Dickens and Christmas

by Lucinda Hawksley

Dickens and Christmas is an exploration of the 19th-century phenomenon that became the Christmas we know and love today – and of the writer who changed, forever, the ways in which it is celebrated. Charles Dickens was born in an age of great social change. He survived childhood poverty to become the most adored and influential man of his time. Throughout his life, he campaigned tirelessly for better social conditions, including by his most famous work, A Christmas Carol. He wrote this novella specifically to “strike a sledgehammer blow on behalf of the poor man’s child”, and it began the Victorians’ obsession with Christmas.

This new book, written by one of his direct descendants, explores not only Dickens’s most famous work, but also his all-too-often overlooked other Christmas novellas. It takes the readers through the seasonal short stories he wrote, for both adults and children, includes much-loved festive excerpts from his novels, uses contemporary newspaper clippings, and looks at Christmas writings by Dickens’ contemporaries. To give an even more personal insight, readers can discover how the Dickens family itself celebrated Christmas, through the eyes of Dickens’s unfinished autobiography, family letters, and his children’s memoirs.

In Victorian Britain, the celebration of Christmas lasted for 12 days, ending on 6 January, or _Twelfth Night_. Through Dickens and Christmas, readers will come to know what it would have been like to celebrate Christmas in 1812, the year in which Dickens was born. They will journey through the Christmases Dickens enjoyed as a child and a young adult, through to the ways in which he and his family celebrated the festive season at the height of his fame. It also explores the ways in which his works have gone on to influence how the festive season is celebrated around the globe.

Genres: Nonfiction, Christmas, History, Biography, Literature, Holiday, Ebooks

208 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 30, 2017

About the author

Lucinda Hawksley is a British biographer, author and lecturer. She is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Victorian novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. Hawksley is an award-winning travel writer.
She also writes under the name Lucinda Dickens Hawksley.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Christmas Carol has been my favorite book since childhood. Something about the images of Cratchit skipping home to be with his family and Scrooge skulking along the darkened streets seeing ghostly funeral carriages and his dead partner just created such magic in my imagination. I have reread the book many times, watched many movies based on the story and enjoyed multiple theater productions (except the one I'd really really really love to see.....Patrick's Stewart's one man show as Scrooge). I love this book. I love its message. I love its humor. I love its dark portrait of the cruelty of man and the struggle for joy to remain where hope is fading. But most of all, I think I revere the message that redemption is possible. If even the most unemotional, greedy and covetous old geezer can be turned into a generous, happy and joyful person.....then all of us have a chance, right?

I have a degree in literature. I read every novel, every short story, every grocery list Dickens ever wrote and was forced to expound voluminously on the merits or disappointments of each. It wasn't like when I was growing up and enjoyed reading about Oliver Twist and the rest of his scores of characters just for the joy of reading. As an adult I had to read, examine and dissolve my brain into the story. It's a much more dismal trip when it's done for learning rather than imagination. Dickens' writing is dark, gloomy and mostly depressing....usually with some happy twist at the end, for a main character at least. Most side characters get left chin deep in their own mess or dead. As an adult A Christmas Carol still shone bright through the darkness for me. A beacon among the other writings of Dickens. It has the most joy, the most hope and the most kindness of anything I was (forced) required to read from Dickens. A classic book that can withstand the requirements of higher learning and adulting is truly a classic book. :) And it's still my favorite. That must be distinctly understood, or nothing wondrous can come of the book review I am about to relate.

Dickens and Christmas. I knew I was going to love this book before I even started reading. And I wasn't disappointed.

This book is a wonderful mix of information about Dickens' life, Christmas traditions in his lifetime, and impressions of the holiday from his personal writings and novels. It also includes snippets from newspaper articles from the time, biographical information from family letters and his daughter's book. Everything from Twelfth Night cakes to house parties. :) I understand much more about how Dickens' rough childhood, his life experiences and his anger at how the poor were treated colored his writing, but yet made him love the Christmas season. And he made others love it, too.

Wonderful book!! Well-written, interesting and enjoyable to read! I loved how the book didn't focus only on A Christmas Carol but also included his Christmas stories and mentions of the holiday season from his other books as well. Quotes from his personal correspondence, diaries and family writings were wonderful to read. I didn't realize his daughter wrote a biography of her father in the late 1800s. I need to find a copy of that book, or a scan online, and read it. :)

I read an advance copy for this review, but I will be buying a copy for my keeper shelf. Beautiful book!

God bless us..every one!

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike most biographies of Dickens, this one tries to concentrate on his relationship to Christmas and the changes in winter celebrations over time. Most people have either read A Christmas Carol or seen movies or other productions. Less well known or liked (but extremely popular in his lifetime) are his many novelettes, stories, compilations, plays and magazine pieces done for the Christmas season. Those works are shown to have occupied about six months of every year from the publication of A Christmas Carol in 1843 until the end of his life in 1870.

Hawksley is a Dickens descendant and does a wonderful job with the information she uses to show the writer’s life as regards to the holiday season. She shows the dark contrast between jolly family celebrations, the hugely popular celebrity writer and his darker secrets and pressured life. After debtor’s prison for his parents and his traumatic experience as a child worker in a Victorian blacking factory six days a week and ten hours a day, Dickens was forever on a treadmill of depression, insomnia, marital difficulties, too many children and too many people depending on him. Hawksley does not whitewash his part in the family issues.

The other major interest in the book is a mid winter festival history and how Dickens helped shape our notions of Christmas.

[The Sassy Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

A CHRISTMAS CAROL is by FAR my favorite of holiday tales. Be it the book, the musical, the plethora of movies or the cartoons; there is just something so special about this classic work of literature. So when I saw this book available for request I knew I had to have it to add to my collection.



I enjoyed this one a lot. It could be a little dry reading at times but since I read a few chapters here and there between other books I wasn't too bothered by that. It's packed full of interesting information about Charles Dickens. The history and traditions of the time are brought to life through writings and letters and quotes. We not only get an insight into the times and history but also into the man himself (his social reform leanings) and how his writings (especially the Christmas ones) had a profound effect on how the nation thought about Christmas. This was just a fascinating and educational read and a perfect gift for any Charles Dickens fan. Two thumbs up from yours truly.

