The Story of Little Nell

From the Introduction

The story of Little Nell comprises the groundwork and much the larger portion of Dickens’s "The Old Curiosity Shop," first published in 1840–41. It is given in the present volume just as Dickens wrote it, but freed from the various episodes and other passages originally employed to introduce other characters and to give greater variety to the narrative. The story thus abridged, and confined solely to the relation of the pathetic adventures of its heroine, will appeal especially to young readers whom the complete novel would perhaps repel by reason of its great length and the complexity of its plot. They will scarcely fail to perceive the beauty and the pathos of the story as a whole, nor to admire the courage, the self-denial, and the simple goodness of Little Nell herself.