Title: The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain
Author: Charles Dickens
In: A Christmas Carol and Other Holiday Treasures (Charles Dickens)
Rating Out of 5:  4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Christmas, Classics
Pace: Slow
Format:  Novella
Publisher: Word Cloud Classics
Year: 1848
5th sentence, 74th page: What a wonderful man you are, father!

Redlaw is a teacher of chemistry who often broods over wrongs done him and grief from his past. He is haunted by a spirit, who is not so much a ghost as Redlaw’s phantom twin and is “an awful likeness of himself…with his features, and his bright eyes, and his grizzled hair, and dressed in the gloomy shadow of his dress…” This specter appears and proposes to Redlaw that he can allow him to “forget the sorrow, wrong, and trouble you have known…to cancel their remembrance…” Redlaw is hesitant at first, but finally agrees. However, before the spirit vanishes it imposes an additional consequence: “The gift that I have given you, you shall give again, go where you will.”

I really liked the imagery invoked by the opening pages of this novella. It was very waxy and set the scene for a haunting story. I think that of all the “Christmas stories”, this is the one that starts off most poetically. There is just something about the repetition of when and the setting of the scene that is incredibly spooky, yet beautiful.

As an ending to a collection of Christmas tales, this one works quite well. There is something about the darkness and wish to be something better that encompasses all of the other stories in this collection. Yet, the very haunting that takes place is so unique that it is difficult to turn away. This is certainly one of those tales that I will read again and again and again, finding something new and endearing every single time.

Image source: Overdrive

Title: The Battle of Life
Author: Charles Dickens
In: A Christmas Carol and Other Holiday Treasures (Charles Dickens)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Christmas, Classics
Pace: Slow
Format: Novella
Publisher: Word Cloud Classics
Year: 1846
5th sentence, 74th page: But, as I have observed that Time confuses facts occasionally, I hardly know what weight to give to his authority.

The Battle of Life: A Love Story is a novella by Charles Dickens, 1st published in 1846. It’s the 4th of his five “Christmas Books”, coming after The Cricket on the Hearth, followed by The Haunted Man & the Ghost’s Bargain.

The setting is an English village that stands on the site of a historic battle. Some characters refer to the battle as a metaphor for the struggles of life, hence the title.

Battle is the only one of the five Christmas Books that has no supernatural or explicitly religious elements. (One scene takes place at Christmas time, but it isn’t the final scene.) The story bears some resemblance to The Cricket on the Hearth in two aspects: it has a non-urban setting & it’s resolved with a romantic twist. It’s even less of a social novel than is Cricket. As is typical with Dickens, the ending is a happy one.

It’s one of Dickens’ lesser-known works & has never attained any high level of popularity, a trait it shares among the Christmas Books with The Haunted Man.

This is mostly in my Christmas shelf because it is one of Charles Dickens’ Christmas stories. There’s not really much of a Christmas theme to it, nor is it specifically set around the holiday season. Yet, somehow, it does feel that it belongs within this collection regardless.

As far as stories go, this is a pretty easy and quaint one. Two sisters take centre stage alongside their matrimonial plans. Marion is the one who is to marry, and it is from here that things spiral out of control. All throughout the love story, it seems to be a completely predictable journey. Until the third part, the part in which a quite unexpected twist takes place. One that highlights the love between sisters and makes you view the entirety of the first two parts in an entirely different light.

Image source: Feedbooks

Title: The Cricket on the Hearth
Author: Charles Dickens
In: A Christmas Carol and Other Holiday Treasures (Charles Dickens)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Christmas, Classics
Pace: Slow
Format: Novella
Publisher: Word Cloud Classics
Year: 1845
5th sentence, 74th page: I wouldn’t have missed Dot, doing the honours in her wedding-gown; my benison on her bright face! for any money.

The title creature is a sort of barometer of life at the home of John Peerybingle and his much younger wife Dot. When things go well, the cricket on the hearth chirps; it is silent when there is sorrow. Tackleton, a jealous old man, poisons John’s mind about Dot, but the cricket through its supernatural powers restores John’s confidence and all ends happily.

Although this is a Christmas story, I don’t 100% see the connection. Having said that, I love the tale, and I love the emotional rollercoaster it takes you on. I just didn’t get the overwhelmingly Christmas-y feeling that I get from more modern tales set in the holiday season. Probably because this story had a lot to do with setting up that atmosphere and feeling.

Unlike the other Charles Dickens tales that I have recently read, this took me on a really serious roller coaster. Whilst the others did this, it certainly wasn’t to this point, and it made it that much more difficult to put down. The potential treachery of both the wife and the friend are hard, the conspiracy that runs through, and the spirit of the Cricket (which to me translates to the spirit of Christmas) all work incredibly well together.

I’m sure there are many potent and incredible meanings behind the words of The Cricket on the Hearth, but for me, it is a great, easy read. Characterised by Dickens’ fantastic style and writing, partnered with the lyrical speech of the 1800s. A great way to spend a slightly windy and blustering afternoon.

Image source: Goodreads

Title: The Chimes
Author: Charles Dickens
In: A Christmas Carol and Other Holiday Treasures (Charles Dickens)
Rating Out of 5: 3.5 (Liked this)
My Bookshelves: Christmas, Classics
Pace: Slow
Format: Novella
Publisher: Word Cloud Classics
Year: 1844
5th sentence, 74th page: 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.

“The Chimes” is Charles Dickens 1844 novella that concerns the disillusionment of Toby “Trotty” Veck, a poor working-class man. When Trotty has lost his faith in Humanity and believes that his poverty is the result of his unworthiness he is visited on New Year’s Eve by spirits to help restore his faith and show him that nobody is born evil, but rather that crime and poverty are things created by man.

It took me a little more to get into this than A Christmas Carol. Probably because A Christmas Carol is a story that I already know and love from the many different adaptations that I’ve watched. The Chimes on the other hand isn’t a storyline that I’ve ever read before or heard of.

Another reason I struggled to get into this story was because of the way that Toby is shamed in the first quarter for being poor. Although this is a technique utilised to highlight the Christmas spirit amongst the bells and chimes later, I found it a little hard to swallow. Until the last quarter, then I loved the way that the spirits and chimes all worked together to remind us of the Christmas spirit.

The Chimes works as a great way to remind us that it is the spirit of giving and love that is what should truly define the holiday season. Not how much money you have and what you can give people.

Image source: Goodreads