Al morir su marido cubierto de deudas, la señora Lirriper abre una pensión en el 81 de la calle Norfolk, en Londres, para pagar a sus acreedores e iniciar una nueva vida. «Si las paredes de esta pensión pudiesen hablar […] tendrían tantas cosas que contar…» Una extensa galería de personajes genuinamente dickensianos desfila por estas páginas, desde el doctor Goliath, «enciclopedia animada del conocimiento universal», hasta el doctor Bernard, que ayuda a los tristes y hastiados a quitarse la vida en unas lujosas cenas que anticipan El club de los suicidas de R. L. Stevenson.

First off let me say how much I like Hesperus Press editions. They are sturdy, well-made paperbacks, whose attractive covers have been lengthened an inch or so and then turned in, like a book jacket, so that the edges over-hang like a hardback . The paper is good and the print excellent. I am accumulating a set of their Dickens Christmas anthologies, which include the contributions by other people, and they are excellent.

To get the criticism out of the way, yes this is sentimental and yes, the stories by people who aren't Dickens vary widely in quality but and it's a big BUT Mrs Lirriper herself is a delight. A garrulous, good-hearted widow who keeps a lodging house in London, Mrs Lirriper rambles around subject as varied as the problem of "girls" hired as servants (I liked the one who married a Plymouth Brethern, became a Plymouth Sister and had Plymouth Twins) and the Wandering Christians, people who inspect and then say they will take lodging and are never seen again. After a young mother is abandoned by her husband, Mrs Lirriper ends up adopting her son, and the boy and her favourite lodger (Major Jemmy Jackman) feature largely. I did scorn the baby talk of the boy, until I had a nephew who talked just like him - which shows that Mr Dickens knows better than I do.

Not exactly a surprise. ( )