Dickens`s novel--in its day, one of his most beloved--follows the career of the depraved dwarf Quilp, and introduces poor, innocent Little Nell, who is too good for this world. When Little Nell and her grandfather are forced to flee Quilp`s evil clutches, various upright characters try to intervene and save them, but the frail and debilitated Nell dies as the result of her troubles, and her aged grandfather soon follows. The lushly sentimental and prolonged death of Little Nell sent an entire nation into mourning when the novel appeared in serial form.