Best Books About Clean Classics by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens is one of the greatest novelists in the English language - and one of the most beloved, for reasons that have nothing to do with literary prestige. His books are full of unforgettable characters, wild plots, and a warmth and humor that have kept them alive for nearly two centuries. They are also, for the most part, remarkably clean: the darkness in Dickens is social - poverty, injustice, cruelty - rather than graphic, and his novels can be shared with readers of almost any age.

Dickens wrote fifteen novels, and they are not all equal. If you are new to Dickens - or if you have read one or two and want to know which to try next - this guide will take you through his best work, organized by what each book offers.

Where to Start: The Two Essential Doorways#

Dickens’s novels divide roughly into the early comic ones and the later, darker masterpieces. Most readers start with one of these two.

A Christmas Carol (1843)#

The most beloved story in English: Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser who hates Christmas, is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his former partner and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come - and the book is about his transformation from a man who has closed his heart to a man who has opened it. It is short, it is perfect, and it is the best possible introduction to Dickens: the humor, the social conscience, the warmth, and the belief that people can change.

It is also the cleanest of Dickens’s major works and the most giftable. If you read only one Dickens book, this is the one - and if you read it first, you will understand why his other novels are worth the length.

Oliver Twist (1837–39)#

Dickens’s first great novel: Oliver, an orphan born in a workhouse, runs away to London and falls in with a gang of thieves - Fagin, the Artful Dodger, Bill Sikes - before his true identity is revealed. It is the book that made Dickens famous, and it contains some of his most famous characters and one of the great villains in literature.

It is the essential companion to A Christmas Carol: the same social conscience - the book is an argument against the cruelty of the workhouse system - with a full novel’s length and a darker edge. It is the best introduction to Dickens’s longer works.

The Great Middle Novels: Dickens at His Peak#

The novels of the 1840s and 1850s are Dickens at the height of his powers - the period that produced his greatest works.

David Copperfield (1849–50)#

Dickens’s own favorite among his novels, and the one he called his “favourite child”: David Copperfield tells his own life story - from his unhappy childhood, through his escape to his aunt Betsey Trotwood, to his career, his loves, and his slow finding of himself. It is the most autobiographical of Dickens’s novels, and it contains some of his greatest characters: the villainous Uriah Heep, the improvident Mr. Micawber, the ever-faithful Peggotty.

It is the essential Dickens for readers who want the full range: comedy, pathos, social observation, and a hero who is decent and real. It is long, and it rewards every page.

Bleak House (1852–53)#

Many critics call it Dickens’s greatest novel: the story of a long-running lawsuit, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, that slowly consumes everyone it touches, and of the orphan Esther Summerson, who narrates half the book. It is the most ambitious of Dickens’s novels - two narrators, a sprawling cast, a murder mystery at its heart - and it is an argument against the legal system that Dickens knew from bitter experience.

It is the essential read for readers who want Dickens at his most serious: the comedy is still there, but the book is darker, more intricate, and more morally urgent than anything before it.

Great Expectations (1860–61)#

The last of Dickens’s great novels, and for many readers his finest: Pip, an orphan boy, is given “great expectations” - an anonymous fortune, a gentleman’s education, a chance to rise - and the book is about what the expectations cost him. It contains one of the great twists in literature, and one of the great characters in Miss Havisham, the jilted bride who has stopped time.

It is the essential read for readers who want Dickens at his most controlled: the book is shorter and tighter than the others, the first-person narration is flawless, and the ending - Dickens wrote two, and chose the better - is perfect.

The Later Masterpieces: Dickens in Full Maturity#

The novels of Dickens’s last decade are darker, more unified, and more symbolic than what came before.

Hard Times (1854)#

Dickens’s shortest novel and his most pointed: set in the industrial city of Coketown, it is an argument against the philosophy of “facts” and utility that Dickens saw crushing the humanity out of the new industrial world. It is the essential read for readers who want Dickens’s social argument at its most explicit: the book is a fable, and its message - that the imagination and the heart matter as much as the ledger - is delivered with complete conviction.

A Tale of Two Cities (1859)#

The most famous historical novel in English: set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution, it follows the fates of Charles Darnay, a French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, the dissipated English lawyer who looks like him - and who makes the book’s famous final sacrifice. It is Dickens’s most plot-driven novel, and its ending - “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done” - is among the most famous passages in literature.

It is the essential read for readers who want Dickens’s drama at its most intense: less comedy than the others, more tragedy, and a structure that moves like a machine.

Our Mutual Friend (1864–65)#

Dickens’s last completed novel, and one of his greatest: a fortune tied to the Thames, a body in the river, and a cast that includes some of his most memorable characters - the dust-heap millionaire, the golden girl, the schoolmaster Bradley Headstone. It is the most intricate of Dickens’s novels, and it is the essential read for readers who want the full measure of his art.

If You Loved the Orphans: Dickens’s Children#

Dickens’s great subject is the child - the orphan, the neglected, the abandoned - and his books are full of children who endure cruelty and survive through their own resources. These are the essential Dickens books for the children in his fiction.

