Where to Start with Charles Dickens
- Best entry point → Great Expectations
- Best standalone → A Christmas Carol: A Signature Performance
- Start the Our Mutual Friend #1-2 series → Our Mutual Friend
- What fans keep coming back to → A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens Complete Works)
- Best narrator for Charles Dickens → Oliver Twist
- Highest rated by listeners → A Christmas Carol
- 1
A Christmas Carol: A Signature Performance
by Charles Dickens, Tim Curry
Narrated by Tim Curry
★ 4.63 ABR Score (971.0K ratings)★ 4.09 Goodreads (947.2K) ★ 4.74 Audible (23.8K)3h 31m listening time • Released 2010 - 2
Great Expectations
Narrated by Simon Prebble
★ 4.35 ABR Score (885.8K ratings)★ 3.8 Goodreads (879.9K) ★ 4.63 Audible (5.9K)18h 32m listening time • Released 2011Simon Prebble's narration transforms Dickens' Victorian labyrinth into something genuinely gripping—his voice captures Pip's moral unraveling with such precision that the mystery's emotional gut-punch lands harder than on the page.
- 3
A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens Complete Works)
by Charles Dickens, John Shuckburgh, Hablot Knight Browne
Narrated by Simon Prebble
★ 4.15 ABR Score (1.0M ratings)★ 3.88 Goodreads (1.0M) ★ 4.57 Audible (302)14h 42m listening time • Released 2011Simon Prebble's narration brings Dickens' sprawling French Revolution epic to vivid life, making the mob scenes crackle and Sydney Carton's sacrifice genuinely gutting. Worth the 14+ hours for a story that still nails the horror of revolutionary violence and the redemptive power of love.
- 4
A Christmas Carol
Narrated by Maxine Mitchell, Tim Paige, Lucy Rivers, Tieran Wilder, Devon Ryder, Gary Furlong, Joe Arden, Sebastian York, Troy Duran
★ 3.96 ABR Score (947.6K ratings)★ 4.09 Goodreads (947.6K) ★ 5 Audible (6)2h 47m listening time • Released 2025 - 5
Nicholas Nickleby
by Anne de Graaf, Charles Dickens
Narrated by Alex Jennings
★ 3.90 ABR Score (322 ratings)★ 3.91 Goodreads (34) ★ 4.72 Audible (288)34h 42m listening time • Released 2009 - 6
Oliver Twist
Narrated by Alex Jennings
★ 3.90 ABR Score (431.1K ratings)★ 3.88 Goodreads (431.1K) ★ 4.53 Audible (17)5h 43m listening time • Released 2011 - 7
The Pickwick Papers (Charles Dickens)
Narrated by Simon Vance
★ 3.89 ABR Score (32.4K ratings)★ 3.85 Goodreads (32.4K) ★ 4.61 Audible (44)29h 18m listening time • Released 2020Simon Vance's vocal range transforms Dickens' sprawling cast into a fully realized world, turning what could feel episodic into genuinely addictive storytelling. It's the rare classic that feels alive in audio.
- 8
Our Mutual Friend
Our Mutual Friend #1-2
by Charles Dickens, Richard Gaughan
Narrated by Alex Jennings
★ 3.85 ABR Score (31.6K ratings)★ 4.09 Goodreads (31.6K) ★ 4 Audible (6)2h 58m listening time • Released 2006 - 9
The Cricket on the Hearth
Narrated by Jim Dale
★ 3.75 ABR Score (9.2K ratings)★ 3.47 Goodreads (8.8K) ★ 4.31 Audible (319)3h 37m listening time • Released 2013Jim Dale transforms this lesser-known Dickens novella into pure emotional theater—his voice work for each character is so distinct and alive that you forget you're listening to one man. It's a perfect Christmas story for people who think they've outgrown them.
- 10
The Phantom Coach: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Ghost Stories (The Connoisseur's Collections)
by Michael Sims, Elizabeth Gaskell, Amelia B. Edwards, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, Robert W. Chambers, Mrs. Oliphant, W.W. Jacobs, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, Rudyard Kipling, Ambrose Bierce, W.F. Harvey
Narrated by Matthew Waterson
★ 3.67 ABR Score (408 ratings)★ 3.73 Goodreads (295) ★ 4.13 Audible (113)10h 48m listening time • Released 2014Matthew Waterson's narration transforms these Victorian ghost stories into something genuinely atmospheric—each tale lands with psychological weight rather than cheap scares, making legends like Dickens and James feel freshly unsettling.
- 11
The Charles Dickens BBC Radio Drama Collection: The Early Years
by Charles Dickens, Alex Jennings, Anna Massey, Bill Nighy, Julia McKenzie, Pam Ferris, Phil Daniels, Robert Glenister, Sandi Toksvig, Tim McInnerny
Narrated by Full Cast, Anna Massey, Alex Jennings, Phil Daniels, Julia McKenzie, Tim McInnerny, Robert Glenister
★ 3.64 ABR Score (69 ratings)★ 4.47 Goodreads (15) ★ 4.5 Audible (54)35h 7m listening time • Released 2018 - 12
Dombey and son /
Narrated by Alex Jennings, Full Cast, Robert Glenister
★ 3.56 ABR Score (63 ratings)★ 4.12 Goodreads (58) ★ 4.6 Audible (5)4h 36m listening time • Released 2012 - 13
Our Mutual Friend (Woman's Hour Drama)
by Charles Dickens, Alex Jennings, Pauline Quirke
Narrated by Alex Jennings, Full Cast, Pauline Quirke
★ 3.52 ABR Score (14 ratings)★ 4.29 Audible (14)4h 32m listening time • Released 2012 - 14
The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain
Narrated by Geoffrey Giuliano, The Icon Players
★ 3.48 ABR Score (2.3K ratings)★ 3.29 Goodreads (2.3K) ★ 4.33 Audible (3)4h 19m listening time • Released 2020 - 15
Victorian Anthologies: Christmas Spirits
Victorian Anthologies: Christmas Spirits • Book 1
by Charles Dickens, various
Narrated by Natalie Chisholm, Chris Kaye, Jonathan Rhodes
★ 3.41 ABR Score (3 ratings)★ 4 Audible (3)7h 55m listening time • Released 2021
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How We Rank Audiobooks
Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.
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