A Child's Dream of a Star

by Charles Dickens

This early work is Charles Dickens 1871 short children s story, A Child's Dream of a Star . It is the charming and heart-warming tale of a brother and sister s musings on life and death inspired by night-time star-gazing. This timeless and delightfully-illustrated story would make for a fantastic addition to any family collection, and is not to be missed by lovers of Dickens seminal work. Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812 1870) was an English author widely considered to be the most important novelist of the Victorian era. Many classic books such as this are becoming increasingly rare and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author."

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Fantasy, Audiobook, Childrens, Literature

27 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 1850

About the author

Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.

Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.

Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.

On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Ahmed Ejaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an emotional read!
I am soo emotional right now that I cannot describe.
I didn't thought I would love anybody in short stories' world more than Guy de Maupassant. But I think Charles Dickens has made his place in my heart beside Maupassant.

OVERVIEW
This is the story of a brother's love for her sister.
In their childhood, brother and the sister used to see a star in the sky. One day, his sister dies of weakness. Every night he dreams of her sister in the star and wants to go to her. But life doesn't let him. He waits from his childhood to his old age to meet her sister.

Nowadays' humans are so busy in their lives, they don't feel their love ones' separation for that long. But this brother, I must say truly loved her sister.

RANDOM THOUGHTS
Author has packed up so much emotions in this short story, that couldn't be describe. When the sister died, I got sooo angry. I just got out of control why!! why!! why!! But after seeing the love of her brother, I hardly kept my tears. Author has done a really good effort in writing this piece of emotions.
Really loved it.

And so the time came all too soon! when the child looked out alone, and when there was no face on the bed; and when there was a little grave among the graves, not there before; and when the star made long rays down towards him, as he saw it through his tears.

'God bless my brother and the star!'

[Ammara Abid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart touching :'( ♡

[Sadia Mansoor · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is so beautifully written with such dreamy imagination, that it takes you to another world <3
The love, affection & companionship between the brother & sister is strongly portrayed in this story & above all the LONGING to be together forever shows how powerful a relationship can be built.

It is obviously the waiting part, which is painful, but the reunion, the joy of finally becoming one & the pleasure to meet them again brings such happiness & contentment to someone that he can completely forget about that long waiting phase.. All those prayers finally coming true in the end matters the most..
Wishing for someone to be with till eternity is what we all desire for! <3
I am just out of words to describe my feelings for this story.. Dickens you will be my forever favorite writer for pouring out all those emotions, which magically touches the heart..

[Deer ✧.* · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 ⭐️

”They wondered at the beauty of the flowers; they wondered at the height and blueness of the sky; they wondered at the goodness and the power of God.”
”There was one clear shining star that used to come out in the sky before the rest, above the graves. It was larger and more beautiful, they thought, than all the others, and every night they watched for it, standing hand in hand at a window. Whoever saw it first cried out, “I see the star!”

Charles Dickens might be known for his novels but he wrote amazing short-stories as well. It was beautifully written and the way imagery was used to describe death from a child’s perspective left a huge emotional impact on me.

[Rod · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the sentimental(?) side of Dickens that sometimes leaves the reader asking, "So what exactly was that about?"

[Annelisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I probably shouldn't have read this first thing in the morning, but you live and you learn. Short, beautifully written, and profoundly heartbreaking. Yet there lies a lovely message here about devotion and love even in the midst of sadness, as well as faith. I never heard of this one before (thank you, Project Gutenberg!) in spite of my love for all things Dickensian, so I'm highly recommending it for any serious fan of the author.

[Amoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never thought that I’d cry reading short stories, but I did reading this.

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is sooo fun

[Yomna asaad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will definitely read it to my kids at a very very young age to show them that everyone they love will die and they will eventually be alone 🥹🥹🥹🥹

[Zainab · Rating 4 out of 5]

" they wondered at the height and blueness of the sky; they wondered at the depth of the bright water ,they wondered at the goodness and the power of God "

[Ava · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew something three pages long could make me cry so much 😭

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just stumbled across this one. It was a lucky find, very good. But then again, Dickens usually is

Read 10/5/25

[Sanntint · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a very lovely that describes the life and death with subtle thoughts of children starring in the sky !

[Fatmah Mounir Al-Najjar · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a beautiful short story.. full of real emotions.

