10 Charles Dickens Novels Everyone Should Read

The best Charles Dickens books, and why you should read them

When he died aged 58 in 1870, Charles Dickens left behind fifteen novels, five Christmas books, several volumes of travel writing, and dozens of journalistic pieces and short stories. But what are the ten books that best exemplify Dickens’s genius, his unique comic achievement, and those qualities which we tend to think of when we hear the word ‘Dickensian’? Undoubtedly a fool’s errand. But we’ll give it a go anyway, if nothing else because it’s an excuse to share some great trivia about Dickens’s finest books.