A Christmas Carol and Other Holiday Treasures

by Charles Dickens

Most famous in the realm of holiday literature for his 1843 publication, A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens was in fact a prolific writer in the yuletide genre and a great contributor to many now-prevalent traditions of the holiday itself. In 1944, A Christmas Carol, Dickens released The Chimes: A Christmas Story of Some Bells That Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, which combined his usual sympathy for the poor with the notion that we must always strive to live in nobler ways. In 1845 came the novella The Cricket on the Hearth. The years 1846 and 1848 respectively saw published The Battle of Life and The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain. Because of this wealth of Christmas-themed works, Dickens is sometime referred to as “the man who invented Christmas.”

About the Word Cloud Classics series:
Classic works of literature with a clean, modern aesthetic! Perfect for both old and new literature fans, the Word Cloud Classics series from Canterbury Classics provides a chic and inexpensive introduction to timeless tales. With a higher production value, including heat burnished covers and foil stamping, these eye-catching, easy-to-hold editions are the perfect gift for students and fans of literature everywhere.

Genres: Classics, Christmas, Short Stories, Fiction, Holiday, Novella

400 pages, Flexibound

Published October 15, 2013

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

[Winter · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 Stars

A Christmas Carol is the most well known Christmas story for a reason and while it is a five star easily, the rest of the stories in this book range from okay to very confusing.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very wordy, very long winded, but a classic all the same. Learn some very meaningful things in this book. It’s not about things, this holiday time, it’s about spending time with family and being thankful for what you have because it could always be worse.

[SiJay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably shouldn’t have watched the adaptation incessantly, every Christmas season my whole childhood. It didn’t feel like I discovered anything new or different. It’s a great book for sure, but I just didn’t enjoy as much because of this. I couldn’t really separate it all in my head very well.

[Abigail McKenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my knowledge, what is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

I've only read "A Christmas Carol" out of this but I do want to read the others at some point.

But oh my gosh, A Christmas Carol was incredible. I had heard that Dickens' writing style was either love-it-or-hate-it, and while I think I'm going to have to read other stories to really determine it how I feel overall, I loved it in this. His humor rolled perfectly for me, I loved the jokes he made in several scenes, oh my word. There were so many times I had to stop reading to read a passage out loud to my family because it was too funny.

This was fascinating to read, because while I've seen adaptations for years (who hasn't, right?), I'd never read the original. What was so interesting was Scrooge. I thought he was so much less than he actually was. I've always thought of him as just a cranky old man who hates Christmas for no real reason but he came over to the light side fairly quickly? Like, he was already feeling like liking Christmas by the time he left the first Spirit? Which really surprised me? I wasn't expecting it.

Overall, I really enjoyed seeing the source material for all the adaptations I've seen and I can't wait to read it again next year. 5 stars.

[Lensey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars Dickens is very wordy in some parts and of course a little tedious to read, but the stories are beautiful just the same. A Christmas Carol is the most well-known, but The Chimes and The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain are similar in that they both also involve phantoms and changes of heart brought about by the protagonist’s interactions with the phantoms. The Cricket on the Hearth and The Battle of Life (which is a terrible title for this story) are both just fun little love stories at their core. I’m so glad I read this!

[Pages & Cup · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read Dickens’s Christmas stories before. This was a reread of The Cricket on the Hearth.

[Cami · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore Charles Dickens writing!! And this is no exception. A familiar story to most, but reading it in the words of the original story is so special! I love Dickens' characters and the transformation of Ebenezer! So heart-warming and tender. I want to read it at every Christmas and give copies to everyone I know.
Remember to keep Christmas well, in your heart, all year long. And God bless us, every one!

[Ashleigh Spicy Geek · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say about this Christmas classic that hasn't been said before? Nothing, that what. I love this book so much. It's one of my all time favorites I read every year and/or watch one of the many movies. It's a wonderful tale of a grumpy old man who hates everything except his money and business and is visited by his late business partner and the 3 Christmas ghosts. During his visits we get to learn about Scrooge's life as the ghosts try and get him to change his ways. Honestly, I feel everyone should read this at least once in their life.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy most of this book. I of course loved re-reading A Christmas Carol. An I liked getting to enjoy some of Dicken's other short stories, but many of them I found to be kind of boring and flat. Especially when compared to his other well known works. My Copy of this book is so beautiful though, and I am happy to have read it and own it. And everyone should read A Christmas Carol at Christmas time at least once.

[Michelle (RavenLily) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've only read the first story in this collection so far, 74 pages. The Christmas carol has so many complexities and little nuggets of Truth that I did not expect and did not know about from watching movie versions of the story. I plan on reading the other stories during the course of the next year and I will adjust my rating based upon each story.

[Candace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Christmas Carol is absolutely the best tale, and I would have given five stars to this book if I had enjoyed the other four tales as much. The other four stories in the book are a little more difficult to read due to Dickens’ prolific prose. I do appreciate his flourishing use of the English language, but feel like sometimes the words got in the way of the story.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dickens writes in a way that simply makes me smile...