[Bionic Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christmas is just for children, some say. But does the word “Christmas” still give you a thrill? Which author do you think is most associated with a traditional Christmas? Your mind will probably immediately spring to Charles Dickens, who wrote:

“Only a misanthrope could not forget his sorrows and regrets for a day to celebrate Christmas”

when he was just 24. When we think of a traditional English Christmas today, we tend to have an image in our minds of the snow cascading down, and families decorating the tree, before celebrating the day together with friends; everyone giving and delightedly receiving presents, with plenty of plum pudding, Christmas cake and a feast of other special food. There might be party games and carol-singing, and there is a general festive spirit of conviviality, with all arguments forgotten, and a happy atmosphere of charitable thoughts.

The adjective “Dickensian” is certainly often associated with this picture, and the popular idea is that Charles Dickens was the man who changed - for ever - the ways in which Christmas was celebrated. But how much of this popular image is really due to Charles Dickens’s influence?

To explore this idea, we need to go much further back, because Dickens’s own Christmases as a child were not Victorian, but Georgian. We need to look at what it would have been like to celebrate Christmas in 1812 - the year in which Dickens was born - and a decade or more after that. Perhaps we need to look at the English traditions even earlier, to determine the social conventions of the time Dickens was born into.

And who better to take us through this than one of his descendants, Lucinda Hawksley, who wrote a book in 2017 called Dickens and Christmas. I first came to know this writer through her Art books, and books on social history. She also writes biographies, and in recent years she has made a splash with her books about her illustrious great-great-great-grandfather. They are enjoyable and highly readable; informative, but geared towards the general reader rather than the academic. She regularly give talks at (and from, by zoom) the Charles Dickens museum in London, and this year has been as appointed as the Dickens Fellowship’s president.

The museum building at 48 Doughty St. was of course Charles Dickens’s first home as a young married man of 24. Dickens lived in many houses in London, both before and after his marriage, but this is the only one which still stands. As an aside, Lucinda Hawksley was there today, showing Queen Camilla around; a visit which had been kept a great secret.

So in Dickens and Christmas, Lucinda Hawksley takes us through the Christmases Dickens enjoyed as a child and a young adult. She weaves her knowledge of the cultural and social history of the time into known biographical facts about the writer. This makes for a most engaging read, both for those who know nothing about Dickens’s life, and those who, like me, are familiar with the events but need to put them into a more detailed historical context.

It was at this time that holly, ivy, pine needles and other greenery started to be used to decorate homes, just as they had been in pagan times, but with the more recently appropriated Christian symbolic significance. More elaborate Christmas decorations were not yet in evidence, although mistletoe had been popular since before the Regency, as pictured in cartoons of the time.

Dickens’s earliest piece about Christmas was written in 1835, and is called “Christmas Festivities”. In it he mischievously describes the tradition of couples under the “kissing bunch”, removing one berry every time a kiss was stolen. He also described this cheeky tradition in “The Pickwick Papers” in 1837. Religious households considered the habit scandalous however, and banned it. Queen Victoria herself also disapproved of kissing under the mistletoe, but that was not generally known until she acceded to the throne in 1837, at the tender age of 18. She was even more shocked by the population’s general behaviour on Twelfth Night.

It was due to Queen Victoria that Christmas Day, Boxing Day (26th December) and New Year’s Day became bank holidays, thereby ensuring that working people still had their annual holiday. She intended to divert the attraction away from the widespread debauchery of Twelfth Night, so that the main holiday was not on January 5th or 6th. From the early 17th century onwards, Twelfth Night was celebrated on 6th, as recorded by Samuel Pepys in his diary, counting on 12 days from Boxing Day. However Epiphany Eve is generally now held to fall on 5th January and that is the end of the traditional Twelve Days of Christmas. Decorations should be taken down, as a common superstition holds that it is bad luck to leave your decorations up beyond that night.

But all this was in the future, as was the widespread popularity of Christmas trees. During Dickens’ childhood the festive season lasted for 12 days, beginning with Yuletide on Christmas day with celebrations gradually reaching a climax and ending on 6th January, or “Twelfth Night”. For young Charles the Regency traditions had been in force for as long as he could remember, and he would enjoy peeking in at the lavishly decorated Twelfth Cakes in the bakers’ windows.

Here is a recipe for a Twelfth Cake from the 17th century:

“Take one bushel of Flower, six pound of Butter, eight pound of currans, two pints of Cream, a pottle of Milk, half a pint of good Sack, two pound of Sugar, two ounces of Mace, one ounce of Nutmegs, one ounce of Ginger, twelve yolkes, two whites, take the Milk and Cream, and stirre it all the time that it boyles, put your Butter into a Bason, and put your hot seething Milk to it, and melt all the Butter in it, and when it is bloud-warm temper the Cake, put not your Currans in till you have made the paste, you must have some Ale yest and forget not Salt.”

- “A True Gentlewoman’s delight” 1653

Queen Charlotte’s Twelfth cakes were famously elaborate, with ropes and swags of sugar, almonds and marzipan; with storybook characters, figures from mythology, animals and symbols all part of the decoration. These were 30" in diameter, with several tiers, and whereas the local bakers’ Twelfth cakes would not be so extravagant, it was a very important part of the festivities, as were the Twelfth Night Parties so disapproved of by Queen Victoria. Dickens himself was also later to publish a scathing article about them in “Household Words” in 1853, although his daughter Mamie remembered that he was the life and soul of such parties when he was a young father.

Most of Mamie’s family memories date from their time at Devonshire Place. It’s unlikely that she would remember the Doughty St. house, where she and her sister Kate, her oldest brother, their parents Charles and Catherine, Dickens’s younger brother Frederick, and (albeit briefly) Catherine’s 17-year-old sister Mary Hogarth all lived. It would be a merry throng each Christmas and New Year season between 1837 and 1839, as the young Charles Dickens tried to emulate the Twelfth Night games and parties of his own childhood.

But despite all the grand parties, the Christmas of his birth year, 1812 was not a happy time for all:

“It was considered that a new spirit of selfishness was taking hold of the country … that there was too much emphasis on money and possessions at Christmas time.”

