Dear Old Curiosity Shop readers,
We’ve read the fourth issue of Master Humphrey’s Clock – which included the first chapter of The Old Curiosity Shop! – what did you think? Please do share your thoughts as a comment below. Here are mine:
Here are the details of the next instalment:
No.5 (2 May)
There were two items in the fifth issue of Master Humphrey’s Clock:
– ‘Master Humphrey’s Visitor’
– ‘Mr Pickwick’s Tale’
(If you don’t have a physical copy of Master Humphrey’s Clock you can find these sections online here. Stop before the ‘Second Chapter of Mr Pickwick’s Tale’.)
The Little Nell story in Master Humphrey’s Clock – and the novel that grew out of it – are both named after the old ‘curiosity shop’ where she lives with her grandfather. Dickens’s extraordinary description gives it a haunted atmosphere and the unreality of a dream:
The place . . . was one of those receptacles for old and curious things which seem to crouch in odd corners of this town and to hide their musty treasures from the public eye in jealousy and distrust. There were suits of mail standing like ghosts in armour here and there, fantastic carvings brought from monkish cloisters, rusty weapons of various kinds, distorted figures in china and wood and iron and ivory: tapestry and strange furniture that might have been designed in dreams.
There is a double meaning too, because Master Humphrey is filled with ‘curiosity’ about Little Nell. One of the reasons he walks her home is to gratify that curiosity.
And it’s an appropriate title for the novel as a whole, because, as we shall see, the book itself is crammed with curiosities: eccentric characters and strange objects.
If you’ve spent time walking around London, you may well have come across this shop at 14 Portsmouth Street, near Lincoln’s Inn Fields:
Sadly, despite the painted claim on the plasterwork, this was not the inspiration behind Dickens’s Old Curiosity Shop.
Charles Tesseyman wrote the following explanation to the London Echo in December 1883:
My brother, who occupied No.14 Portsmouth-street between 1868 and 1877, the year of his decease, had the words ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ placed over the front for purely business purposes, as likely to attract custom to his shop, he being a dealer in books, paintings, old china, &c. Before 1868 – that is, before my brother had the words put up – no suggestion had ever been made that the place was the veritable ‘Old Curiosity Shop’ immortalised in Dickens.
You can read more about the history of the building here, on the Charles Dickens Museum website.
Nevertheless, although the building’s claim was untrue, it nevertheless became a tourist destination and by the 1920s it was a different kind of curiosity shop, selling a wide range of Dickens-related memorabilia, such as postcards, gifts, bookplates — and the novels themselves.
In 2018 the Old Curiosity Shop was bought by the London School of Economics, who undertook extensive restoration work that was completed in 2023.
Two weeks ago the LSE Generate start-up hub announced a ‘dragon’s den style’ competition to decide what to do with the Old Curiosity Shop. They’re looking for a compelling ‘retail offer’ that contributes to the ‘village feel’ in the area.
If you’d like to run the Old Curiosity Shop yourself, there are four days over the next fortnight when the team are talking to potential applicants: make an appointment to share your ideas!
There’s more information in this Times Higher Education article here.
Finally, a correction: in the video above I say that this illustration of Nell sleeping in the Old Curiosity Shop is by George Cattermole, but it wasn’t! It was by Samuel Williams.
Apologies for the slip. Most of the illustrations in The Old Curiosity Shop are by either George Cattermole or Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), but Samuel Williams and Daniel Maclise contributed one illustration each, and this is the one by Samuel Williams.
I look forward to the next instalment – in which Master Humphrey receives a remarkable visitor – and to discussing it with you next Friday!
Here are links to our previous Old Curiosity Shop posts:
The Schedule (14 March 2025)
Charles Dickens (28 March)
0. Forster’s Life of Dickens (4 April)
1. Master Humphrey’s Clock No.1 – and Gog and Magog (11 April)
2. Master Humphrey’s Clock No.2 – and G. K. Chesterton (18 April)
3. Master Humphrey’s Clock No.3 – and Edgar Allan Poe (25 April)
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The first time I read The Old Curiosity Shop years ago, I had no idea the narrator at the beginning who goes walking in the night was indeed Master Humphrey. It’s fun to read it now around the framing narrative of Master Humphrey’s Clock to gain an appreciation for how Charles Dickens intended readers to consume it.
Aaaaargh! I hadn't bothered with Master Humphrey as I'd assume 'The Old Curiosity Shop' would stand totally alone - but it seems I'm missing out. Maybe it's not too late to catch up - it is the bank holiday after all.
The first chapter is quite spooky. It could have quite easily led to a ghost story or a murder mystery - there is so much left unexplained. There's definitely a hint of menace hanging around.
The narrator brought to mind Mr Brownlow taking care of Oliver Twist - although, knowing what we know about Dickens, an older man taking an interest in a young girl isn't quite as reassuring as we might once have thought.
"I'd have found her if she was above ground" feels like it may be foreshadowing. Kit seems to be a character we can safely warm to, he's not going to turn out to be a bad lot. (I hope!)
In my mind's eye, this is definitely in 1950s David Lean-style black and white.