[kaylie rayne ‪‪‪♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

“for, said they, the buds are the children of the flowers, and the little playful streams that gambol down the hillsides are the children of the water; and the smallest bright specks playing at hide-and-seek in the sky all night must surely be the children of the stars; and they would all be grieved to see their playmates, the children of men, no more.”

[riyaa]

i just read it because it had stars in its title.
lovely story i think

[Priyanka Saha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truely magical ✨✨✨

[Tym · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite saccharine but still enjoyable

[Klaudiusz Jan PL · Rating 4 out of 5]

man, i love Dickens ♡

[ikaalore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m convinced he invented imagery *applause*

[Selmouch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully and emotionally written. Definitely one of my favourite short stories from Dickens. It discuses about the passing, longing and grieving of a child (or any of your loved ones) in a way that is heartwarming and full of easy comprehension. Truly a gorgeous tale, to be a star.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mission 2026: Binge reviewing (and rereading on occasion) all previous Reads, I was too slothful to review, back when I read them.

Greatest Short Stories

What is it all about (spoiler free)

‘A Child’s Dream of a Star’ is not a story in the conventional Dickensian sense. There is no bustling London, no cast of eccentrics, no social machinery grinding its gears. Instead, this is a hushed, inward-facing prose-poem—half dream, half elegy.

At its core, the piece explores childhood, loss, and the way imagination becomes a survival mechanism when reality fractures too early. The narrative is filtered through a child’s consciousness, where death is not yet brutal but mysterious, and grief is translated into symbols—stars, light, ascent.

The world is simplified, not because it is shallow, but because the mind experiencing it cannot yet articulate trauma in adult terms.

This is Dickens deliberately stepping away from realism and toward something almost metaphysical. The story floats rather than moves forward. Time stretches, emotions blur, and memory replaces plot. It reads less like a short story and more like a whispered confession or a private dream that somehow found its way onto the page.

Postmodern before the term existed, the piece resists narrative closure and instead offers emotional resonance. Nothing is explained. Everything is felt.

Why is it among the greatest?

Because Dickens understood something devastatingly simple: grief is first learned in childhood, and once learned, it never truly leaves. Let us expand pointwise:

1) What makes ‘A Child’s Dream of a Star’ extraordinary is its tonal restraint. Dickens—often accused of sentimentality—here achieves something far more difficult: sincerity without manipulation. The emotion arises not from melodrama but from understatement. There are no rhetorical tricks forcing tears. Instead, Dickens trusts the reader’s emotional intelligence.

2) Stylistically, the story is radically different from Dickens’s social novels. The language is luminous, stripped of satire, unburdened by caricature. Every sentence feels carefully breathed rather than constructed. This is Dickens the poet, not Dickens the reformer.

3) The child’s perspective is key. Dickens does not “write down” to childhood; he writes ‘through’ it. The logic of the story follows emotional truth rather than rational sequence. Loss becomes distance. Death becomes travel. Love becomes a guiding star. This metaphorical transformation is not escapism—it is psychological accuracy. This is how children actually process absence.

4) The story’s greatness also lies in its moral humility. Dickens does not attempt to explain death, justify it, or moralize it. There is no theological certainty, no dogma imposed. Instead, he offers a quiet humanist faith: that love persists beyond separation, that memory becomes a form of presence.

5) In literary terms, this piece anticipates modernist interiority. The focus is not on external action but on inner landscapes. The narrator’s emotional development matters more than events. You can trace a line from this story to later writers like Woolf, Joyce, and even Proust—where memory and sensation take precedence over plot.

6) And then there is the ending—not a twist, not a resolution, but a soft stillness. Dickens closes the story the way one closes a curtain, not to end the performance but to protect something fragile. That kind of ending takes confidence. And compassion.

Why read it in 2026 and thereafter?

Because we are living in an age that is emotionally loud but spiritually exhausted.

In 2026, grief is often quantified—through diagnoses, timelines, and productivity metrics. We are encouraged to “process,” “move on,” and “heal” on schedule. Dickens’s story quietly rebels against this mindset. It insists that some losses are not resolved; they are integrated.

‘A Child’s Dream of a Star’ is a reminder that emotional intelligence is not always analytical. Sometimes it is imaginative. Sometimes survival means myth-making.

The story also speaks powerfully to contemporary conversations around childhood trauma. Dickens—drawing from his own painful early life—understands that children are not spared suffering; they are merely denied language for it. The story validates the child’s inner world as serious, complex, and worthy of respect.

