell'anno: l'ideale per chiunque non possa fare a meno di un po' di vero "spirito natalizio". Curato da Massimo Scorsone, Natale Dickens è arricchito da due scritti di G. K. Chesterton.

Abstract: Quando, nel 1850, pubblica David Copperfield, Charles Dickens offre ai suoi lettori per la prima volta un romanzo da lui scritto in prima persona e, dietro la storia del giovane protagonista, quelle che si possono leggere sono a volte le vicende personali dell'autore stesso. Ma ciò che si viene delineando attraverso i primi dolorosi anni, il duro apprendistato di vita in fabbrica, e poi la fuga e il vagabondare picaresco del giovane Copperfield, è soprattutto un romanzo di formazione in cui il personaggio si fa biografo di se stesso. Capita allora di non riuscire più a dire se la realtà evocata sia quella vissuta dal ragazzo all'epoca dei fatti o quella che l'adulto rivisita nel passato. Perché, da un'avventura all'altra, da una prova alla seguente, è una nuova immagine di sé che il narratore viene progressivamente costruendo, prima di diventare egli stesso, alla fine del libro, uno scrittore simile a quello che, fin dall'inizio, ha preso in mano la penna per raccontare la propria esistenza – e regalarci quello che ancora oggi è il più grande romanzo inglese del xix secolo.

Abstract: "Voi sapete con altrettanta sicurezza di me che io giudico il "Chuzzlewit" la mia opera senza confronti migliore, sotto infiniti aspetti. Che io sono cosciente delle mie forze come mai prima d'ora. Che io so che, se la salute mi assisterà, potrò conservare il mio posto nell'animo degli uomini pensanti, anche se cinquanta romanzieri cominciassero a scrivere domani stesso".CHARLES DICKENS a JOHN FORSTER"Dickens aveva avuto da principio l'intenzione di scrivere sul frontespizio: "Scena: la vostra casa. Personaggi: voi stessi". Se ne astenne, e fece bene. Era una cosa troppo vera perché la sopportassero".ANDRÉ MAUROIS

Abstract: Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was an English novelist and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today.George Silverman's Explanation, first published in 1851, is one of Charles Dickens' most interesting short stories. It was reprinted in 1900 edition as part of The Holly-Tree Inn and Other Reprinted Pieces, which was published as the second volume of A Child's History of England and Miscellaneous Pieces.In George Silverman's Explanation, a story narrated in the first person by a man called George Silverman, Charles Dickens addresses the themes of poverty, change, class, selflessness, love, sacrifice, control and acceptance. Today we propose it again to our readers.

Abstract: Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was an English novelist and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today.A Flight, first published in 1851, is one of Charles Dickens' most interesting short stories. It's a story that shows us how fiction is created when a hyper-active narrator uses every exterior detail as a pretext to the expression of his creative energy. Today we propose it again to our readers.

Abstract: Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was an English novelist and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today.A Christmas Tree, fitst published in 1850, is one of Charles Dickens' most interesting short stories. Today we propose it again to our readers.

Abstract: Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was an English novelist and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today.The Ghost of Art is one of Charles Dickens' most interesting short stories. Today we propose it again to our readers."I inclined my head, with as much presence of mind as I could command, and he followed me into my chambers. There, I saw that the lower part of his face was tied up, in what is commonly called a Belcher handkerchief. He slowly removed this bandage, and exposed to view a long dark beard, curling over his upper lip, twisting about the corners of his mouth, and hanging down upon his breast."What is this?" I exclaimed involuntarily, "and what have you become?"."I am the Ghost of Art!" said he.The effect of these words, slowly uttered in the thunder-storm at midnight, was appalling in the last degree. More dead than alive, I surveyed him in silence".

Abstract: The story is about an orphan, Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to London where he meets the Artful Dodger, leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets. Naively unaware of their unlawful activities, Oliver is led to the lair of their elderly criminal trainer Fagin.

Abstract: The role of the explorer and investigator of interesting things was explained by Dickens in the introduction to the work:Allow me to introduce myself--first negatively.No landlord is my friend and brother, no chambermaid loves me, no waiter worships me, no boots admires and envies me. No round of beef or tongue or ham is expressly cooked for me, no pigeon-pie is especially made for me, no hotel-advertisement is personally addressed to me, no hotel-room tapestried with great-coats and railway wrappers is set apart for me, no house of public entertainment in the United Kingdom greatly cares for my opinion of its brandy or sherry. When I go upon my journeys, I am not usually rated at a low figure in the bill; when I come home from my journeys, I never get any commission. I know nothing about prices, and should have no idea, if I were put to it, how to wheedle a man into ordering something he doesn't want. As a town traveller, I am never to be seen driving a vehicle externally like a young and volatile pianoforte van, and internally like an oven in which a number of flat boxes are baking in layers. As a country traveller, I am rarely to be found in a gig, and am never to be encountered by a pleasure train, waiting on the platform of a branch station, quite a Druid in the midst of a light Stonehenge of samples.And yet--proceeding now, to introduce myself positively--I am both a town traveller and a country traveller, and am always on the road. Figuratively speaking, I travel for the great house of Human Interest Brothers, and have rather a large connection in the fancy goods way. Literally speaking, I am always wandering here and there from my rooms in Covent-garden, London--now about the city streets: now, about the country by-roads--seeing many little things, and some great things, which, because they interest me, I think may interest others.These are my chief credentials as the Uncommercial Traveller.

