| Title | : | A Christmas Carol / The Chimes / The Cricket on the Hearth |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1593080336 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781593080334 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 304 |
| Publication | : | First published December 19, 1843 |
All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.
Generations of readers have been enchanted by Dickens’s
A Christmas Carol / The Chimes / The Cricket on the Hearth Reviews
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This collection of Christmas stories had three different stories including Dickens most celebrated Christmas story of all time, the Christmas Carol. All the stories are interesting but the Christmas carol is outstanding. The message it conveys always warm my heart. It is my favorite Christmas story to date.
I believe Dickens subtle writing and his philosophical thinking is more expressed in his Christmas stories. For this reason, these stories have always held readers attention. And for my part, I really did enjoy them. -
12/15:22: This year's reread was a Hugh Grant narration on Audible. It was wonderful! This story just never gets old.
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12/16/21: Just when I thought I couldn't love A Christmas Carol any more than I already do, I discovered a Tim Curry narrated version on Audible. It was simply magnificent.
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A Christmas Carol may be the best book Dickens wrote. I do love David Copperfield and Great Expectations, but there's just something about the simple message in A Christmas Carol.
The Chimes was the strangest of these stories. It has an It's a Wonderful Life vibe to it, pointing out the importance of keeping hope, and the importance one person has to those around him.
The Cricket on the Hearth was a crazy rollercoaster of emotions. It was so funny and lighthearted at first, but turned pretty dark in the second chapter. It ultimately ended on a happy note, pointing out the importance of family and home, whether that's a family you're born into or a family you create from the circumstances you find yourself in.
Dickens in so unbelievably clever in everything he does. The chapters in A Christmas Carol (staves) and The Chimes (quarters) are musical terms, and the chapters in The Cricket on the Hearth are "chirps." His character names in all 3 works are so clever and descriptive...I mean, Mrs. CHICKENSTALKER?! Brilliant.
These 3 stories are definitely worth reading!
12/15/19: Reread A Christmas Carol. What a wonderful story. I'm not sure if I'll get to these other stories again this year or not.
12/8/2020: I listened to the librivox audio and I thought the narrator did an excellent job in his performance. I love this story so much. God bless us, every one. -
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Three books in one A Christmas Carol is the story, about a tight fisted bitter and selfish miser in 19th century London, who despises all that brings joy and comfort, has a plethora of adaptations but is best in it's original.
Ebenezer Scrooge is visited on Christmas Eve by three ghosts who show him the evil of his ways and its consequences.
A Christmas Carol is one of Dickens's most famous narratives, and written in lively, intelligent, penetrating and witty prose, a prime example of Dickens's literary genius.
Certainly there is the very strong theme, for which Dickens works are well known, about social injustice and poverty, which we read in such works as Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House and Hard Times.
It is also a ghost story for which Dickens also showed a flare, although his other ghost stories are less well known but equally enthralling.
Essentially the story revived the spirit and message of Christmas and contains a powerful social message about those members of the wealthier classes who shun responsibility for the less fortunate people in their country.
Such pearls as the following light up this story:
"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, which if persevered in, must lead, but if the courses be departed from, the ends will change".
Charming and engaging in it's original
The Chimes is a follow up of A Christmas Carol, but not nearly as well known. while the protagonist of A Christmas Carol is a wealthy employer who despises the poor, the protagonist of this novel is one of the poor himself, lowly porter Trotty, who sadly has been infused with feeling of low self-worth with which he views the working class as a whole.
His daughter Meg is engaged to married to Richard, and while he has misgivings Trotty hides them ,but then three pompous, judgemental upper class figures visit and make Trotty , Meg and Richard feel they have barely any right to exist let alone marry.
The bottom lines is Trotty's feelings are a large part of what is running his family (he will not allow his daughter to marry because of that the upper class villains have said) and his dream when he visits the church bells at midnight on New Years EVe, provide the nightmare of what is set to happen, and the waking up seeming to bring deliverance and happiness and the tragedy averted
Important essay on class and culture in 19th century Britain and relevant as ever today in a country where the native working class are still despised by the middle classes and elites, and called names like 'chavs' and made to feel they have no right to exist and accused of myriad of things from being 'feckless and lazy' that 'the men are yobs and the women slags' as one middle class academic I overheard, and now native working class are being persecuted with accusations of 'racism' to boot. Many sleep in the streets and need food banks to survive
Nothing has really changed and it is sad.
The Cricket on the Hearth is A heartwarming tale about a middle aged carrier, John Peerybingle, his young wife, Dot . the long suffering Caleb Plummer the latter's blind daughter , Bertha, and Caleb's tight fisted and spiteful employer Mr Tackleton
The cricket on the hearth of the delivery man and his wife's home is the guardian spirit of the family, and warns them of all sorts of things to come.
