CHRISTMAS BOOKS (comprised of A CHRISTMAS CAROL; THE CHIMES; THE BATTLE OF LIFE; THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH; and THE HAUNTED MAN AND THE GHOSTS BARGAIN] [And] AMERICAN NOTES FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION
by Dickens Charles
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Newburyport, Massachusetts, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
A CHRISTMAS CAROL IS ONE OF THE GREATEST BOOKS IN ALL OF LITERATURE. With its publication, Dickens captured the popular imagination as no other novelist had done, he was held in in high critical esteem by contemporaries as varied as Queen Victoria and Dostoevsky. He called his extremely popular 'Christmas Carol' a “whimsical sort of masque intended to awaken loving and forbearing thoughts.” The lasting appeal of this novel has proven it to be much more. It had been dramatized on the London stage within a month of its publication and has been made into no less then 17 motion pictures.
John Leech illustrated Dickens’ classic “Christmas Carol” with four etched plates and several woodcuts within the text.
Leech was a favored illustrator of Dickens and would later produce art for all of Dickens' Christmas books and several other titles as well.
THE CHIMES was Dickens’ second installment in the “Christmas Books” series and his labors in creating THE CHIMES were “very arduous” in order to make it a worthy successor to A CHRISTMAS CAROL. He wrote to one of his friends that he believed he had “written a tremendous book and knocked the ‘Carol’ out of the field. It will make a great uproar I have no doubt.”
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH was third in Dickens’ Christmas Book Series. The title grew out of Dickens’ idea to begin a weekly periodical named “The Cricket” with an added motto, “A cheerful creature that chirrups on the hearth.” Dickens relinquished that idea to instead concentrate on the venture that resulted in the founding of the “The Daily News.” The original periodical idea manifested itself in his “Household Words.” 'THE CRICKET' was extremely popular when issued. Within one year there had been twenty two editions printed.
THE BATTLE OF LIFE was the fourth installment in Dickens’ series of Christmas Books. Dickens managed to find the time to complete the manuscript while working on DOMBEY AND SON in Switzerland and in December of 1846 the book was released, selling 23,000 copies in the first 24 hours.
THE HAUNTED MAN AND THE GHOST'S BARGAIN was the last of Dickens' popular Christmas books and one that returns to the themes that brought him such success with A CHRISTMAS CAROL--misery and wrongdoing, realization, redemption and peace as a man blighted by sorrow discovers the true value of his life and of those around him. Like the other four books, it was enormously popular from its first printing and which was followed by countless editions through the years.
AMERICAN NOTES is his famous travel account noted for its highly incisive criticism of American customs. Dickens toured New England by way of Boston, Worcester, New Haven, New York, and Philadelphia, visiting prisons and state hospitals along the way. "Dickens' tour included a fortnight in Baltimore, Washington, and Richmond. Some of his experiences and an entertaining account of his trip by stage to Fredericksburg, Va., are recounted. His chapter on slavery was influential, for it stirred the hatred of British liberals against slavery, and it was a source of inspiration for Longfellow's Poems on Slavery. But most of Dickens' views were lifted from Theodore D. Weld's work American Slavery As It Is (1839)." - Clark III-151.
Synopsis
The first edition of Dicken’s classic work A Christmas Carol, was published in 1843. It was a runaway success, and Dickens went on to write dozens of follow up Christmas tales over the next 25 years. Many of these stories are bundled in collections, titled Christmas Stories or Christmas Books. The first four Christmas books published after the success of A Christmas Carol were: The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home (1845), T he Battle of Life: A Love Story (1846), The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain: A Fancy for Christmas-Time (1848). After the success of these stand-alone books, Dickens began to write and edit special Christmas-themed issues of Household Words, a twopenny journal he launched in 1850. He collaborated with well-known authors, as well as wrote his own stories. You can find multiple bound editions of these early stories from Household Words , such as "What Christmas Is" (1851), "The Poor Relation's Story "(1852), "The Schoolboy's Story" (1853), "The Seven Poor Travellers" (1854), "The Holly-Tree Inn" (1855), "A House to Let" (1858), "The Haunted House" (1859), "A Message from the Sea" (1860), and "Somebody's Luggage" (1862).
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Buddenbrooks, Inc. (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 32976
- Title
- CHRISTMAS BOOKS (comprised of A CHRISTMAS CAROL; THE CHIMES; THE BATTLE OF LIFE; THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH; and THE HAUNTED MAN AND THE GHOSTS BARGAIN] [And] AMERICAN NOTES FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION
- Author
- Dickens Charles
- Book Condition
- Used
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Chapman & Hall
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1852 and 1855
Terms of Sale
Buddenbrooks, Inc.
About the Seller
Buddenbrooks, Inc.
About Buddenbrooks, Inc.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Pebbled
- Pebbled cloth or leather describes the covering of a hardcover book with a decorative texture of repeated small raised bumps,...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- Morocco
- Morocco is a style of leather book binding that is usually made with goatskin, as it is durable and easy to dye. (see also...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Marbled boards
- ...
- Raised Band(s)
- Raised bands refer to the ridges that protrude slightly from the spine on leather bound books. The bands are created in the...