Nell Trent

She lives a lonely life with only one friend, Kit Nubbles, an honest boy employed at the shop, whom she is teaching to write.

In an attempt to provide for her once he is gone her grandfather gambles extensively at cards and borrows heavily from the villainous Daniel Quilp, who lusts after Little Nell and hopes eventually to marry her after disposing of his wife.

Eventually Quilp seizes possession of the shop and evicts Nell and her grandfather who travel to the Midlands to live as beggars.

Her grandfather, already mentally infirm, refuses to admit she is dead and sits every day by her grave waiting for her to come back until, a few months later, he dies himself.

Her little bird – a poor slight thing the pressure of a finger would have crushed – was stirring nimbly in its cage; and the strong heart of its child-mistress was mute and motionless for ever.

[3] Her death caused a sensation among readers at the time, with many dismayed by Dickens killing the much-loved central character.

In America crowds waited anxiously at the dockside for the ships arriving from England to hear of the fate of Little Nell.

"[1] Ada Leverson reported that her friend Oscar Wilde once said, "One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing",[5] while Aldous Huxley described the passage as "inept and vulgarly sentimental".