A review by musicdeepdive
The Old Curiosity Shop: A Tale by Charles Dickens

3.5

The weakness of Dickens' fourth novel is its lack of understanding who the main character is. Nell is the Oliver Twist equivalent whose purity perseveres through many trials (even if her life doesn't), but Kit is the agent, the person who moves the story along. That said, I can tell how much Dickens enjoyed writing this book and how much the character of Nell meant to him, and certain scenes with her are incredibly powerful.