Master Humphrey’s Clock was a weekly periodical edited and written entirely by Charles. It began with a frame story in which Master Humphrey tells about himself and his small circle of friends, and their penchant for telling stories. Several short stories were included, followed by the novels The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge. Master Humphrey appears as the first-person narrator in the first three chapters of The Old Curiosity Shop but then disappears.