Couldn’t this be said today? It really does seem as though there is nothing new under the sun! Now we consider the upcoming Victorian age to be a time of stability and progress, but it was actually a time in which everything was changing very quickly. A new spirit of commerce was coming, and many people felt unsettled, trying to preserve the status quo. New technologies threatened old industries and employment opportunities. There were political tensions, and hostile interests challenged the rights of sovereignty and the individual. The general air of unrest meant that violent movements sprang up. But people responded to the uncertainly and plummeting temperatures in other ways too, determined to have their festive fun.

The winter of 1813 to 1814 went down in British history as one of the coldest in living memory. By the start of the new year, the River Thames in London had frozen so solid that it was possible to walk right across the river. Soon the frozen water was such that people started to set up stalls, and this became the famous Frost Fair of 1814.

There had been many of these on the frozen Thames ever since the “mini ice age” in the 17th century, starting in 1607-8. A diarist in 1684 wrote of horse and coach races on the frozen river, sliding, bull-baiting, donkey rides, puppet plays, fiddle-playing, gaming and skittles, and drinking tents for both sexes where there was “tipling and other lewd places so that it seems a bacchanalia triumph on the water”. Honesty, Lucinda Hawksley tells us, was out of the question in the tents.

Thousands used to attend these fairs, from all parts of London, attracted by the entertainments and the stalls selling books, toys and trinkets, and the sheep, rabbits, and geese roasting on spits. However the 1813-14 great freeze was to be the last, and subsequently the last Frost Fair too.

One Christmas present popular at this time was the annual, a book containing snippets of information, such as poems, excerpts from books, household tips and activities and ideas for games to play.

“These books were beautifully illustrated and lavishly decorated, intended to be given as a high-status gift. They did not, at this date, concentrate on the theme of Christmas. Although they were usually published for the Christmas market, the publishers continued to sell them throughout the coming year, so an annual released, for example, for Christmas 1812, would be titled the 1813 annual.”

This tradition continued in Britain until at least the late 20th century, although increasingly such annuals were not for families, but for children. I have reviewed a few of them from my own childhood on my shelves.

However, when Dickens was a child, many people had to work on Christmas Day. Lucinda Hawksley examines the gradual switch from Twelfth Night Celebrations to those of Christmas and New Year. Pantomimes were a firm favourite - as they still are - although they have changed over time, and now star television celebrities rather than jobbing actors. Pantos are a peculiarly British tradition: a theatrical offering of slapstick comedy, song and dance, where the audience delightedly participates, hissing and booing the villain as he comes on stage, and shouting “He’s behind you!” to the one duped. They are based on fairy tales or stories, and there is always a grotesque Dame (played by a man) and the young male hero is always played by a “principal boy” (a young woman). They have a comedic twist, and in Dickens’s time had even more audience participation. We read of the actual pantomime performances Dickens probably went to as a young child, and can see that these, and all the charades and plays put on at his childhood homes had an enormous input towards his lifelong love of the theatre.

Only by a fluke of fate did Dickens travel the route of writer rather than an actor, when he had a severe cold on the day of his audition at a London theatre, and was unable to attend. But the theatre always remained his first love, and he enthusiastically devoted a lot of time to theatrical events both public and private. He even had a full-size stage built in one of his houses, and could not resist directing, acting, co-writing and being generally involved in plays throughout his life. In the early days he wrote lighthearted plays with music; burlesques and farces, and we can plainly see the influence his childhood experience at the pantomime would have.

Over the years then, Dickens witnessed the holiday change from focusing on Twelfth Night to Christmas, seeing the arrival of Christmas Trees, Christmas crackers, Christmas shopping, present giving and other such celebrations. We gradually move through the ways in which Dickens and his family celebrated the festive season, as he grew more and more famous. His first foray into writing about Christmas was as a young man of 23, still wondering what to do with his life. He had had a few pieces printed under various pseudonyms in newspapers - and also nine stories - for which he would never be paid. He then had the aforementioned piece called “Christmas festivities” accepted, although nobody yet knew the name of Charles Dickens as an author. It describes a family Christmas dinner, and it was published in a newspaper on 27th December 1835. In this very early piece we can identify themes of conviviality, good will and forgiveness which we would find in his most popular work, which he was not to write for another 8 years: “A Christmas Carol”.

Dickens then included it under his favourite pseudonym, as one of his “Sketches by Boz”, retitling it: “A Christmas Dinner”. Collected together these became his first full-scale work.

In 1837 Dickens wrote another series of sketches, originally to accompany some sporting prints by the much respected Academy artist Robert Seymour, of amusing incidents. He cannily expanded his original modest commission to become what we now know as “The Pickwick Papers”. It included another Christmas piece “The Story of the Goblins who stole a Sexton”. Here we can recognise the first stirring of the character of Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens’s mind, as the sexton is redeemed by an encounter with the supernatural.

Dickens conceived the idea and wrote “A Christmas Carol” in a frenzy of activity over just 6 weeks, and was keen that the book should be priced cheaply enough for many people to be able to buy it. However his publishers (astonishingly enough) were lukewarm about the story, and refused to promote it. Dickens was sure in his own mind that it would be a success, and against their advice, he insisted on beautiful luxury red binding with gold tooling. As a consequence the book actually made a loss, at a time when Dickens’s finances were so low that he needed some quick ready cash.

Nevertheless “A Christmas Carol” was just what the public wanted, and it was instantly enormously popular. They loved everything about it, both the sentiment and the message, and still do. As a result Dickens decided to maintain what he called “the Carol philosophy” to strike a “sledgehammer blow” for the poor, uneducated, and repressed.

Lucinda Hawksley carefully goes through the subsequent novellas Dickens published at the year end through the 1840s in order, mostly giving a chapter to each, and describing what was happening in his life at the time. She also reminds us of the social traditions and customs, and includes occasional flashbacks. They are: “A Christmas Carol (1843), “The Chimes (1844), “The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), “The Battle of Life (1846), and “The Haunted Man (1848).

