e only historical comparison that could be made to the excitement at the release of the last Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
The Norwegian author Ingeborg Refling Hagen is said to have buried a copy of the book in her youth, stating that nobody deserved to read about Nell, because nobody would ever understand her pain. She compared herself to Nell, because of her own miserable situation at the time.
Allusions to actual history, geography
A shop named 'The Old Curiosity Shop' can be found at 13–14 Portsmouth Street, Westminster, London, WC2A 2ES, in amongst the London School of Economics. The building dates back to the sixteenth century, but this name was added after the novel was released, as it was thought to be the inspiration for Dickens' description of the antique shop. At one time it functioned as a dairy on an estate given by King Charles II to one of his many mistresses. It was made using the wood from old ships and the building survived the bombs of Second World War. There is also a shop in Broadstairs called The Old Curiosity Shop, where Dickens rented a home.
Nell and her Grandfather meet Codlin and Short in a Churchyard in Aylesbury. The Races where Nell and her Grandfather go to with the show people are at Banbury. The village where they first meet the schoolmaster is Warmington, Warwickshire. They meet Mrs. Jarley near the village of Gaydon, Warwickshire. The town where they work at Jarley's Waxworks is Warwick. The heavily industrialised town where Nell spends the night by the furnace is Birmingham, after they have travelled on the Warwick and Birmingham Canal. The town in which Nell faints and is rescued by the school master is Wolverhampton in the Black Country. The village where they finally find peace and rest and where Nell dies is Tong, Shropshire.
Other real locations used in the novel include London Bridge, Bevis Marks, Finchley, and Minster-on-Sea.
- There were several silent film adaptations of the novel including two directed by Thomad Bently:
- The Old Curiosity Shop (1914)
- The Old Curiosity Shop (1921)
- The first talkie version was a 1934 British film starring Hay Petrie as Quilp.
- The novel was serialised for television by the BBC in 1960.
- A British musical version of The Old Curiosity Shop (titled Mr. Quilp in the United States) was released in 1975. The filmmakers were hoping to cash in on the recent success of Oliver!, which was also based on a Dickens classic, but the film was notably unsuccessful.
- In 1979, a nine-part miniseries was created by the BBC and later released on DVD. There was no Frederick character and the story ends with the grandfather mourning at Nell's grave.
- An adaptation for BBC Radio 4 was first broadcast in 1990 narrated by Alex Jennings, with Emily Chenery (Nell), Phil Daniels (Quilp), Daniel Bliss (Kit), Trevor Peacock (Grandfather), Clive Swift, Anna Massey and Julia McKenzie.
- A second BBC Radio 4 adaptation was broadcast in 1998. The production starred Tom Courtenay as Quilp, Denis Quilley, Michael Maloney and Teresa Gallagher.
- In 1995, Tom Courtenay and Peter Ustinov starred in a Disney made-for-television film adaptation as Quilp and the Grandfather, with Sally Walsh as Nell.
- A television film adaptation was produced by ITV and broadcast in the UK on 26 December 2007 and repeated on 14 December 2008.
- Little Nell is featured in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sculptural group Dickens and Little Nell (1890), one of only two known sculptural representations of Dickens.
- 1840–1841, UK, Chapman and Hall, Pub date (88 weekly parts) April 1840 to November 1841, Serial as part of Master Humphrey's Clock
- 1841, UK, Chapman and Hall (ISBN not used), Pub date ? ? 1841, Hardback (first edition)
- 1870, UK, Chapman and Hall (ISBN not used), Hardback
- 1904, NY, Thomas Y. Crowell (ISBN not used), Pub date ? ? 1904, Leatherbound
- 1995, USA, Everyman's Library ISBN 0-460-87600-7, Pub date ? ? 1995, Paperback
- 1997, UK, Clarendon Press (Oxford University Press) ISBN 0-19-812493-7, Pub date 13 November 1997, Hardback. This is conside