Reviews

The Ultimate Christmas Collection by Virginia Woolf, Henry Van Dyke, Katharine Tynan, George Wither, William Canton, William Makepeace Thackeray, Ellis Parker Butler, John Addington Symonds, George Ade, John Milton, William Cox Bennett, John B. Tabb, Elbridge Brooks, Thomas Hood, L.M. Montgomery, William Drummond, Richard Watson Gilder, Victor James Daley, Marjorie Pickthall, Robert Burns, Katharine Pyle, Isaac Watts, Elizabeth Harrison, James Allen, Nahum Tate, George Herbert, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Selma Lagerlöf, W.B. Yeats, O. Henry, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Vaughan, Robert Southwell, Robert Louis Stevenson, Anne Hollingsworth Wharton, Jacob Grimm, John Keble, Oscar Wilde, Aubrey de Vere, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Charles Dickens, Mary Hunter Austin, George MacDonald, Oliver Herford, F. Marion Crawford, Charles Wesley, Anne P.L. Field, Edmund Bolton, James Weber Linn, Eliza Cook, Mary Stewart Doubleday Cutting, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Heywood Broun, L. Frank Baum, Washington Irving, John Mason Neale, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Stephen Leacock, Willa Cather, Alfred Domett, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Fuller Murray, Clement C. Moore, Oliver Bell Bunce, Mary Mapes Dodge, Juliana Horatia Ewing, Arthur Quiller-Couch, Washington Gladden, Eugene Field, James Whitcomb Riley, Walter Scott, William Blake, Louisa May Alcott, George Orwell, Christina Rossetti, Agatha Christie, William Wordsworth, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Mark Twain, Edward Payson Roe, Thomas Hardy, Frances Browne, John Greenleaf Whittier, James Joyce, John Donne, Andrew Lang, Thomas Nelson Page, Robert Herrick, Hans Christian Andersen, Lucy Wheelock, Edmund Hamilton Sears, Anne Brontë, John Strange Winter, Mary Noailles Murfree, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Wilfred Campbell, Damon Runyon, Thomas Chatterton, William Shakespeare, Cecil Frances Alexander, William Dean Howells, Ben Jonson, Elia W. Peattie, Kenneth Grahame, G.K. Chesterton, Richard Crashaw, Sara Teasdale, Beatrix Potter, Edgar Allan Poe, Frank Stockton, Nora Archibald Smith, Ralph Henry Barbour, François Coppée, Anthony Trollope, James Russell Lowell, Edward Thring, Bret Harte, Mary Darby Robinson, William Topaz McGonagall, Booth Tarkington, Olive Thorne Miller, H.P. Lovecraft, Charles Mackay, Arthur Conan Doyle, Emily Huntington Miller, Saki, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Thomas Tusser, Emily Dickinson, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jane Austen, Felicia Hemans, Rudyard Kipling, Reginald Heber, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Winifred Kirkland, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Anton Chekhov, Frances Ridley Havergal, John Clare, Leo Tolstoy, Henry Timrod, Wilhelm Grimm, Alice Duer Miller, Nikolai Gogol, William Morris, Lewis Carroll, Susan Coolidge, Margaret Deland, S. Weir Mitchell, Alfred Tennyson, Alfred Austin, Raymond Macdonald Alden, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Florence Holbrook

maplessence's review

With a rare (for me!) bit of forethought I picked this Kindle up in August when it was free.

Looks like it has all the titles I need for Christmas Reads with the Retro Reads group - & I may read a couple of extras!

Christmas by Injunction by [a:O. Henry|8993|O. Henry|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1183238892p2/8993.jpg]
Looked like this tale would be sweet & sentimental, but Henry put his own twist on it! Clever writing. 3★

The Set of Poe by [a:George Ade|386495|George Ade|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1441898618p2/386495.jpg] The collection is alphabetical & this was the first one. A little predictable but still very sweet & charming. 4★

The Dead by [a:James Joyce|5144|James Joyce|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1615569948p2/5144.jpg] I have never read any James Joyce and this was recommended as one of his most accessible pieces of writing. In Retro Reads, Tadiana has linked to some studies for all of the symbolism. I didn't notice any of the symbolism, but still found this a very engaging story and the conclusion quite shattered me. I will reread this story looking for more depth. 5★

The Romance of the Christmas Card by [a:Kate Douglas Wiggin|8105|Kate Douglas Wiggin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1201031156p2/8105.jpg] Isn't this cover [bc:The Romance of a Christmas Card|7165537|The Romance of a Christmas Card|Kate Douglas Wiggin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348707757l/7165537._SY75_.jpg|1817946] charming and wholesome and Oh So Christmassy? What a lovely satisfying read this was, even though the villagers' values are from a different galaxy than mine. I was totally enchanted, although I do feel that David

Spoiler

was luckier than he deserved.

I'm going to go with the feels and give this one 5★!

I'm sure I can sneak in a [a:Louisa May Alcott|1315|Louisa May Alcott|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1200326665p2/1315.jpg] before Christmas as well!

Which I did.

A Country Christmas by [a:Louisa May Alcott|1315|Louisa May Alcott|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1200326665p2/1315.jpg] I liked the letter at the start and some of descriptions were beautiful and all, but this didn't totally click for me. Maybe because I found The Romance of the Christmas Card so perfect - maybe it is one too many of these stories with old values - Louisa May Alcott certainly isn't subtle! 3★

December 2022. We are having our annual Christmas Short Story read over at Retro Reads. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/22366081-december-2022---christmas-short-stories Do come and join us!