Book description
After the success of
A Christmas Carol
, Charles Dickens' name became so synonymous with Christmas that on
hearing of his death in 1870 a young girl in London asked, "Mr.
Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?" But A
Christmas Carol
is just the most famous of his Christmas stories, and those contained
here in this unforgettable collection - The Cricket on the Hearth
, The Battle of Life
and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain
- show Dickens at his heartwarming best.
Charles Dickens was born
in Landport in Portsmouth on 7 February 1812. Sent to work in a
blacking factory at the age of twelve, after his Navy Pay Office clerk
father was imprisoned for debt, Dickens's memories of this unhappy
period haunted him throughout his life and influenced much of his
writing. After stints as a clerk and a shorthand reporter in the law
courts, Dickens became a reporter of parliamentary debates for the
Morning Chronicle until the huge success of his first books
enabled him to become a full-time author. Charles Dickens died on 9
June 1870, leaving his last novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood
unfinished.
Peter Ackroyd's biography of Charles Dickens was published in 1990
to enormous critical acclaim. He has also written another major
biography, T. S. Eliot, which was awarded the 1984 Whitbread
Prize and was joint winner of the Royal Society of Literature's
William Heinemann Award. Peter Ackroyd's novels include The Last
Testament of Oscar Wilde, Milton in America, Chatterton, The
Clerkenwell Tales and The Fall of Troy and his
non-fiction works include Ezra Pound and his World,
Chaucer and London: The Biography, among others. His
most recent biography is Poe: A Life Cut Short.