[Tom C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only read A Christmas Carol and glad I did. very close to my understanding of it from film and animation, but still well worth the quick read simply for having done it.

[Ethan Nunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Christmas Carol was very good! The other short stories were not that great, but worth reading.

[Pamela Shropshire · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this Dickens Christmas-themed compilation, all these stories are new to me except A Christmas Carol. I'm not doing a review, because surely, EVERYONE in Internetland knows ACC.

Favorite quote in A Christmas Carol: "Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire. . ."
***************
The Chimes.

It's written with a similar premise to A Christmas Carol, featuring a ticket-porter named Toby "Trotty" Veck. (I did not know what a ticket-porter was; apparently, it was a man who delivered messages and packages on a freelance basis.) Trotty is opposed to his daughter marrying her sweetheart, Richard; presumably because they are very poor. Trotty is mysteriously drawn to church bells, up into the bell tower; where he sees a series of visions, through the Spirits of the Bells, of the possible future.

In all of the possible futures, Meg has not married Richard, and is even poorer and more wretched. The Spirits chide Trotty for his selfishness, and when he begs for forgiveness and mercy, he comes back to the present day. It is New Year's Eve again, and Meg is preparing to marry Richard and one is left to suppose that they all live happily ever after.

"Had Trotty dreamed? or, are his joys and sorrows, and the actors in them, but a dream; himself a dream; the teller of this tale a dreamer, waking but now? If it be so, O listener, dear to him in all his visions, try to bear in mind the stern realities from which these shadows come; and in your sphere - none is too wide, and none to limited for such an end - endeavor to correct, improve, and soften them. So may the New Year be a happy one to you, happy to many more whose happiness depends on you! So may each year be happier than the last, and not the meanest of our brethren or sisterhood debarred their rightful share, in what our Great Creator formed them to enjoy."

IMO, this story needed some judicious editing. I think Dickens was a wonderful writer, but he was rather wordy in this one. I love how he can set a mood for a story with his word paintings, but he went on and on about about the bells, and about Toby earning the nickname Trotty.

This one is not nearly as effective nor affecting as ACC, but still enjoyable.

I chuckled at this line:
"...there are not, I say, many people who would care to sleep in a church. I don't mean at sermon time in warm weather (when the thing has actually been done, once or twice)..."
**************
The Cricket on the Hearth

An interesting little story, in which the aforesaid cricket, with the help of Fairies, helps to reconcile a husband and wife.

John Peerybingle is quite a lot older than his wife, whom he calls Dot. John is a "Carrier" which, from the context, I assume means a hauler of goods in his wagon. One night he picks up an elderly deaf gentleman and brings him home. In the evening, John and Dot go to a friend's home; Caleb Plummer, a toy maker with a blind daughter. Caleb's boss, Mr. Tackleton, a hard and gruff man, is shortly to be married to young May, in a marriage of convenience, because she is very poor.

During the evening, Tackleton sees Dot and the elderly gentleman together in what he thinks is a compromising situation. He gets John and forces him to the scene as well. John is hurt and then angry; at one point he even has a gun and is tempted to kill the man. This is when the Cricket chirps in and the Fairies appear, showing John all of the ways Dot has been a loving faithful wife.

John decides that he will forgive Dot and because of the diversity in their ages, he will allow her to return to her parents' home. Instead, it turns out that the mysterious gentleman is the son of Caleb, in disguise, named Edward, returned from South America, where he had been presumed to have died. Edward and May had been in love before he went away; now that he has returned, they marry almost immediately. Apparently the Cricket and the Fairies have visited Mr. Tackleton, too, because he contributes to the wedding feast and begs to join the party.

And all live happily ever after, I suppose.
************
The Battle of Life

I really enjoyed this little story. It begins with a battlefield scene, with the dead and dying everywhere, and then moves forward through the years as life goes on where the battle occurred, until the "present." A doctor lives, with his two daughters, Grace and Marion, in a house in/near a village that has grown on the battlefield site. He has an apprentice, Alfred, who is in love with the youngest daughter, Marion. Alfred leaves to go on his own, but promises to come back for Marion.

Shortly before he is due to return, Marion runs off with another man and isn't heard from for years. Of course, the family is devastated. But in time, they heal; Grace and Alfred, in consoling each other, have grown to love each other, get married and have a family.

After six years, Marion returns - she reveals that she left because she knew that Grace was secretly in love with Alfred. My favorite quote is placed quite early in the story, but foreshadows the ending.

There was a secondary character named Clemency that I really loved.

