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Dickens' Christmas Spirits: A Christmas Carol and Other Tales
This elegant edition gathers seven spirited Yuletide fables by Charles Dickens. The heartwarming tales tell of people rescued from their own folly by mysterious strangers — including goblins, ghosts, and other supernatural creatures.
In addition to the author's most famous holiday tale, "A Christmas Carol," this collection features "The Cricket on the Hearth," "The Chimes," "The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain," "The Seven Poor Travellers," "The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton," and "The Holly-Tree." Over sixty charming illustrations enhance this book, which will delight Dickens' fans as well as all lovers of Christmas stories.
In addition to the author's most famous holiday tale, "A Christmas Carol," this collection features "The Cricket on the Hearth," "The Chimes," "The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain," "The Seven Poor Travellers," "The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton," and "The Holly-Tree." Over sixty charming illustrations enhance this book, which will delight Dickens' fans as well as all lovers of Christmas stories.
528 pages, Hardcover
Published September 16, 2010
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About the author
Charles Dickens
10.3k books31.4k followersCharles 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)
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)
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 1, 2021
*A Christmas Carol
January 23, 2023
These are great and nice to read fairly regularly during the Advent/Christmas season. All I can say however is that I have never got into The Cricket on the Hearth. It just doesn't resonate one bit. The rest however I will be coming back to soon.
January 16, 2022
Charming Christmas stories put together in a beautiful binding. Loved the whimsical black ink drawing prints decorating it. Christmas Carol remains a favorite.
January 15, 2019
My rating is mostly based on "A Christmas Carol" which I give a 5-star review to. The other stories are 3 stars. Nothing beats Dickens' classic tale--it is tight and beautifully written, not the sprawling rambling saga he normally produces. Don't get me wrong, I love Dickens, but ACC is in a class by itself. Alone among the Victorians, he understood the terrible toll that social ills took on society. And we have the same problems today; his observations apply to us equally well:
From the foldings of its robe it brought two children, wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment.
"O Man! look here! Look, look down here!" exclaimed the Ghost [of Christmas Present].
They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish, but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their faces out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shriveled hand, like that of age, had pinched and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.
..."Spirit, are they yours?" Scrooge could say no more.
"They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased."
Brrrrr......
October 12, 2018
I get odd looks when I say that I've totallyenjoy Charles Dickens' writing...but I do. And while this was a re-read selection, the stories being seasonal and Dickens' social attitudes which are very close to my own made it, once again, an enjoyable read.
January 17, 2019
I loved rereading A Christmas Carol, and it was great to read some other Christmas stories by Dickens I've never read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews