
A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings by Charles Dickens

TITLE: A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings
AUTHOR: Charles Dickens
ISBN-13: 9780141195858
EDITION: Penguin Classics Clothbound Series
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DESCRIPTION:
"After reading Christmas Carol, the notoriously reclusive Thomas Carlyle was "seized with a perfect convulsion of hospitality" and threw not one but two Christmas dinner parties. The impact of the story may not always have been so dramatic but, along with Dickens other Christmas writings, it has had a lasting and significant influence upon our ideas about the Christmas spirit, and about the season as a time for celebration, charity, and memory.
Dickens's classic A Christmas Carol has had significant influence on our ideas about the Christmas spirit, and the season as a time for celebration, charity, and memory. This handsome edition features appendices on A Christmas Carol and The Haunted Man, an essay on Dickens and The Arabian Nights, and Dickens's prefaces to the collected editions of the Christmas books.
This edition is part of the Penguin Classics Clothbound series designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith."
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REVIEW:
This is a collection of Christmas stories written by Charles Dickens, including the famous "A Christmas Carol", as well as other stories (The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain) and writings that come across as more reflective musings than actual stories (A Christmas Tree and Christmas Festivities). All very sentimental and "feel-good" Christmas stories that attempt to remind the reader to be especially kind to those less fortunate at this time of year. As is usual with a collection like this, some stories are better than others. I especially enjoyed "A Christmas Carol" and "The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton". The rest were either too vague in terms of plot or too long. Original black and white illustrations are included in this book, along with notes, introduction and appendices.