Reviews

Dickens at Christmas by Charles Dickens

naomileunis's review against another edition

2.0

2.5*

The Chimes: 3.5*
The Cricket on the Heard: 3.5*
The Battle of Life: 3*
The Haunted Man: DNF

My rating is purely based on these four books, I didn't read A Christmas Carol in this edition so I'm not rating it here.

highlander2006's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

trisreadssometimes's review against another edition

Will read the other stories later.

sirlancereads's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I love me A Christmas Carol (which is probably be a 5 star on its own) and the other novellas are certainly interesting but don’t have the same magic as A Christmas Carol. But are definitely worth a read.

marandi's review against another edition

hopeful reflective slow-paced

3.5

mia_48419's review against another edition

hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

laurenjpegler's review against another edition

3.0

I won't lie. I'm pretty disappointed with this collection. I initially bought it to help get me in the festive mood (which, really isn't that hard), but this collection of short stories and books really didn't do that. I found only the very short stories, mainly the two from A Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire and the one from the Pickwick Papers, were actually Christmassy. All the others, including the Christmas Books (except A Christmas Carol), were set around Christmas time but not actually anything to do with the holiday. I am majorly disappointed.

I'll link my individual reviews of the Christmas Books here, if you'd like to real a full discussion on them:
- A Christmas Carol: no review, but rated 5 stars.
- The Haunted Man
- The Battle of Life
- The Cricket on the Hearth
- The Chimes
- The Seven Poor Travellers

As you can see, I didn't enjoy the actual novellas all that much. Surprisingly, it was the short stories that gripped my attention and made me feel the slightest bit festive. I normally hate short stories, but I've found Dickens is quite good at writing them. I always tend to enjoy them more than his actual novels, so perhaps that is why these periodical entries suited my tastes more than the novellas.

I would recommend this to those of you who enjoy Dickens work - his writing is really beautiful in some of these stories. However, I won't recommend it to those of you who are looking for a festive read. Instead, just simply buy A Christmas Carol and read that instead. I definitely don't think this is worth the price!

book_cryptid's review against another edition

4.5

this was super nice, a lot of the stories were really great and i had a great time. definitely a great read for the christmas season. 

bekatron3000's review against another edition

hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

readingshrew's review against another edition

I mean Christmas Carol is amazing but I found all the other stories so boring…