A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Books

by Charles Dickens, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst (Editor)

A Christmas Carol has gripped the public imagination since it was first published in 1843, and it is now as much a part of the holiday season as is mistletoe or Santa's reindeer. Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future--it is impossible to go anywhere during the month of December and not hear these names, time and again.
Now comes a wonderful new collection of Dickens' Christmas stories, graced with many of the original drawings that appeared in the first edition. Pride of place goes to A Christmas Carol , of course, but the book also includes four other marvelous The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life , and The Haunted Man . All five stories show Dickens at his unpredictable best, jumbling together comedy and melodrama, genial romance and urgent social satire, in pursuit of his aim "to awaken some loving and forbearing thoughts, never out of season in a Christian land." The volume also features an excellent introduction by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, who offers invaluable background to the Christmas stories, illuminating the social questions they set out to address, outlining their reception and the enduring popularity of A Christmas Carol , and highlighting how their style and themes resonate in more complex ways in his major fictions. In addition, the book includes two appendices containing Dickens's article, "What Christmas Is As We Grow Older," and facsimile pages from Dickens's reading version of A Christmas Carol .
A wonderful gift for the holiday season--featuring colored end papers, delightful contemporary illustrations, and a ribbon marker--this superb volume will delight the heart of readers young and old.

Genres: Classics

496 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1843

About the author

Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.

Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.

Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.

On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Gabby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this as part of my Uni module. This tale never gets old.

[Richard Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one's a bit of a mixed rating because I didn't read all of the stories.
I read Christmas Carol and really liked that.
I tried Cricken on the Hearth but it didn't keep my interest at all. The other stories either don't seem interesting enough to me either. It also seems a bit decieving as other than the Haunted Man, the other stories don't seem to have much about christmas going on with them.

So I can't rate this as a whole without reading the other stories. Otherwise Christmas Carol does get a high rating and I'd happily read that again.

[pjerrot]

(Read during Christmas time, 2019: "A Christmas Carol".)

[El · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Christmas Carol is a brilliant, classic story, but the other four stories are less so. They're all at least an enjoyable read, but a little too loose and perhaps not as fulfilling without the knowledge of the contexts of some of his other works. Since the majority of the book was made up of these other stories, I've given a low score.