Montreal Dickens Fellowship
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Montreal Dickens Fellowship Study Questions: “The Old Curiosity Shop”
Westmount Public Library
October 6, 2015 1:00-3:00
Chapters 11 - 20

1. Comment on Dickens’s description of the “childishness” of old age.
2. Dickens was a very keen observer of people and based many of his characters on people within his own experience. Many personality traits that he described rang true and are true even to this day. The Garland family is no exception. Comment.
3. Where do you think “The Old Curiosity Shop” was located in London and which route did Grandfather and Little Nell take upon leaving the city?
4. What is the origin of the “Punch and Judy” show? Discuss how the puppets and puppeteers fit into the myriad of grotesque carnival characters that surround Little Nell even away from “The “Old Curiosity Shop”.
5. Circus-like and “freak show” characters have prominent roles in this novel. What is their history? What was their place in Victorian society? Dickens was not only a great writer but a shrewd businessman as well. Did Dickens use them to titillate and draw in readers who, like their counterparts today, were attracted by the unusual and bizarre?
6. Dickens was a great animal lover and had many pets. What pets did he have? His patroness, heiress Angela Burdett Coutts, was the founder of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. (R.S.P.C.A). Comment.
7. Do you think an innocent girl like Nell, who had been so sheltered, would really have had the savvy to sew coins into her dress or be shrewd enough to outsmart unscrupulous and worldly men?
8. Comment on Dickens’s description of racing day in which he appeals to all of our senses.
9. There is an air of dishonesty about the racetrack grounds. Dickens’s vocabulary speaks volumes with words such as: performers, tricksters, gaudy, unlawful, with “dirt, gypsies and poverty behind the glittering show” Comment on the effectiveness of his language.
10. Thus far, there is no clear hero in the book. No dashing young man or romantic heroine. Comment.
11. Selling nosegays for a few pennies and begging are not the same thing. Do you think Nell actually begged for money?
12. Dickens was a master of personification in which he humanized inanimate objects and animals. Mr. Garland’s pony is a prime example of this. Discuss how he has human qualities and motivations