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A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings.


A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings

Charles Dickens

Penguin Classics

ISBN ISBN
abbr.
International Standard Book Number


ISBN International Standard Book Number

ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 
 0140439056, US $8.00, UK 6.99 Brit. pounds, Can. $12.00 325 pages

This book is in some small part biographical material on Charles Dickens himself. Of his Christmas writings, less than one-third is a restatement of his famed 1843 work whose full original name was, "A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas."--nowadays simply called, "A Christmas Carol".

More specifically, that slender tale occupies 92 pages of the book, against 112 for "The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain"--but the former is better known by far than the latter, despite its 20 more pages.

The volume as a whole is "Edited with an introduction by Michael Slater", who seems to further describe himself as a "distinguished Dickens scholar". Slater and others fill the first 30-odd pages with assorted introductory materials. Then come 264 pages of actual Dickens works, interspersed with a few pages of oldfashioned illustrations; and finally, 24 additional pages of appendices and endnotes.

Dickens, it would seem, hit just the right tone to appeal to the masses of his day with his emphasis on generosity and fellowship--especially at Christmastime, although he was not alone in that aim. He did it so well, in fact, and so consistently over a number of years, that in his time he became a virtual "Father Christmas personified" in both Britain and the United States.

Not, however, that he was able to put out "Carol"-sized Christmas fictions every year during the period in question. In some years his offerings were brief, while in 1851 he published an essay, "What Christmas Is, as We Grow Older"--a topic that was close to his heart, no doubt, but unlikely to charm children.

Eight individual Christmas writings by Dickens are quoted in this book, titled as follows:

"Christmas Festivities fes·tiv·i·ty  
n. pl. fes·tiv·i·ties
1. A joyous feast, holiday, or celebration; a festival.

2. The pleasure, joy, and gaiety of a festival or celebration.

3.
"

"The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton"

A Christmas episode from "Master Humphrey's Clock Master Humphrey's Clock was a weekly periodical edited and written entirely by Charles Dickens from April 4, 1840—December 4, 1841. It began with a frame story in which Master Humphrey tells about himself and his small circle of friends (which includes none other than Mr. "

"A Christmas Carol"

"The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain"

"A Christmas Tree Christmas tree

Evergreen tree, usually decorated with lights and ornaments, to celebrate the Christmas season. The use of evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands as symbols of eternal life was common among the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews.
"

"What Christmas Is, as We Grow Older"

"The Seven Poor Travellers".

Dickens, Slater tells us, had other themes than bonhomie bon·ho·mie  
n.
A pleasant and affable disposition; geniality.



[French, from bonhomme, good-natured man : bon, good (from Latin bonus; see deu-2
 to share with his readers at Christmas, some of these being poverty, the burdens of ill will, and bereavement Bereavement Definition

Bereavement refers to the period of mourning and grief following the death of a beloved person or animal. The English word bereavement
. Accordingly, he is no stranger to bittersweet bittersweet, name for two unrelated plants, belonging to different families, both fall-fruiting woody vines sometimes cultivated for their decorative scarlet berries.  thoughts, but in one instance he rather shocked me by describing how a sour old brute of a church sexton/gravedigger assaulted a small boy with his lantern, merely because the poor urchin sang merrily on Christmas Eve.

Such, though, evidently were those times, and to Dickens belongs much credit for injecting at least some civility into society.

These Dickensian writings need not be thought of, by persons of other persuasions, as specifically Christian works. There is no religion or set of values worthy of the name that would not support Dickens's views and attitudes on such questions as those of understanding, kindliness kind·li·ness  
n.
1. The quality or state of being kindly.

2. A kindly deed.

Noun 1. kindliness - friendliness evidence by a kindly and helpful disposition
helpfulness
, generosity, and good cheer even in the face of the most dreadful adversities. They are not to be confined to be in childbed.

See also: Confine
 to the Christmas season, either.

While, to my slight knowledge, Dickens wrote chiefly of contemporaneous matters, (but not, however, in "A Tale of Two Cities A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is the second historical novel by Charles Dickens. The plot centres on the years leading up to the French Revolution and culminates in the Jacobin Reign of Terror. ", which in 1859 described conditions as they had been in the 1790s), to us his times were rather quaint. Consider this volume's cover illustration, taken from a hand-coloured engraving--surely an extinct process, today.
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Copyright 2005, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Author:Hodgins, Pete
Publication:Reviewer's Bookwatch
Article Type:Book Review
Date:Jan 1, 2005
Words:568
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