"I believe, Mr. Snitchey," said Alfred, "that there are quiet victories and struggles, great sacrifices of self, and noble acts of heroism, in it - even in many of its apparent lightnesses and contradictions - not the less difficult to achieve, because they have no earthly chronicle or audience - done every day in men's and women's hearts - any one of which might reconcile the sternest man to such a world, and fill him with belief and hope in it..."
*************
The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain

Another interesting little fable. The protagonist is Mr. Redlaw, a chemistry professor who boards with the Swidger family, which consists of William Swidger, his wife, known as Mrs. William or Dolly in the story, and William's father, an old man of 87.

Mr. Redlaw is unmarrried; we learn that he had been in love, but that his best friend won her away from him. Mr. Redlaw also had a sister, but she is dead and he is now alone in the world. He has, as Dickens puts it, a Sorrow and a Wrong in his past.

A ghost appears to Redlaw and offers him forgetfulness of the Sorrow and Wrong in his past; further, that he will pass this "gift" on to others. Redlaw accepts, thinking that he could be happy if only he could forget.

Things do not work out as he imagined. Along with forgetfulness of the Sorrow and Wrong, all joy in the present disappears. As he passes his "gift" to others, they also change.

The moral of the story, as Mrs. William states, is that the virtue in having Sorrow and being Wronged is the capacity to forgive.

A charming little tale.

[Erin Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wish there were half-star options on here, because this book would get a 2.5/5. It felt wrong to mark it a 2 though, so 3 it is. A Christmas Carol was, of course, excellent, 4.5/5 for that one, hence why I felt guilty giving the book as a whole a 2. The Battle of Life was so-so, I was able to follow the story for the most part, but it was quite boring and I'm not entirely sure what the reader was supposed to get out of it. The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain, however, were nearly impossible to follow and I legitimately have no idea what happened in any of these stories, I was lost the entire time. Basically, I understand why A Christmas Carol is a classic and is so iconic, and I also understand why the other four are not.

[Jacq.and.the.readstalk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an enjoyable and festive classic.

Dickens' writes with such wit and warmth, that it brings a genuine smile to your face. His humour and rich imagery, offers a soft balance to the more sombre scenes of the story. I love how moving the novel is. The growth of Ebenezer Scrooge is written so naturally without feeling overdone. The concept of compassion and redemption resonates strongly and is a wonderful year-round reminder of humanity. Dickens' other Christmas stories equally capture the same sentiments.

A Christmas Carol and Other Holiday Treasures is a joy to read, it's inspiring, touching, a perfect reminder of the power giving at Christmas.

[Nino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly, Word Cloud Classics are such a pleasure to the eye.
But: It's a good collection of stories I maybe wouldn't read separately. There were some stories I enjoyed and some that made it hard for me to push through. But what I did love was the moral of all the stories. They still are up to date and something to keep in mind.
I wonderd though, if the language, when aimed at the broader and often poorer audience of Dickens, wasn't to elite sometimes. Since I'm no native english speaker I found some wordings difficult to understand and follow. Hence, I wondered if it maybe was the same for some people as well.

[Christine Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because this was a collection of stories, my rating reflects an average...

The 5 star stories were fresh and unique. The 3 star stories were re-hashing of the 5 star story plot lines.

But I love Dickens. I love the sentiments. And I enjoyed reading these little tales through the holiday season. 'Nuff said.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always been a tradition to read A Christmas Carol during the holidays before watching the 1951 classic film. I haven't read the other holidays traditions yet, I mean I tried reading the Cricket, but I was bored after the first chapter. The other holiday stories don't seem as entertaining as A Christmas Carol, which is why they're so underrated and unpopular.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carol is a classic, and a I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was less familiar with the others but enjoyed them as well. Chimes dragged a bit for me and I struggled to follow it a bit more, but I really enjoyed Battle of Life. Each tries to illustrate the more intangible things that make life and Christmas so meaningful.

[Lee Zirkle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is only for a Christmas Carol. I intend to read one story each Christmas. This is my first Dickens. I was surprised at how easy it was to read. He definitely has a sense of humor, and seems to like the topic of spontaneous combustion. What the people did to Scrooge in the visit with the 3rd ghost was truly horrible.

[Gabi Coatsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to an audio version of these stories read by Jason Isaac's (A Christmas Carol) David Rintoul, and others. ACC is the best of these tales, but they are all atmospheric and all deal with reconciliation at Christmas time. Published by SNR Audio if you're looking for a copy, though it's not listed on Goodreads

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This definitely wasn't my first rodeo reading A Christmas Carol! But it was my first time reading it aloud to my husband...AT HIS REQUEST. Needless to say, we both cried through a road trip as we read the entire book. Special memory of my favorite book of literature.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sentimental favorite

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed A Christmas Carol. The other stories not so much.

[Peveril · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Christmas Carol **** The Chimes ** Cricket On The Hearth ****

[Liz Stanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect way for you to get into the holiday spirit

[Mariana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Christmas Carol - 5
The others - 3-3.5

[Ashley McCarver · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved "A Christmas Carol," but I was once again reminded how wordy Dickens was. Some of the other stories were a little confusing because of how wordy he wrote.