Christmas Stories

Christmas Stories
Charles Dickens

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.There is probably a smell of roasted chestnuts and other good comfortable things all the time, for we are telling Winter Stories…This heart-warming collection of festive short stories and novellas perfectly captures the spirit of Christmas. Focused on the journeys taken through life and the inherent goodness of mankind, these tales explore the true meaning of Christmas and revel in the joyful season of goodwill. Imbued with a moral message, Dickens’s writing gives a voice to the plight of working-class families during a period of social and political change in Victorian England.With such tales as ‘The Chimes’, ‘The Cricket on the Hearth’ and ‘What Christmas Is, As We Grow Older’, this is a beautiful collection for Dickens fans, and a wonderful companion for all those who cherish ‘A Christmas Carol’.

CHRISTMAS STORIES

Charles Dickens

Copyright (#ulink_cd0e6705-4668-5e98-906c-bc388c47d88e)

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

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This eBook edition published by William Collins in 2015

Life & Times section © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

Gerard Cheshire asserts his moral right as author of the Life & Times section

Classic Literature: Words and Phrases adapted from

Collins English Dictionary

Cover by e-Digital Design

Cover image: The Christmas Tree, 1911 (oil on canvas), Tayler, Albert Chevallier (1862–1925) / Private Collection / Bridgeman Images.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780008110628

Ebook Edition © August 2015 ISBN: 9780008110635

Version: 2015-07-21

Contents

Cover (#uf6988590-8b4b-5784-9922-365d9f7f7196)

Title Page (#u6ff3e543-870c-52e0-b5cb-b3b6dffd5f80)

Copyright (#u8e2fc26c-fb0f-545a-a5f2-371baf92fd67)

History of Collins (#ue8a0a245-33f2-57db-8261-2bb5bdcb6f34)

Life & Times (#uf85b6426-a46e-572e-9b54-006c9f7e702a)

THE CHIMES (#ud1d365e2-42a1-55c6-b688-a4b87b882d5c)

Chapter 1: First Quarter (#ua30e5353-113e-5044-a083-97d85145181b)

Chapter 2: The Second Quarter (#u286629bc-81be-52a1-91ea-5ceecc9e4e94)

Chapter 3: Third Quarter (#uc5ee975d-f265-5420-bfc0-ac8f5919f13c)

Chapter 4: Fourth Quarter (#litres_trial_promo)

THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 1: Chirp the First (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 2: Chirp the Second (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 3: Chirp the Third (#litres_trial_promo)

A CHRISTMAS DINNER (#litres_trial_promo)

A CHRISTMAS TREE (#litres_trial_promo)

WHAT CHRISTMAS IS AS WE GROW OLDER (#litres_trial_promo)

THE SEVEN POOR TRAVELLERS—IN THREE CHAPTERS (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 1: In The Old City of Rochester (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 2: The Story of Richard Doubledick (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 3: The Road (#litres_trial_promo)

Classic Literature: Words and Phrases (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

History of Collins (#ulink_cf85390a-b33c-5c44-bca5-e3b049a3bff9)

In 1819, millworker William Collins from Glasgow, Scotland, set up a company for printing and publishing pamphlets, sermons, hymn books, and prayer books. That company was Collins and was to mark the birth of HarperCollins Publishers as we know it today. The long tradition of Collins dictionary publishing can be traced back to the first dictionary William published in 1824, Greek and English Lexicon. Indeed, from 1840 onwards, he began to produce illustrated dictionaries and even obtained a licence to print and publish the Bible.

Soon after, William published the first Collins novel, Ready Reckoner; however, it was the time of the Long Depression, where harvests were poor, prices were high, potato crops had failed, and violence was erupting in Europe. As a result, many factories across the country were forced to close down and William chose to retire in 1846, partly due to the hardships he was facing.

Aged 30, William’s son, William II, took over the business. A keen humanitarian with a warm heart and a generous spirit, William II was truly “Victorian” in his outlook. He introduced new, up-to-date steam presses and published affordable editions of Shakespeare’s works and ThePilgrim’s Progress, making them available to the masses for the first time. A new demand for educational books meant that success came with the publication of travel books, scientific books, encyclopedias, and dictionaries. This demand to be educated led to the later publication of atlases, and Collins also held the monopoly on scripture writing at the time.