But increasingly Dickens was feeling the pressure of having to produce each new annual “Christmas Book”, which his demanding audience expected. He confided in his friend and mentor John Forster his worries about fitting it in on top of his serial novel-writing, articles, editing work, speaking and other commitments. After five novellas he decided to recruit some of his “in-house” and other authors for his new weekly magazine “Household Words” (1850-1858) to produce a Christmas issue of his magazine instead. Dickens would be the “conductor” of these, selecting those he liked and framing them with his own short pieces. These collaborative works continued for many years, through his next magazine “All the Year Round” (1859-1867), in which he also had a bumper issue of these. The stories did not usually have Christmas themes, but were published at the end of the year, through to the New Year. Dickens stipulated that they should focus on social issues and the spirit of giving. All in all we have 20 of these collaboration including authors such as Wilkie Collins, Amelia Edwards, Julia Cecilia Stretton, Henry F. Chorley, Harriet Parr, Charles Allston Collins, Arthur Locker, and John Oxenford.

It is a great shame now that when books such as “Somebody’s Luggage”, “The Wreck of the Golden Mary” or “A Message from the Sea” are published, the only stories usually included are the ones by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Those by half a dozen other authors are missed out, which makes a farce of the whole enterprise, as the significance of the linking stories is lost.

Charles Dickens’s name was by now inextricably linked with Christmas, but Lucinda Hawksley reminds us how his daughter Mamie wrote that he had a love-hate relationship with it. In “The Holly Tree” (1858) Charles Dickens recaptured some of the delight he used to feel, drawing upon childhood memories for the story.

The second half of the book is well-trodden ground for those with an interest in Dickens. However Lucinda Hawksley also goes on to explore the ways in which Dickens’s works have influenced how the festive season is celebrated around the globe. By focussing on Christmas, the author has given us a unique perspective on Dickens’s life.

By the end of Dickens’s life, Twelfth night celebrations were a mere shadow, and the focus was all - as it is now - on Christmas Day. In part this was Queen Victoria’s doing, but it was also to a large extent down to him. For Scottish people the most important holiday is Hogmanay, the last day of the year or New Year’s Eve. In fact Christmas was not celebrated as a festival and virtually banned in Scotland for around 400 years. But for English people, the only remaining celebrations at New Year are fireworks, to “see the new year in”, light shows and Pantomimes. We saw how this theatrical tradition was much loved by young Charles and was to influence much of his later writing, but even pantos now take place from early December onwards.

Perhaps it seems odd to post a review of Dickens and Christmas later in the year, but I happened to read this book during the Twelve Days of Christmas. There are those who feel that the festive time is over much earlier. One Goodreads friend said to me on 27th that she was “sorry it was all over” and yet I personally feel that it has only just started then! I had not realised though until I read Dickens and Christmas just how particularly apt the timing was.

There was not much new to learn about Charles Dickens here; nevertheless I enjoyed reading this book.

(I have also reviewed all the works mentioned here.)

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable - a great exploration of Dickens's relationship with and influence on Christmas. I learnt a lot about the process behind his Christmas books, and discovered a lot of his shorter Christmas stories that I'd never heard of before!

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Dickens is the great great great grandfather of author Lucinda Hawksley. I discovered Hawksley on social media and learned about her newest book Dickens and Christmas. I knew I had to read it!

A Christmas Carol has been a favorite story since Third Grade when I was Martha in a elementary school play. I memorized all the lines by heart watching rehearsals.

Our school play of A Christmas Carol, 1962
Growing up I watched every movie version every year. Later my husband and I read the story out loud and together watched our favorite movie versions. (I even wrote a paper about A Christmas Carol for my Studies in the Victorican Age course at university!)

Dickens and Christmas is a biographical history of Christmas in Dickens's personal and professional life, and a social history of the celebration's evolution in England in the Victorian Age. The celebration underwent a huge transformation to become the holiday we know today. We learn about the Twelfth Night celebration of Dickens's youth and the joyful celebrations he shared with his family.

Hawksley draws from writings by family members, letters, and the Christmas texts to create a vivid portrait of Dickens as family mann writer, and social reformer.

Few readers today know about Dickens's other best-selling Christmas stories. They were so popular that he was required to write a new one every year, which became a source of great stress, requiring six months work while also writing his novels. The early Christmas novellas were replaced by short stories published in his magazines, Household Words and All the Year Round.

One of the aspects of the Christmas stories I love best of all is Dickens's desire to improve social conditions for the poor and most vulnerable in society. Dickens was a 'resistance' writer of his time, intending to bring awareness and sow seeds for legal and social change. I

Because of Dickens's Christmas writings, the season has become one of charity and good will.

God bless us, every one!

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

[Brian E Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author Lucinda Hawksley is the great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens. This is her 2017 non-fiction work that examines two aspects of Dickens and Christmas:
1) Dickens role in affecting the general change in society’s celebration of the Christmas season that occurred between the beginning and end of 19th Century Britain;
2) How Dickens himself spent Christmas time during his life.

I enjoyed the details about how Christmas was celebrated during Dickens early life, especially the focus on Twelfth Night and how this practice changed during Dickens life. While the book does focus on how Dickens greatly influenced that change, the author provides details on other influences, such as the emergence of the Christmas card and the Germanic influences brought from the celebration practices of the royal family due to Prince Albert.
But I think I enjoyed the book more when it went into a more detailed account of author Dickens’ own Christmas-time experience commencing with the publication of A Christmas Carol in 1943. It was interesting to see how Dickens felt both enriched and trapped by his association with Christmas time and his need to work hard during that time-period.
The book was a solid reading experience with plenty of enlightening information. While I appreciated the knowledge I received, I thought the writing and structure only moderately pleasing. Too much time was spent detailing the plots of Dickens’ various Christmas stories and I skimmed or skipped those I thought I might choose to read in the future. I rate it as 3 stars.

[*TUDOR^QUEEN* · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A Christmas Carol" is my absolute favorite Christmas story and I will watch any and all versions airing during the Christmas season. I have acquired numerous kindle and hardcopy versions of the book; yet, curiously enough, I have never finished reading them past a few pages. Based on my love of "A Christmas Carol", I also acquired every other Charles Dickens classic such as "Great Expectations" , "Oliver Twist", and "A Tale of Two Cities". Again, I still have yet to read these tomes. However, the thought of a Victorian London winter with cobblestone streets, golden glowing windows, and plum pudding on Christmas still warms my heart and harkens to mind Charles Dickens. As such, I was drawn to this book about Charles Dickens the man and his association with Christmas.

