Readings from Dickens

This 1953 volume collects scenes that Emlyn Williams cut from Charles Dickens's novels and Christmas stories for solo public reading, following the form of Dickens's own later tours. A three-act solo version of Bleak House turns the Jarndyce suit and a murder into speaking parts for one performer. Other pieces take comic nights from The Pickwick Papers, the childhood of Paul Dombey, river and society episodes from Our Mutual Friend, a ball from A Tale of Two Cities, and shorter ghost and character sketches. Williams keeps Dickens's narrative voice and dialogue but reshapes chapters into recitals. The book is a performance anthology, not a new novel.

Bound in dark green linen with a vignette in gold on a red ground. White dust-jacket with a design in red and green.