25

The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

After weeks of so-so prose it was an unexpected joy to step back into a classic novel. Even though I suspect my irritation with Nell would have been frowned on by the man himself and I probably laughed in all the wrong places, it thrills me that a book written more than 160 years ago still has the power to grip me and draw me into the story. But if you ask me Nell should have ditched her grandfather by page 100 and taken one of the many beneficial opportunities life was desperately trying to throw in her way. I was definitely pleased when the pages upon pages which served as a very unsubtle prelude to the 'dramatic' ending finished and I was able to enjoy all the otherwise happy endings for the less irritatingly pious and do-goody characters.