The book had revelations about how London celebrated the Christmas season in the mid 1800s. For instance, the bigger celebration was "Twelfth Night" or January 5-6th (the end of Christmas) rather than Christmas Day itself. It was delightful to read about the enormous and grandly decorated Twelfth Night cakes, in addition to the parties and celebrations that went along with them. However, it wasn't until Charles Dickens authored "A Christmas Carol" that the British focused primarily on Christmas Day with its associated meanings of being kind and generous to the less fortunate. "A Christmas Carol" was a breakthrough in Charles Dickens' literary success and he was expected to produce a Christmas story every subsequent December afterward. The tidal wave of Christmas spirit unleashed by the book sparked the invention of the Christmas Card and Queen Victoria's use of a decorated Christmas tree with lit tapers and small gifts weighing down its boughs.

The book also tells the story of Charles Dickens' life in conjunction with his writing career, with a particular focus on his Christmas stories which in fact took precedence in the buying public's expectations. We learn about his father's stint in debtors' prison and how Charles had to work in a factory at the age of twelve. It was a traumatic experience that robbed him of his youthful innocence and provided the basis for his writings.

There were short excerpts culled from his books and letters woven into this biography, and also from his eldest daughter Mamie with her reminiscences of Dickens' family Christmas celebrations. The author is a descendant of Charles Dickens which lends a special touch. This all culminated in telling a life story of an iconic British author and his impact on Christmas celebrations in England and around the world.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

[Olga Miret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Rosie Croft from Pen & Sword for sending me an early hardback copy of this book, which I freely chose to review. Although I’m not a big Christmas fan, I couldn’t resist this book, and I thought it would make a great gift for this time of the year.
The book (which contains a bibliography, a detailed index, and illustrations) is a great read, no matter how much or how little you like Christmas. Liking, or at least being curious about, Dickens would enhance the experience, but I’d dare say that even people who only have a passing acquaintance with his word can enjoy it.
The structure of the book, written by Dickens great great great granddaughter, follows his life, although it is not a detailed biography. We look at the tradition of the Christmas holiday, mostly in the UK (although we hear about Christmas celebrations in the USA when Dickens embark on his lecture tours in America, later in the book), as it was (or wasn’t), and I found it an invaluable source of information from a historical point of view. Although I was familiar (or so I thought), with the elements of what we consider a traditional Christmas and their origin, I have learned plenty about it, from the fact that the celebration in the early XIX century used to focus on the 12th day of Christmas (with a big cake and parties where people played different parts), Christmas trees, Father Christmas, Christmas card… to the first introduction of the Christmas cake and the way the Christmas pudding and the mince pies have changed over the years (yes, I think most of us had heard that originally the mincemeat contained real meat… and that’s true).
I am not an expert on Dickens, although I’ve read a number of his novels (and A Christmas Carol, of course), and I don’t think much of the biographical information about him will be new to those who have studied his work and life (although as it is written by one of his relatives, and as we all know stories about family members circulate and are passed on through generations, it is always possible that if not the facts, the details and anecdotes might be more vividly portrayed), but I did learn much about him, his childhood (that I was familiar with), his struggles, his friendships… The book centres on the writing of A Christmas Carol, which was hugely successful and Dickens wrote in an attempt at raising people’s social awareness of the plight of the poor and the terrible conditions of the working classes in Victorian England, and how it would become the beginning of a tradition (still followed by many authors) of publishing novels and books in time for Christmas. Initially, in the years after Carol, he would write a new story for publication at that time, but later he would publish Christmas books, compiling his own stories and those of writer friends and collaborator, mostly not on the subject of Christmas. These proved popular, and as his fame grew, he spent more and more of his time touring, reading fragments of his books or some of his novellas in full (A Christmas Carol remained popular and still is), and also preparing the Christmas number. There are titbits of information that bring Dickens, the individual, to life (he had pet ravens and loved his dogs), with his qualities and defects (his behaviour towards his wife was horrendous, even if it was not uncommon for the period, and women had little in the way of legal rights at the time), and the focus of this volume on the yearly Christmas celebrations fits in with his enthusiasm and his interests. I loved the way he would get involved in pantomimes, which grew more and more elaborate over time, to the point of writing what sound like true plays to perform with his children and friends.
The book is peppered with fragments from his stories, which are set apart from the rest of the text, also quotes from his letters, and passages from newspapers of the period reviewing his work and/or his lectures. One of the aspects I particularly enjoyed —and I think most writers or people interested in the writing business will also appreciate— is the insider information about the publishing industry of the era. How Dickens would change publishers, his fight against piracy (oh, yes, it’s nothing new), his anger on seeing so many versions of his books turned into theatrical performances without his authorisation, the fact that there was no international copyright law, so although his books were very popular in the USA he did not receive a penny from the sales (and of course, they tried to tax his gains from lecturing, but he managed to escape the American taxmen), and other juicy bits. There is also plenty of material about his writing methods, and he often talks about it in his correspondence.
There are some photographs included, but my favourite illustrations are those taken from Dickens’s stories and others that capture the Christmas period of the era. They are a joy and further enhance the reading experience.
This is a book for lovers of Christmas, for people interested in the Victorian period and its traditions, for people who want to learn more about Dickens, and it will be of particular interest to writers who want to learn more about what writing was like at the time. I loved the fragments of Dickens’s stories that exemplify why he continues to be love, valued and appreciated. A fabulous gift, for you or for those you love. Merry Christmas, and God bless Us, Every One!

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

üle ootuste hariv lugemine. üle ootuste tabava pealkirjaga ka - räägibki Dickensist ja jõuludest. eks neil kahel on muidugi kokkupuutepunkte või briti kontekstis lausa kattuvusi, aga Hawksley (kes on muide Dickensi lapselapselapselapselaps. või midagi sinnakanti. otsene järeltulija igatahes) ei hoia sest ühisosast kramplikult kini, nii et üldiselt jutustatakse siin ikkagi ära nii Charles Dickensi elulugu kui see, kuidas 19. sajandil briti jõulutraditsioonid tekkisid ja muutusid ja kujunesid. ja umbes selliseks on nad siiamaani jäänud ka, pärast Victoria aega pole siin suuremat jõulurevolutsiooni enam olnud.

