The Old Curiosity Shop - abridged Author:Charles Dickens She's young, she's pretty, and she's frightened. Alone on the streets of nighttime London, far from home and lost, Nell accepts the kindness of a strange man who leads her back to the only home she knows -- The Old Curiosity Shop. The stranger cannot understand why so young a girl is out alone late at night, nor does she offer any explanation. ... more »So begins Charles Dickens' enduring masterpiece, the immortal story of the doting grand-farther who loves his granddaughter Nell, dearly, and the villainous dwarf, Daniel Quilp, who furnishes the money toe old man so rashly gambles away trying to amass a fortune for little Nell. Quip, as monstrous inside as out, waits only for the day the unfortunate gambler must give up Old Curiosity Shop and leave Nell at Quilp's mercy. But Nell and her grandfather have other plans -- the run away!« less