Books

Free to read

Charles Dickens

41 free books by Charles Dickens. 41 you can read right here.

Born 1812 in Landport · Died 1870 in Gads Hill Place

writer, novelist, playwright, author, journalist · United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland · associated with literary realism

Notable works: The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Bleak House

More on Wikipedia →

Facts from Wikidata (Q5686), retrieved 2026-09-26.

Also by Charles Dickens: read here

Short stories and shorter works by Charles Dickens

Quotes from Charles Dickens’s books

Verified word for word in the text: each quote is copied exactly from the book’s text in this site’s reader (the Project Gutenberg e-text named under each book) and links to its passage; when this page was built, every quote was checked word for word against that text. How RedLectern is built.

Hard Times

From Project Gutenberg e-text #786 (public domain in the USA).

‘NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.

I. THE ONE THING NEEDFULRead in context →

It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood, it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage.

V. THE KEYNOTERead in context →

All 22 quotes from Hard Times →

A Tale of Two Cities

From Project Gutenberg e-text #98 (public domain in the USA).

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

— Spoken by a character · XV. The Footsteps Die Out For Ever

Read in context →

I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul.

— Spoken by a character · XIII. The Fellow of No Delicacy

Read in context →

All 12 quotes from A Tale of Two Cities →

David Copperfield

From Project Gutenberg e-text #766 (public domain in the USA).

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.

1. I AM BORNRead in context →

There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose.’

45. MR. DICK FULFILS MY AUNT’S PREDICTIONSRead in context →

All 18 quotes from David Copperfield →

Great Expectations

From Project Gutenberg e-text #1400 (public domain in the USA).

“Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.”

— Spoken by a character · Chapter XL

Read in context →

I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.

Chapter LIXRead in context →

All 14 quotes from Great Expectations →

Bleak House

From Project Gutenberg e-text #1023 (public domain in the USA).

London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall.

I. In ChanceryRead in context →

Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city.

I. In ChanceryRead in context →

All 10 quotes from Bleak House →

All quotes from Charles Dickens’s books →

All authors →