Dickens ise oma jõulujuttudega aitas seal muidugi kõvasti kaasa, aga abi oli ka kuninganna Victoriast, kes importis saksa jõulutraditsioone (oh kuusepuu!) ja kasvõi seadusandluse abil kohendas, mida ja millal tähistada. (Dickens oli terve oma elu rohkem nagu "12 days of Christmas" ja kolmekuningapäeva tähistaja mees, aga riiklikul tasemel sobis paremini, kui jõulud paari-kolme detsembripäeva peale kokku tõmmati.)

seadusandlusest rääkides oli mu lemmikfakt üldse see, et Šotimaal on alati eelistatud tähistada vana-aastaõhtut ehk Hogmanayd; et sealne presbüterlik kirik ei tunnistanud jõule kristliku pühana, vaid pidas neid puhtalt paganlikuks; et 17. sajandil oli jõulude tähistamine Šotimaal mitukümmend aastat lausa seadusega keelatud; ja et esimene jõulupüha sai seal riiklikuks pühaks alles 1958. aastal. ok, see sai nüüd neli fakti.

aga muidu, jah, tuleb ikka välja, et Dickensi raamatutest (eelkõige "A Christmas Carolist") õppis briti vaesem rahvas, kuidas on jõule õige pidada, millega kodu kaunistada ja mida süüa. kõik need kalkunid ja ploomipudingid (mis oli varem soolane toit) ja mince pie'd (sama. neid tehti alguses lihaga, siis pandi puuvilju juurde ja siis jäeti liha ära). ja et tuleb olla rõõmus ja kõiki armastada ja god bless us, every one. pärast oli Dickens eluaeg jõulude ori ja kirjutas augustist saadik palehigis jõulujutte, mis alati jõuludest ei rääkinudki, aga täpselt jõuluks müügile tulid ja väga populaarseks said.

veel oli mulle uudiseks, et Dickens teenis suure osa oma sissetulekust oma teoste ettelugemisega publiku ees. käis Ameerika turneedel ja puha.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Review of Hardback edition)

It has only taken me until August to get around to reading the books I received for Christmas, and this was certainly an unexpected pleasure.

I've read many biographies and other texts around Dickens, and this felt like one of the fresher approaches. It works very well not only as an exploration of how the celebration of Christmas has evolved with great influence from Dickens, but also succeeds as a good narrative of his personal life and professional career as a whole, from beginning to end. It was also nice to see the author highlight the more negative aspects of his personality and personal life, and the struggles he faced throughout his career against his publishers, his readers, and pirates. There is also an excellent use of sources from his personal correspondences between himself, his family, and his literary circle which really brought the text, and especially the Christmas traditions explored in detail, to life. The symbiotic relationship between Dickens and Christmas is explored primarily, but I would definitely still recommend this to a casual reader if only to learn about the life of Dickens and how he became the force he was. It is sharp enough for anyone to enjoy. Special mention goes to the snippets of recipes thrown in, such as the story of 'Twelfth Cake', which I previously had never heard of...I look forward to attempting one and it competing with my Christmas pudding this year...with any luck.

Unfortunately I have to rate the book lower as I became so frustrated with the typos throughout. I can't remember a book recently where I have become so distracted by mistakes, which really disrupted my enjoyment of the book. Here are some of the examples I spotted, but there could probably be more. I fail to understand how a book charged at £19.99 could be so littered with basic proof-reading errors, but maybe (I hope) it was just my copy?

"By this date. Dickens had already begun to make his name with..." p. 26

"Tomorrow is my Mother's birth day, so I have promised on behalf of yourself and Beard that we will go from here, and the spend the Evening there." p. 36

"I'll send it to Bon Cratchitt's," p. 77

"Believing Edward has died, May has rsigned herself to making a loveless, but sensible marriage." p.101

"Commend us ever to the to the frank and genial pleasures of innocent games..." p. 139

"It is the story is of an elderly woman, named Sophonisba," p. 152

"There is little mention of Christmas in the story, but towards the end Sophibisba muses," p. 153

"Popular opinionm disappointed in the fire having been put out, Snow-balled the Beadle. God bless it!" p. 160

"But while I was using it, I noticed that its shadow on the wall still had that resemblance, through the thing itself had not. And when I went to bed, it was in my bedroom, and still looked to like, that I took it to pieces before I went to sleep. All this would have been exactly same, if poor Walter had not died that night." p. 168

And finally, my personal favourite:

"...which included Luke Fildes's drawing The Empty Chair, which depictedWeb Order Reference: UBR01757205 Order Date: 14 Jul 17 02:58PM Dickens's study at Gad's Hill Place the day after he died." p. 194

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucinda Hawksley is a direct descendant of Charles Dickens, so she is uniquely placed to write about his life. Her book relates an abbreviated biography of Dickens, with emphasis on how he himself celebrated Christmas, how England in general celebrated, and his works of fiction about Christmas.

A Christmas Carol is the one piece by Dickens that nearly everyone in the English speaking world knows. Even if they have never read it, pretty much everyone has seen one or more of the many film, TV, or cartoon versions. Everyone associates Dickens with Christmas, even more than they associate him with orphans and grim poverty. That didn’t start recently; it started as soon as he published Carol. He wrote four more Christmas stories, which cemented his position as the king of Christmas. The people of England came to expect his Christmas stories, which became a huge burden on him. He wanted to write other books, books that shined a light on the horrors of poverty. He solved the problem by creating a monthly magazine, and hired others to write stories for the Christmas edition.