Abstract: Il padre di David muore prima della sua nascita e quindi David è costretto a trascorrere l'infanzia senza la presenza di una figura paterna. Allora vive con la madre e la governante Peggotty. La madre di David si sente sola e in seguito si sposa con Mr. Murdstone, un uomo severo e insensibile e accoglie in casa sua sorella che si dimostra addirittura più insensibile del fratello. Entrambi cercano di allontanare David dalla famiglia mandandolo in collegio. Qui David conosce Steerforth, che sarà il suo più grande amico, il compagno Traddles e il severo preside Creakle. Tornato dal college David trova un fratellino nuovo e una madre oppressa dal marito che la porterà alla morte e David verrà costretto a lavorare in una fabbrica di proprietà di un amico del signor Murdstone. David durante questo periodo alloggia presso la famiglia Micawber. Mr. Micawber non è in grado di badare alle spese di casa ; a questo punto David decide di scappare via da Londra.

Abstract: It is a work of satire on the shortcomings of the government and society of the period. Much of Dickens' ire is focused upon the institutions of debtors' prisons—in which people who owed money were imprisoned, unable to work, until they have repaid their debts. The representative prison in this case is the Marshalsea where the author's own father had been imprisoned. Most of Dickens' other critiques in this particular novel concern the social safety net: industry and the treatment and safety of workers; the bureaucracy of the British Treasury (as figured in the fictional "Circumlocution Office"); and the separation of people based on the lack of interaction between the classes.

Abstract: Hard Times - For These Times (commonly known as Hard Times) is the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. The book appraises English society and is aimed at highlighting the social and economic pressures of the times.

Abstract: Great Expectations is Charles Dickens's thirteenth novel. It is his second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. Great Expectations is a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age novel, and it is a classic work of Victorian literature. It depicts the growth and personal development of an orphan named Pip. Collected and dense, with a conciseness unusual for Dickens, the novel represents Dickens' peak and maturity as an author.

Abstract: A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature.The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period. It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events. The most notable are Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Darnay is a former French aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Carton is a dissipated English barrister who endeavors to redeem his ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnay's wife.

Abstract: Il romanzo è uno degli esempi di critica di Dickens della società ed è anche una delle più famose e commoventi storie sul Natale nel mondo. Narra della conversione del vecchio e tirchio Ebenezer Scrooge, visitato nella notte di Natale da tre spiriti (il Natale del passato, del presente e del futuro), preceduti da un'ammonizione dello spettro del defunto amico e collega Jacob Marley. Il Cantounisce al gusto del racconto gotico l'impegno nella lotta alla povertà e allo sfruttamento minorile, attaccando l'analfabetismo: problemi esasperati apparentemente proprio dalla Poor Law (Legge contro la povertà), comodo tappabuchi tanto inefficace quanto dannoso ideato dalle classi abbienti.

Abstract: Master Humphrey is a lonely man who lives in London. He keeps old manuscripts in an antique longcase clock by the chimney-corner. One day, he decides that he would start a little club, called Master Humphrey's Clock, where the members would read out their manuscripts to the others. The members include Master Humphrey; a deaf gentleman, Jack Redburn; retired merchant Owen Miles; and Mr. Pickwick from The Pickwick Papers. A mirror club in the kitchen, Mr. Weller's Watch, run by Mr. Weller, has members including Humphrey's maid, the barber and Sam Weller.

Abstract: Arguably one of the greatest writers of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens is the author of such literary masterpieces as A Tale of Two Cities (1859), A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1850), and The Adventures of Oliver Twist (1839), among many others. Dickens s indelible characters and timeless stories continue to resonate with readers around the world more than 130 years after his death. Dickens was born in 1812 and died in 1870.

Abstract: L'opera vuole essere un resoconto dei viaggi che il signor Samuel Pickwick, fondatore del circolo Pickwick, compie, assieme agli amici Nathaniel Winkle, Augustus Snodgrass e Tracy Tupman, attraverso l'Inghilterra del primo Ottocento con l'intenzione di descriverne gli abitanti, fra situazioni paradossali e personaggi bizzarri. Ad esempio, fin dall'inizio delle loro avventure vengono notati da Jingle e dal suo domestico Job Trotter, due abili delinquenti che non faticano ad ingannare e a mettere nei guai l'anziano gentiluomo e i suoi compagni.

Abstract: utilizzato esclusivamente dal suo titolare. Termini e condizioni Ebenezer Scrooge odia il Natale e tutto ciò che rappresenta: la gioia, la famiglia, la generosità… Lui vorrebbe solo che fosse un giorno come un altro per poter lavorare e guadagnare! Ma una notte gli fa visita il fantasma del suo ex socio in affari, che lo esorta a cambiare vita prima che il suo egoismo abbia conseguenze irreparabili. Riuscirà Scrooge a scoprire il vero significato del Natale?