The Christmas Books Volume 2 (The Penguin English Library)
by Charles Dickens
The Christmas Books of Charles Dickens (Collections and Selections — 3-5)
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Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Landport, Portsea, England. He died in Kent on June 9, 1870. The second of eight children of a family continually plagued by debt, the young Dickens came to know not only hunger and privation,but also the horror of the infamous debtors’ prison and the evils of child labor. A turn of fortune in the shape of a legacy brought release from the nightmare of prison and “slave” factories and afforded Dickens the opportunity of two years’ show more formal schooling at Wellington House Academy. He worked as an attorney’s clerk and newspaper reporter until his Sketches by Boz (1836) and The Pickwick Papers (1837) brought him the amazing and instant success that was to be his for the remainder of his life. In later years, the pressure of serial writing, editorial duties, lectures, and social commitments led to his separation from Catherine Hogarth after twenty-three years of marriage. It also hastened his death at the age of fifty-eight, when he was characteristically engaged in a multitude of work. Michael Slater is an emeritus professor at Birkbeck College, London, and past president of the Dickens Fellowship and the Dickens Society of America. show lessTags
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I usually enjoy Dickens, but these novellas just didn't do it for me. Both The Cricket on the Hearth and The Battle of Life suffered from the author's customary verbosity with plots that were scarcely worth bothering with. If you can make head or tail of The Haunted Man then you're a better man than I am.
Not as good as volume I in my humble opinion, but still good!
Libros de Navidad de Dickens fueron escritos para el mercado de Navidad .Aparte de esto que poco tienen en común; a menos que sea el énfasis que ponen en el amor de la familia y las delicias de la casa, y los efectos beneficiosos de la memoria. Un villancico de la navidad se ha convertido en una parte inseparable del Inglés navidad, dickens que casi se puede decir que se han inventado, pero en su tiempo, como las campanadas y el hombre angustiado, se trasladó a sus lectores a una conciencia de la terrible situación de los pobres en el Hungry Forties.There es más para los libros de navidad, de hecho, que el gran encanto y la genialidad del grillo del hogar y que son de gran interés e importancia en el desarrollo de Dickens como show more escritor y como crítico social. sobre todo, que reflejan la relación única estrecha y afectuosa entre Dickens y sus lectores show less
Dec 3, 2014Spanish
Este volumen contiene: The Cricket of the hearth,The battle of life y The haunted man. El grillo del hogar es un libro de Navidad en el que Dickens abandonó la crítica social y temas de actualidad en favor de simple fantasía y el ámbito doméstico para la redención de su héroe. La batalla de la vida es Una historia de amor y es el único de los cinco libros de Navidad de Dickens que no tiene ningún elemento sobrenatural o religioso explícito. El hombre atormentado trata sobre un hombre misteriosamente atormentado que recibe, durante una gélida Nochebuena, la visita de una fantasma que le ofrece un don terrorífico.
Feb 2, 2012 (Edited)Spanish
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Charles Dickens, perhaps the best British novelist of the Victorian era, was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England on February 7, 1812. His happy early childhood was interrupted when his father was sent to debtors' prison, and young Dickens had to go to work in a factory at age twelve. Later, he took jobs as an office boy and journalist before show more publishing essays and stories in the 1830s. His first novel, The Pickwick Papers, made him a famous and popular author at the age of twenty-five. Subsequent works were published serially in periodicals and cemented his reputation as a master of colorful characterization, and as a harsh critic of social evils and corrupt institutions. His many books include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, A Christmas Carol, and A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens married Catherine Hogarth in 1836, and the couple had nine children before separating in 1858 when he began a long affair with Ellen Ternan, a young actress. Despite the scandal, Dickens remained a public figure, appearing often to read his fiction. He died in 1870, leaving his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1845-12-20 (The Cricket on the Hearth) (The Cricket on the Hearth); 1857-1867; 1846 (The Battle of Life) (The Battle of Life); 1848 (The Haunted Man) (The Haunted Man)
- First words
- (Introduction) In June 1845 Dickens and his family returned to London after their year abroad.
The kettle began it!
(Introduction) Dickens's venture into newspaper-editing was not a success.
Once upon a time, it matters little when, and in stalwart England, it matters little where, a fierce battle was fought.
(Introduction) In July l846, before he had to set to work on The Battle of Life, Dickens had written to Forester from Lausanne, 'I have been dimly conceiving a very ghostly and wild idea, which I suppose I must now res... (show all)erve for the next Christmas book.
Everybody said so. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)(Introduction) The piece ends with a grand pas d'ensemble, where the whole dramatic personæ figure, high and low, toe and heel to a full orchestral crash, and a brilliant illumination of blue and pink fire.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)A Cricket sings upon the Hearth; a broken child's-toy lies upon the ground; and nothing else remains.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)(Introduction) Lord Jeffrey, Dickens's beloved 'critic-laureate', was naturally less severe but spoke for later as well as for contemporary readers when he wrote gently to the novelist, 'The general voice, I fancy, persists in refusing it a place among your best pieces.'
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)But as I have observed that Time confuses facts occasionally, I hardly know what weight to give to his authority.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)(Introduction) He never wrote another 'Christmas Book'.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Deepened in its gravity by the firelight, and gazing from the darkness of the paneled wall like life, the sedate face in the portrait, with the beard and ruff, looked down at them from under its verdant wreath of holly, as they looked up at it; and, clear and plain below, as if a voice had uttered them, were the words - Disambiguation notice
- Includes three novels: The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, The Haunted Man
This is only Part II of The Christmas Stories. Please do not combine it with the full-length work of The Christmas Stories. Thank you.
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