Charles Dickens's fourth novel, originally written in serial form from 1840-1841, before being published in book form in 1841.
Can be read here
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It has been adapted into several made-for-television movies (including a multipart series of BBC), two animated films, and even a musical film starring Anthony Newley, who also wrote the musical's songs, as Mr. Quilp.
This book contains examples of:
- Adaptational Attractiveness: The Big Bad Daniel Quilp is described as a Gonk dwarf, and is clearly shown as such in the watercolor painting◊ by Joseph "Kyd" Clayton Clarke. In the 1975 musical, he is played by the handsome (and Casanova in real life) Anthony Newley.
- Animated Adaptation: Two of them, actually: An anime series from 1979 named Wandering Girl Nell, and a Australian animated film from 1984.
- Artifact Title: The titular curiosity shop itself vanishes from the story about a third of the way through.
- Caretaker Reversal: Nell's grandfather was her guardian and caretaker throughout her childhood. As he becomes more mentally infirm and unable to cope with the stress of losing his house and shop, Nell basically becomes his caretaker - using the money she earns and her own good sense to keep them both alive while traveling the countryside together.
- Deadpan Snarker: Quilp's social interactions (when he's not actively threatening people) mostly consist belittling others with his sarcastic, cutting remarks.
- Depraved Dwarf: Daniel Quilp, who relentlessly torments Nell, her Grandfather and his own wife, is one of the Trope Codifiers.
- The Determinator: Quilp puts every conceivable effort into tracking down Nell and her Grandfather for the purposes of personal revenge.
- Dirty Cop: Quilp bribes policemen to harass, beat, and selectively arrest those who owe him money.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Those who fail to pay what they owe to Quilp wind up losing not only their property as debt compensation, but wind up imprisoned or institutionalized afterwards thanks to Quilp's Dirty Cop connections.
- Downer Ending: Nell dies, and her grandfather, already mentally infirm, refuses to admit she is dead and sits every day by her grave waiting for her to come back until, a few months later, he dies himself.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: the first few chapters are narrated by a nameless man who meets Nell on a bridge, escorts her home to the Curiosity Shop, meets several other characters, and then escorts himself out of the story at the end of chapter three.
- Faux Affably Evil: Quilp is capable of putting on a friendly facade when it suits his purposes, but it's always a transparent front.
- The Gambling Addict: Nell’s grandfather went deeply into debt gambling, trying to win enough money for Nell to live in security.
- Hate Sink: Both Quilp and his toady attorney Sampson Brass.
- Apart from his dark and sarcastic sense of humor, Quilp has absolutely no redeeming or humanizing qualities. He's physically repulsive, cruel towards his long-suffering wife, verbally and physically abusive towards his underlings, and is extremely vindictive in his business dealings - always making sure that any and all who owe him money are not only bankrupted, but imprisoned or institutionalized.
- Sampson Brass, is arguably even more detestable - he's a fawning sycophant responsible for much of Quilp's legal dirtywork, even though he detests Quilp.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: While running from the police, Quilp drowns in the River Thames because he's weighed down by his own bags of gold coins.
- Identical Grandson: Invoked by the Single Gentleman, describing how in a set of family portraits, one face might constantly repeat, to explain how Nell's goodness was identical to that of her mother and grandmother.
- Ironic Name: Sampson Brass. Samson is a powerful and brave hero in the Old Testament's Book of Judges, and brass is a strong metal. In contrast, Sampson Brass is a cowardly, spineless, and conniving man.
- Loan Shark: Quilp preys on naive and desperate people by offering them loans at very high interest that he knows they will never be able to repay.
- Mr. Vice Guy: Grandfather is a kindly old man who loves his granddaughter. However, his gambling addiction and his efforts to hide it make him reckless and dishonest with money. He even threatens and steals from Nell when she doesn't give him all of their money for the card table.
- No Name Given: Nell's grandfather, as well as The Single Gentleman
- Random Events Plot: As they wander across England, Nell and her grandfather meet an assortment of characters who for the most part have no long term effect on them as they travel.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Grandfather becomes this increasingly, due to old age together with the grief and the stress of his increasingly hopeless situation.
- Smug Snake: Both Quilp and his attorney Sampson Brass.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- Nell survives her illness in the 1979 anime. By extension, her grandfather survives as well.
- Grandfather in the 1995 Disney film version starring Peter Ustinov. In this version, Grandfather reconciles with his estranged brother after Nell's death, and their conversation implies that he has chosen to embrace what remains of his life with his surviving family and friends rather than waiting to die by Nell's grave as he did in the novel.
- Sycophantic Servant: Sampson Brass, Quilp's attorney, is also his full-time lickspittle (even though he secretly despises Quilp).
- Villain Has a Point: Cruel and ruthless though he is, Quilp isn't wrong to observe that those who are indebted to him are the authors of their own misfortunes due to their profligate spending habits, gambling addictions, etc. Had Nell's grandfather actually invested the money in something sensible rather than gambled it away, he wouldn't have lost everything to Quilp.
