Beautiful, honest Nell Trent lives with her devoted Grandfather in his Old Curiosity Shop, an enchanting shop of odds and ends. Desperate to make a better life for his Nell, Grandfather secretly gambles and gets deeply into debt with the unscrupulous Quilp. When what little money they have is lost in a game of cards, Quilp claims The Old Curiosity Shop as payment for the loans Released in installments from 1840 to 1841, Charles Dicken's The Old Curiosity Shop caused such a sensation at the time that crowds of avid readers were waiting on the docks of New York to hear news of their heroine when the ship with the last episode approached the port.