Charles Dickens - Christmas Stories

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street,

London SE1 9GF

WilliamCollinsBooks.com

This eBook edition published by William Collins in 2015

Life & Times section © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Gerard Cheshire asserts his moral right as author of the Life & Times section

Classic Literature: Words and Phrases adapted from

Collins English Dictionary

Cover by e-Digital Design

Cover image: The Christmas Tree , 1911 (oil on canvas), Tayler, Albert Chevallier (1862–1925) / Private Collection / Bridgeman Images.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008110628

Ebook Edition © August 2015 ISBN: 9780008110635

Version: 2015-07-21

Contents

Cover

Title Page CHRISTMAS STORIES Charles Dickens

Copyright Copyright Copyright History of Collins Life & Times THE CHIMES Chapter 1: First Quarter Chapter 2: The Second Quarter Chapter 3: Third Quarter Chapter 4: Fourth Quarter THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH Chapter 1: Chirp the First Chapter 2: Chirp the Second Chapter 3: Chirp the Third A CHRISTMAS DINNER A CHRISTMAS TREE WHAT CHRISTMAS IS AS WE GROW OLDER THE SEVEN POOR TRAVELLERS—IN THREE CHAPTERS Chapter 1: In The Old City of Rochester Chapter 2: The Story of Richard Doubledick Chapter 3: The Road Classic Literature: Words and Phrases About the Publisher William Collins An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF WilliamCollinsBooks.com This eBook edition published by William Collins in 2015 Life & Times section © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd Gerard Cheshire asserts his moral right as author of the Life & Times section Classic Literature: Words and Phrases adapted from Collins English Dictionary Cover by e-Digital Design Cover image: The Christmas Tree , 1911 (oil on canvas), Tayler, Albert Chevallier (1862–1925) / Private Collection / Bridgeman Images. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Source ISBN: 9780008110628 Ebook Edition © August 2015 ISBN: 9780008110635 Version: 2015-07-21

History of Collins

Life & Times

THE CHIMES

Chapter 1: First Quarter

Chapter 2: The Second Quarter

Chapter 3: Third Quarter

Chapter 4: Fourth Quarter

THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH

Chapter 1: Chirp the First

Chapter 2: Chirp the Second

Chapter 3: Chirp the Third

A CHRISTMAS DINNER

A CHRISTMAS TREE

WHAT CHRISTMAS IS AS WE GROW OLDER

THE SEVEN POOR TRAVELLERS—IN THREE CHAPTERS

Chapter 1: In The Old City of Rochester

Chapter 2: The Story of Richard Doubledick

Chapter 3: The Road

Classic Literature: Words and Phrases

About the Publisher

In 1819, millworker William Collins from Glasgow, Scotland, set up a company for printing and publishing pamphlets, sermons, hymn books, and prayer books. That company was Collins and was to mark the birth of HarperCollins Publishers as we know it today. The long tradition of Collins dictionary publishing can be traced back to the first dictionary William published in 1824, Greek and English Lexicon . Indeed, from 1840 onwards, he began to produce illustrated dictionaries and even obtained a licence to print and publish the Bible.

Soon after, William published the first Collins novel, Ready Reckoner ; however, it was the time of the Long Depression, where harvests were poor, prices were high, potato crops had failed, and violence was erupting in Europe. As a result, many factories across the country were forced to close down and William chose to retire in 1846, partly due to the hardships he was facing.

Aged 30, William’s son, William II, took over the business. A keen humanitarian with a warm heart and a generous spirit, William II was truly “Victorian” in his outlook. He introduced new, up-to-date steam presses and published affordable editions of Shakespeare’s works and The Pilgrim’s Progress , making them available to the masses for the first time. A new demand for educational books meant that success came with the publication of travel books, scientific books, encyclopedias, and dictionaries. This demand to be educated led to the later publication of atlases, and Collins also held the monopoly on scripture writing at the time.

In the 1860s Collins began to expand and diversify and the idea of “books for the millions” was developed. Affordable editions of classical literature were published, and in 1903 Collins introduced 10 titles in their Collins Handy Illustrated Pocket Novels. These proved so popular that a few years later this had increased to an output of 50 volumes, selling nearly half a million in their year of publication. In the same year, The Everyman’s Library was also instituted, with the idea of publishing an affordable library of the most important classical works, biographies, religious and philosophical treatments, plays, poems, travel, and adventure. This series eclipsed all competition at the time, and the introduction of paperback books in the 1950s helped to open that market and marked a high point in the industry.

HarperCollins is and has always been a champion of the classics, and the current Collins Classics series follows in this tradition – publishing classical literature that is affordable and available to all. Beautifully packaged, highly collectible, and intended to be reread and enjoyed at every opportunity.

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England, but had moved to Kent and then to London by the time he was ten years of age. Not long afterwards, his father was arrested and sent to debtors’ prison for spending beyond his means. This marked a transition in Dickens’ early life from one of carefree childhood to one filled with relative uncertainty. Above all, Dickens began to ferment ideas of social injustice and a need for social reform in pre-Victorian Britain. These ideas would become the staple of his literary canon.