When Tackleton leads John to believe his wife is involved with a young man, it is the cricket who must act as the voice of reason and point the way to the truth of her innocence, making for a happy ending
I did like the turn of phrase(especially Dot's) and the humour and those who say that this novella lacked Dicken's usual wordcraft were missing something. -
This is one book I purchased because of its cover! I saw this illustrated hardbound beauty sitting on the roadside, priced at a pittance - and of course I had to buy it!
A Christmas Carol is, of course, one of my favourite tales ever since I read it in middle school. It must be one of the most heart-warming tales ever penned. My review can be found
here.
The Chimes is also a festival tale - here, Trotty Veck the porter takes a dream journey through a possible future on New Year's Eve. He is the other side of scrooge, a poor labourer forced to think badly of himself and the rest of the proletariat due to the constant putting down by the aristocrats and the moneyed class. His eyes are opened through the machinations of the spirits of the chimes in the local church.
The Cricket on the Hearth too, happens during the festive last week of December. Here, a middle-aged husband's jealousy is assuaged by the cricket, which happens to be a fairy (?) and he moves away at the last minute from committing a terrible crime. Of course, his doubts are misplaced and there are happy tidings all around at the end.
The themes and treatments are similar for all three stories. All are enjoyable, but A Christmas Carol stands apart. -
Overall 4 stars for this collection of Charles Dickens’ Christmas stories.
5 stars for A Christmas Carol
4 stars for The Chimes
3 stars for The Cricket on the Hearth
This was a great way to complete my 2018 GR reading challenge and to finish up my reading year.
I’m looking forward to a New Year of reading and sharing books in 2019! I hope everyone has a wonderful and happy New Year! -
První setkání s Dickensem. (Resp. druhé, z minulosti si nesu nedočteného Olivera Twista.) Těším se, až si přečtu některý z jeho románů. A že si některé vánoční příběhy přečtu znovu o příštích Vánocích.
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With its many footnotes, this Barnes and Noble edition is great. A Christmas Carol is so much better than any movie rendition. The Chimes should be better known.
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It's been a few years since I've read A Christmas Carol, and it was just perfect timing. I always enjoy a good reread of this novel! Now to watch the Muppet version...
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Four stars for A Christmas Carol and The Chimes, and parts of The Cricket and the Hearth, but some bits were heavy handed and sickly.
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A Christmas Carol was wonderful. It was just like seeing the movie, but better, because prose on paper really stimulates the imagination much more. Scrooge is a man who had lost his hope, and it showed in how his heart seemed to shrink, and his world with it. He got a second chance when he was visited by the three ghosts on a cold Christmas Eve. Just like the movie, this story made me cry. I guess some would call me sentimental. I don't know if that's the right word. But I love to see a person go from the dark to the light emotionally. This is the evolution we see with Scrooge.
5 Stars. If you love the movies, you really should read this story. I don't think you'd regret it. It is very readable and keeps your interest.
I can't really say that for The Chimes. This story moved pretty slowly, and it took a while to figure out where Dickens was going. At first, it read like a satire against the upper class and the government in its treatment of the poor and the working class. Then it seemed as though it was a story about being grateful for what one has and appreciating the time that you have with your family. It was an ambitious story, and I liked the elements of the ghosts of regret (I think) that manifested themselves as the chiming of bells that Totty, our protagonist, makes his daily routine around. Some parts were really tedious, and some parts were beautiful and poignant. At the end, I could only give this one 3.5 stars because it was a difficult and somewhat unrewarding read for this reader. If you have read The Chimes, I would love some feedback on what you believe was the point of this story.
I have started The Cricket on the Hearth, and it's really hard to focus my attention on the writing. I haven't given up yet! Soldier on!
Update: I've come to the conclusion that life is too short to keep trying to read The Cricket on the Hearth. It's dreadfully boring. I can feel my hair growing as I try to read it. I feel that I did my best with it, and I'm calling this one a day. I will have to give this one a rating of 1 star because it was too boring to finish reading.
So my overall rating is four stars, because of my love for A Christmas Carol, and my half-hearted enjoyment of The Chimes. I pray that Dickens' longer fiction isn't dry like this. I'd really like to read some of it. -
This was my first Dickens novel. I know it is kind of cheesy to make my foray into Dickens’s work by reading A Christmas Carol during the holidays but hey…whatever helps break the ice right?
This book, as most people already know, is about a tight-fisted, bitter old man named Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge is visited one night by the ghost of his partner who has come to warn Scrooge of his fate in the afterworld and that Scrooge will face similar persecution in the afterlife if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is warned that more ghosts will appear to help him redeem himself in life and prevent the perils his partner has faced in death. Scrooge is then visited by the ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present, and the ghost of Christmas future. Scrooge is shown the actions of different people during each Christmas and he is given a choice at the end. Can he ever change?
