A Goblin Story Of Some Bells That Rang An Old Year Out And A New Year In.

The Chimes is the 2nd of the five ‘Christmas Books’ written by Charles Dickens in the 1840s. The most successful of which was A Christmas Carol and while that is still well known today the other four books have slipped out of the public eye.

Keen readers and movie buffs will spot that the script writers of perennial Christmas favourite It’s A Wonderful Life owe more than a passing credit to Charles Dickens and the plot of The Chimes.

Book blurb

Trotty Veck, is a good man, hard-working and humble to a fault. Sadly despite these admirable qualities, and through no fault of his own, he finds himself in the depths of a financial ruin which could carry himself and the people he loves to the poor-house. Trotty feels that he has brought all his troubles on himself and that his family & friends would be better off without him. Driven to the edge of despair he finds himself wandering in the local churchyard apparently called there by the chimes of the church bells. Toby finds himself climbing the stairs towards the bell-tower where he meets the Spirits Of The Bells who inform him that he suffered a terrible fall, and in reality his body lies dead at the bottom of the bell-tower. The Spirits grant him a vision of the future where he is able to see that far from thriving without him in their lives, his friends & family suffer all manner of injustices, setbacks and personal disasters. The Spirits’ intention is to teach Trotty that mankind is formed to strive for nobler things, and will fall and fail only when crushed and repressed beyond all bearing. They show him that he is in fact a worthwhile man and that he can thrive again if he gives himself half a chance. Once the lesson of the Spirits is learned, Trotty awakes alive & well in his bed. His friend and neighbours rally around and ensure that future is once again bright again for Trotty and his family.

My (short) thoughts

In The Chimes we have a main character who is not at all wealthy in financial terms, he works as a ticket-porter*, is widowed and has a grown daughter, Meg, who is about to be married.

Trotty Veck plies his trade as a ticket-porter at a spot just outside the church door where the bells of the book title reside. It’s set just before the turn of the year. The weather is cold and whilst Trotty is used to cold winds and rain as he waits for a porterage job that doesn’t mean he likes it. Quite the opposite it’s no fun waiting around in the rain and cold hoping to get a job just to earn enough money to get food and pay for lodgings.

We read about Trotty, Meg, a porterage job that takes Trotty to a high standing person where he learns about a man who is to be accused and convicted of being ‘undesirable’. On his way back he comes across the very same man who has a young child with him. Trotty informs the man that he is being sort out and offers him and the child shelter for the night.

Although similar to A Christmas Carol in that the main vehicle to ensure the protagonist, Trotty Veck, is made aware of his part in the downfall of his family is a ghost that transports Veck into an even bleaker future than his current circumstances it does not have quite the same kind of impact but is well worth a read.

Book: Purchased

*A ticket-porter is someone who is hired to carry letters, packages and larger items from one place to another. I found a blog post by the Two Nerdy History Girls where you can read some interesting information about this topic.

Books by Dickens: Links

To Be Read At Dusk | A Christmas Carol which, because of its length, is classified as a novella and is usually accompanied along with other Christmas writings.

Information

Publishers: Fahrenheit Press (the version I read)| 94 Pages, Available in Hardback, Paperback, eBook | This edition first published 2023 by Fahrenheit Press | http://www.Fahrenheit-Press.com | ISBN: 978-1-914475-65-8 | First published in 1844 by Chapman & Hall

Buy: Fahrenheit Press (this is the version I read) | Your local bookshop | Your local library | AmazonSmileUK | Hive | Bookshop.org (affiliate link)

Author

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognized him as a literary genius.

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 near Portsmouth where his father was a clerk in the navy pay office. The family moved to London in 1823, but their fortunes were severely impaired. Dickens was sent to work in a blacking-warehouse when his father was imprisoned for debt. Both experiences deeply affected the future novelist. 

In 1833 he began contributing stories to newspapers and magazines, and in 1836 started the serial publication of Pickwick Papers. The serialisation of Oliver Twist began in 1837. Many other novels followed and The Old Curiosity Shop brought Dickens international fame and he became a celebrity in America as well as Britain. Thereafter, Dickens published his major novels over the course of the next twenty years from Nicholas Nickleby to Little Dorrit. He also edited the journals Household Words and All the Year Round.

Charles Dickens died in Higham, England on 9 June 1870. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

The Dickens Museum | The Dickens Fellowship | BBC History: Charles Dickens | Gutenberg Project – Charles Dickens books/works in alphabetical order 

Books

The Pickwick Papers | Oliver Twist | Nicholas Nickleby | The Old Curiosity Shop | Barnaby Rudge | Martin Chuzzlewit | Dombey and son | David Copperfield | Bleak House | Hard Times | Little Dorrit |A Tale of Two Cities | Great Expectations | Our Mutual Friend | The Mystery of Edwin Drood 

The Chimes is the 2^nd of the five ‘Christmas Books’ written by Charles Dickens in the 1840s.

• A Christmas Carol (1843)
• The Chimes (1844)
• The Cricket on the Hearth (1845),
• The Battle of Life (1846)
• The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain (1848)

Other writing

American Notes | Pictures from Italy | Selected Journalism 1850 – 1870 | Selected short fiction | Sketches by Boz