Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Penguin Classics (1987), Paperback, 432 pages
Description
This witty and amusing collection of short pieces shows Dickens liberated from the more formal and sustained demands of the novel and experimenting with a diverse range of fictional techniques. In his tales of the supernatural, he creates frighteningly believable, spine-tingling stories of prophetic dreams and visions, as well as more fantastical adventures with goblins and apparitions. Impressionistic sketches combine imaginatively heightened travel journals with wry observations of home and abroad, while in his dramatic monologues, Dickens demonstrates his talent for exploring the secret workings of the human mind. These short works display Dickens's exuberant sense of comedy and character as his imagination is given free rein.
User reviews
LibraryThing member atheist_goat
Reading this on a Sunday afternoon, I fell asleep no fewer than three times. The short piece was not his forte.
LibraryThing member EricCostello
Variable mix of some of Dickens' shorter-form pieces. The excerpts from the Boz sketches are hilarious, the Uncommercial Traveler bits interesting. The ghost stories a bit variable, and the dramatic stories forgettable.
Language
Physical description
432 p.; 4.68 inches
ISBN
0140431039 / 9780140431032
Local notes
Supernatural Tales. Impressionistic Sketches (incl. Uncommercial Traveller). Dramatic Monologues
Other editions
Selected Short Fiction by Charles Dickens (Paperback)