Author: Charles Dickens (English, 1812-1870)
Originally published: 1844
Page count: 88 (Av. of several versions: 120)
Dates read: 7/27/19-7/30/19
2019 book goal progress: 18 out of 41
Back to the Classics category:
Classic Novella (under 250 pages)
Read my other Dickens at Christmas reviews HERE.
Read my other book reviews for the challenge HERE.
Description on back of book:
The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, commonly referred to as The Chimes, is a novella written by Charles Dickens and first published in 1844, one year after A Christmas Carol. It is the second in his series of "Christmas books," five novellas with strong social and moral messages that he published during the 1840s. The chimes are old bells in the church on whose steps Trotty Veck plies his trade.
First sentence(s):
"There are not many people - and as it is desirable that a story-teller and a story-reader should establish a mutual understanding as soon as possible, I beg it to be noticed that I confine this observation neither to young people nor to little people, but extend it to all conditions of people: little and big, young and old: yet growing up, or already growing down again - 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), but in the night, and alone."
CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 7.4 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters - 6
Atmosphere - 7
Writing Style - 10
Plot - 6
Intrigue - 8
Logic - 7
Enjoyment - 8
What is a CAWPILE Rating?
Review:
This story has many of the same themes as A Christmas Carol and has a similar feel to it as well. It is very well written and almost reads like poetry, though some parts were a little confusing to me. There are ghosts (or goblins - as the book calls them), but they're not as personified. Trotty is not shown the past or present, but is shown a several-year summary of what the future might look like. Also - this book isn't about Christmas at all. It all happens on New Years' Eve into New Years' Day. It's about ringing in a new year.
Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Charles Dickens have the last words:
"The Voice of Time cries to man, Advance! Time is for his advancement and improvement; for his greater worth, his greater happiness, his better life; his progress onward to that goal within its knowledge and its view, and set there, in the period where Time and He began. Ages of darkness, wickedness, and violence have come and gone: millions uncountable, have suffered, lived, and died: to point the way Before him. Who seeks to turn him back, or stay him on his course, arrests a mighty engine which will strike the meddler dead: and be the fiercer and wilder, ever, for its momentary check!"
"The Voice of Time cries to man, Advance! Time is for his advancement and improvement; for his greater worth, his greater happiness, his better life; his progress onward to that goal within its knowledge and its view, and set there, in the period where Time and He began. Ages of darkness, wickedness, and violence have come and gone: millions uncountable, have suffered, lived, and died: to point the way Before him. Who seeks to turn him back, or stay him on his course, arrests a mighty engine which will strike the meddler dead: and be the fiercer and wilder, ever, for its momentary check!"
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