I just finished The Old Curiosity Shop.

I do love a bit of Dickens at winter, it has to be winter... characters ordering boiled beef and Porter (or at least Ale) is something of a stock feature of most of Dickens' novels.

Although I may just have given away something about the ending of that one.

Read Great Expectations if you haven't already, everyone knows the story but the book is just awesome, modern authors just don't have that power of language.

I have a bit of a thing for the 19th century you know, especially the 1840s - 1860s. Cholera and gender politics aside.