Hawksley tells Dicken’s story in calm prose, and doesn’t spare him from examination. His childhood poverty, his perpetual money problems (most of them created by his large family), his marital problems, are all examined. I found it a very interesting look into his life. I also liked that the author related how the celebration of Christmas was changing, due both to the Industrial Revolution and Prince Albert’s bringing German customs over to England. Hawksley weaves all the strands together well.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good overview of Dickens in terms of bio and contemporary goings-on during his writing of his Xmas tales. Unlike many books, its focus lies on ALL of his Christmas stories, not just A Christmas Carol, so it provides a broader depth and introspection on what Dickens attempted to do with his fictions both at that moment of writing/publishing but also over the course of his career/lifetime. Excellent read.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is well researched and detailed. My only complaint is that much like the author himself that is being written of the book is long winded at times and feels that way.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually a 3.5 star.
Book received from NetGalley

A Christmas Carol has been a been a part of my life since I was small. I never knew it was a book, until I was much older, for years it was the movie that my Dad watched over and over during the lead up to Christmas. For me, Charles Dickens will always be a part of Christmas, and multiple versions of A Christmas Carol still show up on my television to this day. However, I had no clue just how much the story influenced how we celebrate the holiday. Until this short little novel came to be, Christmas was a much different creature in England and definitely in the United States. This book gives you some of that background and you'll likely be shocked at just what Dickens and his work influenced in how you celebrate today. I want a copy of this for my history shelves, I just wish it had been longer.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an intriguing look at one aspect of Charles Dickens life - his influence on and his relationship with Christmas. During his lifetime, Christmas became a huge event, but when he was a child, many people worked and it was not necessarily a holiday. Over the years, he witnessed the holiday change from focusing on Twelfth Night to Christmas, seeing the arrival of Christmas Trees, Christmas crackers, Christmas shopping, present giving and other such celebrations. Some of these did exist even when he was young, including pantomimes, although they changed over time, but with his love of the theatre, this was always of great interest to him.

Dickens first Christmas story, 'A Christmas Carol,' is also his most famous and it worked because of many different factors. Dickens, who always had a large and dependant family, was in debt and was desperate for the book to be a success. He was also burning with indignation of those who thought that going to Church was enough, but who turned their head away from those in need. As a child, of course, Dickens father was in prison for debt and this event scarred him. His education stopped, he had to work in a blacking factory and he lived alone in lodgings as a young teenager. His fear of financial failure, the demands of his relatives, the needs of his growing family, his ambition and his desire for success, made him pour his indignation onto the page and this true sense of righteousness and anger resonated - and still resonates - with readers. Christmas Carol was a huge success and it still very much a part of Christmas - currently showing at my local theatre, with endless film versions, it speaks to many of what Christmas should mean, of charity and friendship and family and - in many ways - it ruined Christmas for Dickens forever.

For the rest of his life, Christmas became the hardest part of the year for him. Once he was producing periodicals, the Christmas issue seemed to loom over him from the beginning of summer and he could never replicate his initial success. In later life, when he gave public readings, Carol was a favourite, so he could never escape it. Although he enjoyed the festive season, still the work aspect became something of a chore and it is interesting to read reviews of later of his attempts of Christmas stories being criticised by those who felt he would be best to avoid the subject. The author - the great-great-great-granddaughter - of Charles and Catherine Dickens, does not shy away from the less pleasant aspects of the author, such as his public split from the mother of his children for a young actress, but ultimately this is a sympathetic portrayal. Dickens, like everyone else, had his faults, but certainly he was involved in the changing of Victorian attitudes towards the festive season and so, when (or if) you are celebrating this year, it is fascinating to realise how prevalent his influence still is.

[Michelle Kidwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dickens and Christmas

by Lucinda Hawksley

Pen & Sword

Pen and Sword History
History

Pub Date 30 Oct 2017

I am reviewing a copy of Dickens and Christmas through Pen and Sword and Netgalley:

In 1812 at Christmas Frances (known as Fanny) was two and Charles was only ten months. John and Elizabeth Dickens young family lived in the town of Portsmouth located on the south coast of England. John Dickens was a clerk at the Navy’s Payroll office. An ironic job for a man who had a terrible time controlling his own finances. The Christmas of 1812 was a difficult time for many.

For many centuries Christmas was not celebrated the way it became celebrated during the Victorian era.

By the time Charles first Christmas came around, the winter of 1813-14 went down as one of London’s coldest winters in memory.

Charles was one of eight children, two who died in infancy.

In 1836 Dickens met John Forster who would later become his first biographer, The Life Of Charles Dickens was published 1872-1874.

In 1823 Charles was spending much of his time running errands for his parents and visiting his disabled uncle Thomas Barrow (His Mother’s Brother) whose leg had been amputated after a bad break.

In 1827 when John was fifteen and Fanny seventeen John Dickens was arrested again, though not imprisoned.

On April.02.1936 Charles and Catherine were married. There first child was conceived on their honeymoon and on January.06.1937 Charles Culliford Boz Dickens was born.

Dickens also paid particular attention to injustices such as Child Labor in factories in England. He believed too in the importance of educating working men and women.

During Christmas of 1843 Charles Dickens gave friends advanced copies of A Christmas Carol, a book that in many ways would become iconic.

Like his Father Charles Dickens would suffer with financial difficulties. After Catherine gave birth to their fifth child, they would go into debt due to medical expenses.

I found Dickens at Christmas to both be entertaining and educational.

Five out of five stars.

Happy Reading!

[Ophelia Sings · Rating 4 out of 5]

For many, A Christmas Carol is the definitive festive tale. Christmas simply would not be Christmas without the annual re-read, mince pie and port to hand. But Dickens' tale's enduring place in our festivities is by far not his only influence on our celebrations - one might argue that the Christmas Dickens created IS Christmas as we know it.

In Dickens and Christmas, Lucinda Hawksley - a direct descendant of Dickens - presents the reader with deftly interwoven social and personal histories of the era in which many of our modern festive traditions were born, and of the man who created them. We discover the inspiration for Dickens' many festive tales - not just his most famous - and learn how his horror at the inequalities of Victorian society, and the suffering of the poorest at this most unforgiving time of the year, inspired him to campaign for change. He used the most powerful tool available to him to do so - his pen. And, in doing so, he created not only the notion of charity at Christmas - but also the Christmas with which we're all so familiar.

There is much here to take forward and keep in our hearts - traditions born in the Victorian era when, thanks to Dickens and Prince Albert's German influence, Christmas was more fashionable than it had ever been still resonate today. But perhaps the most important thing the reader can take from Dickens and Christmas is the message Dickens himself conveyed in his festive writings - one which is incredibly timely and has never been more urgent. And that is simply to think of those less fortunate than ourselves - all year, not just at Christmas.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an in-depth biography of Charles Dickens researched through the lens of Christmas. Lucinda Hawksley covers Dickens's life from birth through death, along with chronicling the history of modern-day Christmas traditions. Dickens, most well-known for his novel The Christmas Carol, authored many stories and novels and published literary magazines. Each year, after the overwhelming success of The Christmas Carol, Dickens would publish Christmas stories and eventually used his literary magazines to devote an edition to holiday stories authored by him and his literary contemporaries.

