Shop (1840), beginning with the fourth number of Master Humphrey's Clock and
resuming intermittently until the ninth chapter, at which point it continued
uninterrupted. The story of the innocent Nell surrounded by surrealistic figures
like Quilp and his gang and continuing onto a nightmarish journey through the
industrial inferno with her half-crazed, gambleholic grandfather calls forth all
of Dickens's original genius.
The death of Nell, based on the death of Mary Hogarth, caused a nation to weep
and skyrocketed sales to 100,000 copies. The publication of The Old Curiosity
Shop secured Dickens's success not only in England but in America, where he was
now famous as well.
Dickens followed The Old Curiosity Shop with Barnaby Rudge (1841), also
published weekly in Master Humphrey's Clock . Set in the time of the Gordon
Riots of 1780, this represents Dickens's first attempt to write an historical
novel. While the riots themselves were inflamed by anti-Catholic sentiment,
Dickens suggests throughout the novel that they are actually an outburst of
social protest. Dickens is appalled by the mob violence he brilliantly depicts
in the brutal riots, but he expresses deep sympathy for the oppressed who are
driven to such lengths by an indifferent and unresponsive system.
