# Charles Dickens's novels ranked

Every Dickens novel, with Bleak House and Great Expectations fighting for the top as critics and readers usually rank them, and Pickwick and Chuzzlewit near the bottom.

- 48 votes · 16 items
- Jun 25, 2025 · pageturner_salty
- https://even.best/en/l/2413/charles-dickens-s-novels-ranked

## Top 16

1. **Bleak House** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — 1852-1853. The endless Jarndyce lawsuit; for serious critics, his finest.
2. **David Copperfield** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — 1849-1850. His own favourite, close to autobiography.
3. **Great Expectations** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — 1860-1861. Pip, Miss Havisham and a mysterious benefactor.
4. **Our Mutual Friend** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — 1864-1865. His last completed novel, about money and the Thames.
5. **Little Dorrit** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — 1855-1857. The debtors' prison of his childhood.
6. **Dombey and Son** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — 1846-1848. A proud businessman and the daughter he ignores.
7. **Nicholas Nickleby** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — 1838-1839. A young man against a cruel school.
8. **Barnaby Rudge** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — 1841. The Gordon Riots of 1780.
9. **Martin Chuzzlewit** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — 1843-1844. Often called his weakest, with a trip to America.
10. **Hard Times** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — 1854. Facts, facts, facts in an industrial town.
11. **The Old Curiosity Shop** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — 1840-1841. Little Nell, whose fate gripped two continents.
12. **A Tale of Two Cities** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — 1859. London and Paris in the Revolution; the easiest to read.
13. **A Christmas Carol** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — 1843. Scrooge and three ghosts; a novella, but impossible to leave out.
14. **The Pickwick Papers** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — 1836-1837. His first novel, which wasn't meant to be one.
15. **The Mystery of Edwin Drood** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — 1870. Left unfinished at his death; the ending is still debated.
16. **Oliver Twist** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — 1837-1839. An orphan among London thieves.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.