Short Stories in Literature

The Chimes is Charles Dickens 1844 novella that concerns the disillusionment of Toby Trotty Veck a poor working-class man. When Trotty has lost his faith in Humanity and believes that his poverty is the result of his unworthiness he is visited on New Years Eve by spirits to help restore his faith and show him that nobody is born evil but rather that crime and poverty are things created by man.The Cricket on the Hearth by Dickens gave his first formal expression to his Christmas thoughts in his series of small books the first of which was the famous Christmas Carol. There followed four others: The Chimes The Cricket on the Hearth The Battle of Life and The Haunted Man. The five are known today as the Christmas Books. Of them all the Carol is the best known and loved and The Cricket on the Hearth although third in the series is perhaps next in popularity and is especially familiar to Americans through Joseph Jeffersons characterization of Caleb Plummer. The title creature is a sort of barometer of life at the home of John Peerybingle and his much younger wife Dot. When things go well the cricket on the hearth chirps; it is silent when there is sorrow. Tackleton a jealous old man poisons Johns mind about Dot but the cricket through its supernatural powers restores Johns confidence and all ends happily.The Battle of Life is a novella by Charles Dickens 1st published in 1846. Its the 4th of his five Christmas Books coming after The Cricket on the Hearth followed by The Haunted Man & the Ghosts Bargain. The setting is an English village that stands on the site of a historic battle. Some characters refer to the battle as a metaphor for the struggles of life hence the title. Battle is the only one of the five Christmas Books that has no supernatural or explicitly religious elements. The story bears some resemblance to The Cricket on the Hearth in two aspects: it has a non-urban setting and its resolved with a romantic twist.