This book report will have a slightly different format as it actually is a review of 5 short novels by Charles Dickens. I think I bit off more than I thought as 75 pages of Dickens seems to somehow equate to 150 of other authors. Anyway, I got through it and I'm glad I did. Next Christmas however, I might read just one of them, or move on to his Christmas short stories... time will tell.
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Title: A Christmas Carol
Author: Charles Dickens
Original Copyright Date: 1843
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ( excellent )
Backcover Description
One of the best-loved and most quoted stories of "the man who invented Christmas"-English writer Charles Dickens-A Christmas Carol debuted in 1843 and has touched millions of hearts since. Cruel miser Ebeneezer Scrooge has never met a shilling he doesn't like. . .and hardly a man he does. And he hates Christmas most of all. When Scrooge is visited by his old partner, Jacob Marley, and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come, he learns eternal lessons of charity, kindness, and goodwill. Experience a true Victorian Christmas!
My Thoughts
We all know and love this classic, so I won't go into too much detail on it or give the story as it should be well known. This was the second time I've read this one, but it has been a VERY long time since the first reading. I didn't remember many of the smaller details about the ghost of Christmas past but there were not a lot of surprises otherwise.
This is a classic and deserves to be. I wish I could say the same thing about the other stories.
Speaking of...
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Title: The Chimes
Author: Charles Dickens
Original Copyright Date: 1844
My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars ( confusing )
Backcover Description
The Chimes tells the story of Toby Veck, or Trotty, a humble porter whose loses his faith in human nature at the hands of his presumed social superiors, but regains it thanks to the spirits of the bells.
My Thoughts
This story was very confusing to me. As the description above states, the main character, Trotty is a porter who is required to stand in the cold, waiting for a job to come his way; the chimes of the church near by keep him company with their song and in general he is very optimistic and happy with life. He has some interaction with some stuffy rich folk who refer to poor people as "those people who will do well to know their place and should find happiness in the daily chores they do for us; leave living a full to us" (paraphrasing) .
Maybe I was just sleepy, but as I was reading this, I was expecting the rich people to learn lesson ala scrooge through Trotty, but for some reason Trotty was the forsaken one who gets visited by the Spirits of Time via the Chimes. I liked Trotty and to see him tormented like this was A) unexpected and B) kind of off putting... the rich people who look down their noses at Trotty don't learn a thing....
It didn't help that the middle section of book was obfuscated english at its best. I had to read 3-4 pages 3-4 times trying to understand what had occured in the story. Trotty gets called to the church tower by the chimes, goes to the top, sees the gremlins of the bells (very cool image btw....) and lectured on Times role in the life of man and what man should and should not do with the time it has... ok... fine, but then you see an image of trotty at the base of the tower, dead, 9 years in the future and now Trotty is off on a Scrooge like voyeur tour of his life...
I just didn't get the theme and felt like I was constantly re-reading entire sections trying to figure out what was going on.
I am going to re-read this entire story next year, but until then, this gets a two star rating for the incoherent story.
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Title: The Cricket on the Hearth
Author: Charles Dickens
Original Copyright Date: 1845
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars ( charming )
Backcover Description:
As this tale begins it paints a beautiful picture of a happy household and of 19th century English country life. The arival of a mysterious stranger threatens to shatter this harmony. A masterful story of love and loyalty.
My Thoughts
This is a charming, feel good story for Christmas. It could be called almost too sentimental at times but it works for this story. Dickens does a great job painting a portrait of blissful , playful domesticity including a lucky cricket who lives on the hearth, warming the hearts of the occupants.
The conflict comes a bit out of left field, but it is a relatively smooth transition and settles down quickly.
I really liked this story and it will be one which I plan to read again; I recommend it to anyone wanting a heartwarming Christmas story instead of being scared into a moral and righteous life as the previous two books.
As an interesting side note, after I read The Cricket on the Hearth I was reading various articles on it and found out that this story was actually a more popular on stage than A Christmas Carol was for a long time. I am actually surprised that I haven't heard or seen of a production of this before
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Title: The Battle of Life
Author: Charles Dickens
Original Copyright Date: 1846
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars ( nice )
Back-cover Description
The Battle of Life: A Love Story is the fourth of Dickens’ five Christmas books. It is worth mentioning that it is the only book out of five that does not deal with any supernatural elements. It is not a social novel and resolved with a romantic twist. The book is written in three parts, an uplifting tale of winning one of the many wars fought in the battle of life. The tale’s ending is a happy one, typical to all of Dickens books
My Thoughts
This was another light hearted story which differs slightly from the other stories by not including any supernatural elements. No ghosts, not spirit crickets showing all that life has to offer. I thought this story was well done, the characters were very likable and the scene well established. All the element were there for a great story, but it just fell a bit flat of being a timeless Christmas story.
It was however very funny. The two lawyers in the story have to be my favorite characters in all of the Dickens Christmas books and may enter into consideration for my obscure-historical-literary-reference halloween costume, (I would need a partner however). Others in consideration so far are Prince Florizel from the Suicide Club stories by Robert Louis Stevenson and Prince Calaf from Turandot
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Title: The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain
Author: Charles Dickens
Original Copyright Date: 1848
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars ( nice )
Back-Cover Description
The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1848, that concludes his series of five Christmas books. The story is more about the spirit of the holidays than about the holidays themselves. The tale centers on Professor Redlaw, a chemistry teacher who is constantly brooding over the grief caused by past wrongs done to him. Redlaw is haunted by a spirit who takes from him these painful memories, which leaves him unexpectedly bitter. Ultimately the conflict of the novella is resolved in an uplifting way which asserts the moral of the story. “That it is important to remember past sorrows and wrongs so that you can then forgive those responsible and, in doing so, unburden your soul and mature as a human being.”
My Thoughts
By the time I started to read this Christmas story, I was getting tired of Dicken's verbose language and heavy pronoun use. But once I made it past the usual 10 page intro to the story, this one seemed ok.
If I were to rank the five Christmas books from best to least favorite, this one would go in the 4 slot on the shelf, but it is a nice story. Dickens brings back the supernatural element in this story via the Chemist's self-portrait phantom. It also brings in a small primitive child like character which is the characters guide on his self-evaluation journey.
The odd thing about this story is not that the main character goes through a transformational experience with a supernatural tour-guide, but that doesn't occur during a dream like state independent the lives around them. (Ah, I woke up, what day is it?!) In this story, the Chemist affects his surroundings and people while being haunted and rubs his negative mojo off on them. There is a darker element to the story because of this and it makes the happy ending a bit more dramatic.
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All in all, the stories were good. I am glad I read all five, and I hope that maybe someone else might make room for these stories into their busy lives around Christmas.
