Includes: Five Christmas Books and
Collection of 9 Christmas Short Stories
Author: Charles Dickens (English, 1812-1870)
Originally published: 1835-1854
Page count: Five books: 85; 88; 91; 88; 99
Nine short stories: 105 total (~5-20 pages each)
Dates read: 7/8/19-12/6/19
Back to the Classics category:
Five books: Classic Novella (under 250 pages)
Nine short stories: 19th Century Classic
Read my other book reviews for the challenge HERE.
Many people are familiar with A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - but did you know he actually wrote four other Christmas books and over 20 Christmas short stories?! Well, this wonderful book called Dickens at Christmas collects all five of his Christmas books and nine of his Christmas short stories. An overall review of the Christmas books and an overall review of Dickens at Christmas are included below in this blog post. For more in-depth reviews of the Christmas books and mini-reviews of the nine short stories, you can access them here:
-A Christmas Carol (1843)
-The Chimes (1844)
-The Cricket on the Hearth (1845)
-The Battle of Life (1846)
-The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848)
-Mini-Reviews of the Christmas Short Stories (1835-1854)
Overall Review the Five Christmas Books:
A Christmas Carol is by far his most well know Christmas story and it very much deserves that. None of the other books (which are all really novellas) are quite like his first. The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain is also a great tale and is the only other ACTUAL Christmas story. It's blatantly around Christmas-time AND has a personified ghost - usually referred to as a phantom. The main character is also quite similar to the well-known Mr. Scrooge.
The Chimes is a good story but is actually during New Year's Eve/New Year's. It does have a multitude of ghosts (referred to as goblins), but they're not personified like in the two stories mentioned above. The Cricket on the Hearth is an adorable story about love and marriage - but it happens at the end of January and has no connection to Christmas. Crickets are referred to as spirits and symbols of luck, but there are no ghosts in this story.
The Battle of Life was a horrible story that I found confusing. It had a short scene at Christmas, but it wasn't about Christmas at all. It also didn't have any ghosts. This is one to just pass on and read some of Dickens' other wonderful writings instead.
Overall Review of Dickens at Christmas:
If you haven't already, I would highly suggest reading A Christmas Carol - and, even if you have, to read it again. I would also suggest reading all of the other Christmas Books except for The Battle of Life. Most of the short stories are good too. My favorite being "The Story of the Goblin who Stole a Sexton" and my least favorite being "A Christmas Tree." I also enjoyed "The Child's Story," even though it isn't about Christmas.
That was what surprised most reading through this collection of 14 stories - only half of the tales are really about Christmas. The other half had little or nothing to do with Christmas. That was a big disappointment - even if they were good stories on their own.
Nonetheless, Charles Dickens is an INCREDIBLE writer. I greatly look forward to reading more of his books. I had read A Christmas Carol while in college (over 5 years ago) and Oliver Twist when I was in fifth or sixth grade - so I didn't have much to go on to know what to expect from his writing. He writes so smoothly and each sentence seems perfectly crafted - it's almost like reading poetry. Every story has a moral purpose, which just feels good to me. I just couldn't help but smile while reading all these stories.
That was what surprised most reading through this collection of 14 stories - only half of the tales are really about Christmas. The other half had little or nothing to do with Christmas. That was a big disappointment - even if they were good stories on their own.
Nonetheless, Charles Dickens is an INCREDIBLE writer. I greatly look forward to reading more of his books. I had read A Christmas Carol while in college (over 5 years ago) and Oliver Twist when I was in fifth or sixth grade - so I didn't have much to go on to know what to expect from his writing. He writes so smoothly and each sentence seems perfectly crafted - it's almost like reading poetry. Every story has a moral purpose, which just feels good to me. I just couldn't help but smile while reading all these stories.
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:
"Christmas comes but once a year, which is unhappily true, for when it begins to stay with us the whole year round we shall make this earth a very different place."
-"The Seven Poor Travellers"
"Christmas comes but once a year, which is unhappily true, for when it begins to stay with us the whole year round we shall make this earth a very different place."
-"The Seven Poor Travellers"
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