In a hyper-rational, data-driven age, this story reasserts the value of tenderness. It reminds us that softness is not weakness. That wonder can coexist with sorrow. That grief does not have to be spectacular to be profound.

For educators and students, the text is a masterclass in narrative voice. It shows how perspective shapes meaning. For writers, it demonstrates how restraint amplifies emotion. For readers, it offers something rarer than entertainment: consolation without false hope.

Reading it now also reframes Dickens himself. This is not the Dickens of industrial critique, but of private mourning. It complicates the caricature of him as merely verbose or sentimental. Here, he is minimal, precise, and deeply humane.

And perhaps most importantly, ‘A Child’s Dream of a Star’ feels like an antidote to cynicism. Not because it denies pain—but because it refuses to mock vulnerability. In a culture addicted to irony, Dickens dares to be earnest.

That alone makes it necessary reading.

‘A Child’s Dream of a Star’ endures because it understands that grief does not always roar. Sometimes it whispers. Sometimes it glows faintly, like a distant light you follow not because you believe it will save you—but because you need to believe in something gentler than loss.
This is Dickens at his most intimate, most unguarded, and most modern.

Mission 2026 verdict: ‘‘Quietly devastating. Lyrical. Timeless.’’

Most recommended.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this story! I read it many, many times as a child. Over the years, the Dickens' anthology was lost and I tried to find this story again. I remember feeling such empathy for the little boy and being so hopeful for his reunion with his sister. May not be for all children but I was very young when I first had it read to me and then read it to myself till I was a teenager.

[P.H. Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Real rating: 5.5/10
This work, like many of Dickens pieces, is sickly sweet. As if someone is pouring a litre of maple syrup into every orifice on your face. The prose is far from Dickens best, and the story is so brief that it has no time to grasp a hold of you.
It is more like an after-dinner mint than a tale worth reading.

[K. Anna Kraft · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have arranged my thoughts into a haiku as best as I could:

"Lighting the way home,
Life-long friends who cannot speak
Comfort how they can."

[Bayan Ashoor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find it hard to describe my feelings toward this story

[Dina3del · Rating 3 out of 5]

We are waiting now but will be awaited ...it's like a train , dear :))
It 's a great short story :)

[Faira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dibalik gelapnya malam, ada sinar bintang yang menerangi bumi. Kemilau bintang itu selalu disaksikan oleh dua kakak beradik. Mereka gemar melihat bintang bersama sebelum tidur. Mereka juga bersyukur dengan kuasa Tuhan dan keberadaan satu sama lain.

Namun, ketika saudara perempuannya semakin lemah badannya dan jatuh sakit. Hanya gemerlap bintang dan tatapan hangat saudara laki-lakinya yang menguatkan jiwanya. Namun, malaikat berkata lain. Ia membawa saudara perempuan terlebih dahulu dan jiwanya di bawa menuju keabadian bintang.

Puluhan tahun dijalani dengan selalu bertanya apakah saudara laki-lakinya akan datang menemuinya. Hingga akhirnya mereka bersua lagi layaknya semasa kecil dahulu.

Saya menitikkan sedikit air mata setelah membaca cerita pendek ini. Terutama karena Charles Dickens juga dekat dengan saudara perempuannya sehingga cerita ini jauh lebih membekas. Kalimatnya yang puitis dan ditambah ilustrasi yang memikat, berhasil merebut bintang 4 pertama dari saya di tahun ini.

4/5

[Klux · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was published in 1871 and one of his earlier work.

It's a story of a brother and a sister who used to muse on a star. When his sister died, he dreamed about his sister waiting for him on the star, with the angels. As he gets older, he also lost his younger brother, his mother and even his daughter.

The story discuss the passing of our love ones, and our longing and grieving for them. It was heartwarming when he gets to reunited with them when he died (of old age). Give it to Dickens to turn a tragic tale into something beautiful.

But it kind of repetitive. So this is my least favourite of his work.

Story 3/5
Characters 3/5
Development 3/5
Style of writing 4/5
Enjoyment 3/5
Overall 3.2/5

[Ooshma]

“A Child‘s Dream of a Star”is a short story written by Charles Dickens. At the time of reading, l felt the value of relationships between the brother and sister. The author expresses the brother love towards his sister. After she died of some health issues, then he wishes to go to his sister. Before his sister died the brother and his sister used to watch a bright star in the sky every day and after his sister is gone he narrates his feelings and how he dreams of the star every night waiting to go to his sister .