Reviews

Christmas Books: A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain by Charles Dickens, Eleanor Farjeon

hungerford's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

denisevictoria's review against another edition

firstly i just want to say, i loved A Christmas Carol. sadly, the rest of the christmas stories were dire, very boring and hard to get into. I've finally given up trying to finish it.

tomleetang's review against another edition

3.0

A mixed bag of Dickens, though all inferior to his longer works - he seems to thrive more on a large canvas. Christmas Carol is easily the most magical and inventive (which accounts for its continued popularity). The Chimes is insipid and partly a knockoff of A Christmas Carol, while The Cricket on the Hearth and The Battle of Life are pleasant but pedestrian love stories. None have much of the verve, wit and semantic gymnastics that make a true Dickens classic.

Interesting to compare A Christmas Carol to the final Christmas book, The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain, which I thought second best in this collection. Where the first Christmas book is all fizz and bubble, the final one is dark and mournful; the message of the former is to be charitable and loving to all, whereas the message of the latter is to remember our sorrows because they make us better people. One gets the feeling that in the intervening years between writing the two, Dickens' attitude to life changed. To quote Coleridge, "A sadder and a wiser man / He rose the morrow morn."

erinla42's review

emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

jasmine_elizabeth's review against another edition

Read A Christmas Carol but couldn’t get through all the other tales. 

literaryaysh's review against another edition

for uni 🥴

friendofgosig's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0

I am kind of in two minds about this book, because there was lots to like, but the whole ‘Christmas Message’ theme can get old quite quickly. 

I think my favourite was probably The Cricket on the Hearth, where I thought the build up of emotional tension was very well done. There was some lovely imagery at the beginning of The Battle for Life, where the ancient battlefield is incorporated into the life of the village, and I think the observations on grief and memory in The Haunted Man were very real. 

Some of these stories had more supernatural elements than others, and sometimes I thought it was a bit much, for example in The Chimes, but in the whole I would say these stories still hold up for a festive read.

highlander2006's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

writerameliawright's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

booksteastories's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0