Before Curiosity

The Old Curiosity Shop is the fourth novel by English author Charles Dickens; being one of his two novels (the other being Barnaby Rudge) published along with short stories in his weekly serial Master Humphrey's Clock, from 1840 to 1841. It was so popular that New York readers reputedly stormed the wharf when the ship bearing the final instalment arrived in 1841. The Old Curiosity Shop was printed in book form in 1841 in two volumes. Queen Victoria read the novel that year and found it "very interesting and cleverly written". The plot follows the journey of Nell Trent and her grandfather, both residents of The Old Curiosity Shop in London, whose lives are thrown into disarray and destitution due to the machinations of an evil moneylender and the grandfather's gambling addiction.