The story was an inspiring Christmas story and helps remind people how their behavior affects others. This novel reminds us that we need to give to others who need more than we ourselves are and that the payoff for this assistance is much more fulfilling than any amount of money in the pocket or the bank could ever be.
I found this book surprisingly fun and easy to read. The novel was shorter than I expected and was not inundated with old world terms that I could not understand. I had been somewhat intimidated by Dickens prior to reading this book. However, now that I know the humorous and witty writing style of Charles Dickens I will definitely be reading more of his work in the future. -
It's amazing to read lines written literal centuries ago that will become so SO iconic in western culture and will be adapted so so SO many times
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2022: Even though we stopped celebrating Christmas two years ago, I'm still reading through this every Christmas week. Ha! It has a good message that should be applied every day.
This time through I focused on humor. Dickens is stinking hilarious. The entire exchange between Scrooge and Marley is super funny---especially considering how terrified and curmudgeonly Scrooge was at the time. The last stave is also super funny. Additionally, I loved these quotes:
"Marley's face...had a dismal light about it...like a bad lobster in a dark cellar." WHAT?!! Hahaha! Has anyone ever experienced a bad lobster in a dark cellar? Do lobsters give off dim light?
"Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had never believed it until now." (This page also contains the "shade" joke)
"'What has he done with his money?' asked a red-faced gentleman with a pendulous excrescence on the end of his nose, that shook like the gills of a turkey cock." WHY??? Hahaha! There is absolutely no reason for this very minor character to be described thus, other than to just make us laugh. I love it.
And finally, I loved this quote that just really gives off the attitude of "shove-itousness" that Dickens seems to often take:
"Some people laughed to see the alteration in him (Scrooge), but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter at the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms."
Love it. Timeless lessons to be learned. As a friend said to me this morning, "Merry Everyday Christ!"
2021: This year I thought, "Ah, I should talk a little about two specific parts that always stand out to me: the fireplace tiles and the quote about 'Standing in the spirit at your elbow'..." Welp. Guess this review is just a rerun of last year's. Ha! Love this story. This is the first year we've not celebrated Christmas. Am I now a Scrooge???
2020: I read through A Christmas Carol this last week---it was wonderful, as usual. This year I paid special attention to a few things that were endearing to me:
The fireplace tiles: I love how they illustrated different stories from the Bible. I bet it was beautiful and I'm curious where Dickens saw these or what gave him the idea to include them in his story.
"I am standing in the Spirit at your elbow." Every. single. time. I read that, I look to my right and imagine him there. I wonder how far into future history he imagined his stories would go. I thought about that today as I laid in my 21st century bed in a little village in the American South thinking about this man who wrote the story 170 years ago somewhere in England. Fascinating.
I loved thinking about how Scrooge didn't seem to ever care about how people viewed him, but at the end of the story, it's a good thing. "Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him."
It has that distinctive ring of not casting one's pearls before swine...good for you, Scrooge!
2018: Each time I've read this book, I've only read the first story, A Christmas Carol. After finishing it, for the fifth time, a few days ago, I thought I'd give The Chimes a try.
My Dad once told me (about 16 years ago) I couldn't live on love (in a conversation in which he was berating my husband for not going to college yet). He was SO wrong. Trotty Veck finds this out in this spooky New Year story and, like Scrooge, has a second chance to change his ways.
I found the story to be a little convoluted but I think it will grow on me over time. I'll see how I feel about it next year. -
There's not much I can say about this legendary book that has not already been said countless times. It is a classic for a reason. I've seen movie adaptations many times in my life, but this was my first time diving into the book. I read and listened on audio. Dickins' prose is so distinct and gorgeous: he can say in a few words what some would struggle to say adequately in many. If you have *somehow* managed to get this far in life without knowing the storyline, here it is in a nutshell.
Ebeneezer Scrooge is a greedy miser who has no joy in his life and has managed to lose his humanity as well. Not even the poverty of his only employee, Bob Cratchett, is enough to soften his steely heart. On Christmas Eve, four ghosts visit Scrooge to show him the error of his ways and attempt to alter the trajectory of his sad existence. Scrooge's moral regeneration and subsequent course corrections are some of the most beautiful things I've ever read. Do yourself a favor and read this one. It's short. You won't regret it.
Oh, and God Bless Us Every One.
BOOK QUOTES:
♥️While there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.
♥️For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.
♥️I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.
♥️I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. -
I cheated on this a little bit. I read 90% of the book in 2015 so it can be counted as a 2015 book even though I finished it 30 hours into 2016.