Oliver Twist, and the Child in the Workhouse#

Oliver is the essential Dickens orphan: the child born in the workhouse, starved and beaten, who runs away and falls among thieves, and who survives - through innocence, through luck, through the intervention of good people - to claim his inheritance. The book is an argument against the treatment of children in Dickens’s England, and it is the essential read for the children in his fiction.

David Copperfield, and the Child Who Endures#

David is the other great Dickens child: the boy whose stepfather sends him to work in a factory at ten, who walks to Dover to find his aunt, who makes his own way in the world. The book is Dickens’s most personal account of childhood - he drew on his own experience of the factory - and it is the essential read for the child who endures.

Great Expectations, and the Child Who Rises#

Pip is the third great Dickens child: the orphan who is given a chance to rise, and who must learn what the rising costs. The book is the essential read for the child who is changed by the world’s expectations.

If You Loved the Comedy: Dickens’s Humor#

Dickens is one of the funniest writers in English - the caricatures, the names, the set pieces - and his humor is one of the reasons his books have never stopped being loved. These are the essential reads for the comedy.

The Pickwick Papers (1836–37)#

Dickens’s first novel, and his funniest: Mr. Pickwick and his friends travel around England, getting into scrapes - the book is a picaresque comedy, almost a series of comic episodes strung together, and it made Dickens famous overnight. It is the essential read for readers who want Dickens’s humor at its purest.

David Copperfield, and the Comedy of Character#

The book’s comedy comes from its characters - the unforgettable Micawber, always waiting for something to turn up; the villainous Uriah Heep, always “umble”; the glorious Betsy Trotwood. It is the essential read for the comedy of character at its best.

A Christmas Carol, and the Comedy of Redemption#

Even the darkest of Dickens’s arguments is carried by comedy: the book’s humor - Scrooge’s grumbling, the Ghost of Christmas Present’s feast - is inseparable from its warmth. It is the essential read for the comedy that carries the heart.

If You Loved the Social Conscience: Dickens’s Arguments#

Dickens’s books are arguments - against the workhouse, the legal system, the factory, the neglect of children - and the arguments are why his books matter as much as they do. These are the essential reads for the conscience.

Oliver Twist, and the Argument Against the Workhouse#

The book’s famous opening - “Please, sir, I want some more” - is the argument in miniature: the child starving in the institution that is supposed to care for him. The book is an argument against the Poor Law and the workhouse, and it changed how England thought about its children.

Bleak House, and the Argument Against the Law#

The book’s lawsuit, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, consumes everything it touches - the money, the hope, the lives - and the book is an argument against the legal system that Dickens knew from bitter personal experience. It is the essential read for the social argument at its most intricate.

Hard Times, and the Argument Against Utility#

The book is an argument against the philosophy of “facts” - the utilitarian view that only what can be measured matters. It is the essential read for Dickens’s argument at its most explicit: the imagination and the heart, he insists, matter as much as the ledger.

Building Your Own Shelf: A Reading Order#

Here is a suggested path through Dickens’s best work:

• Start with A Christmas Carol for the essential introduction.
• Move to Oliver Twist for the orphan and the social argument.
• Try David Copperfield for the full range.
• Pick up Great Expectations for the masterpiece.
• End with A Tale of Two Cities when you want the drama.

For more books in this spirit, our clean books for adults themes and values guide explains what makes these classics work, and our family-friendly fiction themes and values guide extends the shelf into stories for every age. The stories section of our site is full of guides like this one, so there is always another classic to discover.

A Note on Reading Dickens With Young Readers#

A practical word for families: Dickens’s novels are long, and the Victorian prose can be a barrier for younger readers - but the barrier is worth crossing, and there are ways to cross it. A Christmas Carol is the natural start: short enough to read aloud over a few evenings, and full of everything that makes Dickens Dickens. For the longer novels, the illustrated editions and the audiobooks are excellent companions, and the famous film adaptations - especially the great Oliver Twist and David Copperfield films - can prepare young readers for the books. Many families read the first chapters aloud together and let the children continue alone. The rewards are real: Dickens’s books are full of the things young readers love - orphans, adventures, villains, and happy endings - and the prose, once the ear adjusts, is among the most pleasurable in the language. It is worth the effort, and the children who cross the barrier will have the rest of their lives to enjoy what is on the other side.

Why Dickens Endures#

Charles Dickens wrote novels that have been loved for nearly two centuries, and the reason is simple: he wrote about people - the poor, the forgotten, the children, the crooks, the eccentrics - with more warmth and more moral urgency than almost anyone before or since. His books are funny and heartbreaking in the same chapters, full of characters who have passed into the language, and driven by an anger at injustice that has never gone out of style. He is the novelist of the neglected - of Oliver asking for more, of Tiny Tim saying God bless us every one, of Pip learning what the expectations cost - and every generation discovers him for itself. Start with Scrooge, and you will want to read them all.