While providing a history of Dickens's life, Hawksley showed how Christmas traditions changed over time during Victorian England and in America. Many of these evolving traditions were written into Dickens's stories, and many of the traditions he wrote about, as obscure as they may have seemed at the time, became more widespread because of his writings.

This book shows how Dickens and Christmas are really very intertwined. Dickens was in an out of poverty along with his family. He had what seemed like an idyllic life until his marriage unraveled. He never seemed to be able to find the same success with any of his novels and stories as he did with The Christmas Carol. Dickens's life was consumed by the holiday, and today, it's hard to think of the holiday without thinking about Dickens's works.

[Lyle Appleyard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book through a sale on Kobo that came to me through Bookbub.com

This book is a biography of Charles Dickens through his connection. The book follows Dickens for his birth through to his death. There were many details about his life and his family. The main theme of the book is how Dickens and his family celebrated Christmas. It talks about hos Dickens changed Christmas and how it changed him.

Each Christmas season, I try to find a book about the history of Christmas or a study of some of the traditions of Christmas. I was very please to come across this e-book. I am a big fan of A Christmas Carol. I believe that it is one of the most important pieces of literature in the shaping of Christmas as we know .it. I knew quite a bit about A Christmas Carol and that Dickens wrote few more Christmas books after that. I did not know about Christmas became such a big part of life after A Christmas Carol. I also only knew a few snippets of Dickens life. This book filled in a lot of holes for me. The author is a descendant of Dickens, so that adds some credulity to the book.

I would recommend this book. If you are fan of Dickens or enjoy the history of Christmas like me, you will enjoy the book. I learnt something new about the history of Christmas and about Charles Dickens.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Dickens and Christmas" is a biography of Dicken's life with a focus on Christmastime--how his family celebrated Christmas at various times in his life, what books he released, and even changes during his lifetime in how people celebrated Christmas (partly due to the influence of his Christmas stories). The author quoted from books, articles, and Dicken's personal letters to show what Christmas was like for his family and in general.

The main focus was on Dicken's life and included details about his writing. We get summaries and extensive quoting from his first five Christmas releases (A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain) and excerpts of the Christmas scenes from his other novels and short stories. Mixed in with the biographical details were tidbits about traditional Christmas foods, decorations, presents, and activities. You couldn't create your own Dicken's-style Christmas from this book, but you can get an idea of what it was like.

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Alessandro Mana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book takes us back to Christmas and its celebrations in the Victorian era. Queen Charlotte imported Christmas trees from Germany in the 1800s, Queen Victoria made them popular and "traditional". The Victorian Christmas typical of the popular imagination is a creation by Charles Dickens, which distils the elements in his Christmas stories. Then Coca-Cola dressed Santa Claus in red (before he was dressed in green, like the Ghost of Christmas Present in "A Christmas Carol"). The book includes many quotes, from Dickens and others that often may seem too long or "stifling". A touch of class - one of my opinions - is to quote the recipes of the cake of the "Twelfth Night" of Mrs Beeton from the "Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management".

[S.L. Barrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read as it focused on Dickens' ties to Christmas, combing through his writing, his letters and accounts from family and friends.
Biographical sections unrelated to Christmas were kept to a minimum, however there were a few sections that I felt were superfluous to the theme.

The book became a bit of a slog towards the end as Dickens' relationship with Christmas became more strained and the book basically lists his christmas magazine articles and his public readings up until his death.

But the book is formatted in such a way that its easily digestible.

Overall it gave a great insight to the writer and the man and how he spent his Christmases and how he regarded them personally and professionally.

[Serena Locritani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a beautiful book! I started to read it at the beginning of December, was a perfect way to enter the Christmas time and as a big fan of Dickens works was lovely to find out lots of facts about the creation of his holiday stories and of course about the famous "The Christmas Carol", but in particular was very interesting to learn more about his life, complex and not always easy, his torments too but mostly about his love for justice and for the people. I read last year "Victorian Christmas" from Lucinda Hawksley and was a beautiful work that too! I hope she will write more books her style it's just lovely!

[Phil Vivian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully written book, thorough in its research and fluent in its presentation of elements in the life and writings of Dickens and contemporaries, of social history during the era covered and specifically of the ways in which the celebration of Christmas Day and the surrounding period evolved. Lucinda Hawksley's prose is always precise, engaging and eloquent while her knowledge of and passion for her material shine throughout. Two late evenings, coming soon after attending a talk on the same subject by the author, and I was finished: I was reluctant to set it aside.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much more biographical than I was initially expecting, but that was a welcome surprise. It's a fascinating window into the life of the man that effectively created Christmas and using the festive period as a hook for his own story seems both logical and fitting. I enjoyed learning about some of Dickens' other Christmas stories as well so will be diving into those! Dropped one star because it could do with a proofread, quite a few spelling errors and missed words unfortunately.

[Shari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and sometimes myth-busting account of Charles Dickens and how his work impacted both his own life and the culture at large. He was part of the cultural changes which led to the way we celebrate Christmas and the ways in which it is marketed to us today. The book includes excerpts from the work of Dickens and others and contains photos and illustrations.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dickens has long been one of my favorite authors, so I was excited to dive into this book. Aside from the numerous typos, it did not disappoint. I enjoyed this journey through his life and how it influenced his Christmas stories. The author also discusses how many of our modern Christmas traditions have been influenced by Dickens.

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kindof boring. It follows the writing career of Charles Dickens and how many of his major life events and writing happened around Christmas. It gives a micro history of the evelation of Christmas during the time period of Dickens. I much prefer reading dickens to reading about dickens. I used this book for the prompt read in winter: genre four. (52 books)

[Kathryn Parry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read the Christmas Carol, The chimes this yeas so reading about the author of those iconic stories a must for any fan. The history behind the stories and his life as well the beginning of Christmas as we know of it now is a fascinating insight of life in Victorian England at the time.