But anyway, I read A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, The Cricket on the Hearth on Boxing Day and on the following 3 days and the The Chimes on New Year's Eve's Eve, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, and in the first hours of the 2nd day of January.
I really enjoyed A Christmas Carol it was a great story with incredible morals up to date. 5 stars.
I can't say I enjoyed The Cricket on the Hearth. It was not a Christmas Story, it was a Victorian Soap Opera, with family relationships and morals, just bleh.
The Chimes started pretty well but by the end I was lost and I wasn't sure who was who and whether I was reading the protagonist's visions or the actual reality, hence 3 stars.
So, overall A Christmas Carol gets 5 stars, The Cricket on the Hearth 2,7 stars and The Chimes 3 stars, that means 5+2.7+3=10.7/3=3.56 so that's (almost) around 4 stars. A Christmas Carol was great the other two were just a combination of meh, bleh, and ugh! -
I have always loved Dickens Christmas Carol, but have never read his trilogy of Christmas stories.
I did find them worthwhile, but not as intriguing as Christmas Carol itself.
The Chimes is slightly grim, but still has a good outcome(it is rather the typical beat them down then pull a good lesson out of it type of story)-thankfulness for what you are given and have, a good lesson.
And of course these stories are extremely time driven, so you have to think as if you were in that day(it does pull you there, and some of the ways in which the stories are written paint the picture of writers at the time.)
The Cricket was more of an upbeat story with a twist untwist at the end. Amusing and fun to read, but still not as good as the carol. For it's time, and originality i would have upped the stars to 31/2 but that is not available so i'll keep it at 3 as i don't think the last 2 stories are of the same quality as the first. -
Three of the five holiday stories written by Charles Dickens. The Chimes and The Cricket on the Hearth were not previously known to me. A Christmas Carol will remain my favorite, however, I can see why the other two would have been popular during the Victorian era.
It is impossible to read these short stories and miss Dickens' cry for the conversion of selfish hearts into caring ones. Keep Christmas with you. Always believe in better things to come. And, "if you haven't got charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble". -
When my daughter was in college, I gave her English professor a small plum pudding for Christmas and in return, she presented me with a copy of this book, which I cherish and try to read a bit each Christmas.
This year I'm starting with A Cricket on the Hearth. -
5/5stars
The OG heart warming Christmas story - so cute and iconic -
I just... I love Dickens. Don't really have more to say about this one.
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I read the entirety of A Christmas Carol in one sitting, and then it took me two weeks to finish the rest of the collection.
(Much as I love Dickens, The Chimes in particular was a bit of a slog.) -
i’ll be real and say i only read a christmas carol
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I smiled, I cried, and I love Christmas all the more. A must read, it for good reason was so popular and influential.
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I've always loved this story but had never actually read it. I came across an audible version read by Hugh Grant and loved it even more! This is a classic which is very deserving of the title!
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A book that I will never walk away from during the holidays. Applicable life lessons all through the year are learned by Mr. Scrooge. A must read, again and again and again.
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The only reason this gets the three-star treatment and not something more vile and unchristian is because 'A Christmas Carol' is an unabashed masterpiece. Any adaptation you've ever seen (the Jim Carrey animated one is the most faithful I've seen, believe-it-or-not) probably didn't do it justice. Short, succinct, and brimming over with joy and plenty of muthafuckin' pathos, it really is the quintessential novel for Christmas. Even more so because, as I read parallel to the novella, Christmas wasn't celebrated the way we know it now and this was Dickens attempt to reinject it with some levity, light, and humanity.
Dickens wrote a Christmas story every year for five years. Sadly, the other two tales included here are colossal pieces of Victorian feek (fecal matter; it's easier to text). The Chimes is basically the same story as A Christmas Carol except it's a poor midget being admonished and 'saved'. Whatever. The Cricket on the Hearth is a horrific, nightmarish tale of whimsical poor people straight-out-of-unreality and some stupid shit involving--I--don't--I don't even know. Both these stories are uncharacteristically bad overwhelming as far as cheese goes for even Dickens, and So screw the Rest: read A Christmas Carol and be Merry, friends, Be Merry! -
Between his books, I forget how much I love Dickens. I still can't remember if I've read "A Christmas Carol" before, but in any case I've just finished it for perhaps the first, perhaps the second time.
Now on to two stories I know I've never read.
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"The Chimes" is a very odd story, and one where the point seems to be flying right over my head. It is compelling, though too long, and without the punchiness of "A Christmas Carol."
***
"The Cricket on the Hearth" is more accessible than "The Chimes" and more enjoyable. Still, having read all three, it's apparent why "A Christmas Carol" became the most famous. It's simply head and shoulders above the other two. -
Great stories for the holiday season. The introduction by Katharine Wiley was very valuable in understanding the stories.
