Where to start with Charles Dickens

British novelist, 1812–1870.

Best Charles Dickens book to start with: Great Expectations (1860), on 8 of the 13 lists it could have made.

Start with Great Expectations. It’s the most compact of his big novels, it has one of his best plots, and it’s the book the lists back most. After that, read David Copperfield: it’s long and warm, and it draws on his own early life.

Then try Bleak House, which critics rate very highly and which starts slowly. There’s a huge cast, a lawsuit that never ends, and a young woman called Esther who narrates part of it. It pays you back for sticking with it.

If you’re short on time, A Christmas Carol is a novella you can finish in an evening, and A Tale of Two Cities is one of his shorter novels, set in London and Paris during the French Revolution. Save Our Mutual Friend and Dombey and Son for later. Both are long, both have their admirers, and neither is the place to begin. If you only ever read two Dickens novels, make them Great Expectations and Bleak House.