"Alone amid all this wood and decay, ugliness and age, lies the beautiful child in her sweet sleep." Little Nell Trent lives in the quiet gloom of the old curio shop with her ailing grandfather, whom she cares for with selfless devotion. However, when they fail to repay their debts to the repulsive Quilp, the shop is seized, and they are forced to flee. This throws them into a shadowy world with no safe haven. Dickens's portrayal of the innocent, tragic Nell made "The Old Curiosity Shop" an instant bestseller that captured the hearts of the nation, although it has also been criticized for its sentimentality. Yet, alongside the sensitive elements, the story contains some of Dickens's most comic and grotesque creations: the good-for-nothing Dick Swiveller, the male lawyer Sally Brass, the half-starved "Marchioness," and the lusty, demonic Quilp herself. This edition, based on the original 1841 text, includes an introduction discussing the novel's various contrasting themes and its connection to Dickens's own personal tragedy. It includes the prefaces to the 1841 and 1848 editions, a chronology, notes, and the original illustrations created for the serialized version.