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Synopsis

‘Merry Christmas! … every idiot who goes along with “Merry Christmas” … should be boiled with his own pudding’

Dickens’s story of solitary miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught the true meaning of Christmas by a series of ghostly visitors, has proved one of his most well-loved works. Ever since it was published in 1843 it has had an enduring influence on the way we think about the traditions of Christmas. Dickens’s other Christmas writings collected here include ‘The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton’, the short story from The Pickwick Papers on which A Christmas Carol was based; The Haunted, a tale of a man tormented by painful memories; along with shorter pieces drawn from the ‘Christmas Stories’ that Dickens wrote annually for his weekly journals. In all of them Dickens celebrates the season as one of geniality, charity and remembrance.

This new selection contains an introduction by distinguished Dickens scholar Michael Slater discussing how the author has shaped ideas about the Christmas spirit, appendices including an essay on Dickens’s use of The Arabian Nights, with further reading and explanatory notes.  

Reviews

Table of contents

Christmas Festivities

The Story Of The Goblins Who Stole A Sexton

A Christmas Episode From Master Humphrey's Clock

A Christmas Carol

The Haunted Man And The Ghost's Bargain

A Christmas Tree

What Christmas Is, As We Grow Older

The Seven Poor Travellers

Appendix I: Dickens's Prefaces to Collected Editions of The Christmas Books
Appendix II: Dickens's Descriptive Headlines for A Christmas Carol and The Haunted Man
Appendix III: Dickens and The Arabian Nights
Notes