The Chimes [Hardcover]

Charles Dickens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2004

Here are not many people -- and as it is desirable that a story-teller and a story-reader should establish a mutual understanding as soon as possible, I beg it to be noticed that I confine this observation neither to young people nor to little people, but extend it to all conditions of people: little and big, young and old: yet growing up, or already growing down again -- there are not, I say, many people who would care to sleep in a church. I don't mean at sermon-time in warm weather (when the thing has actually been done, once or twice), but in the night, and alone. A great multitude of persons will be violently astonished, I know, by this position, in the broad bold Day. But it applies to Night. It must be argued by night, and I will undertake to maintain it successfully on any gusty winter's night appointed for the purpose, with any one opponent chosen from the rest, who will meet me singly in an old churchyard, before an old church-door; and will previously empower me to lock him in, if needful to his satisfaction, until morning. For the night-wind has a dismal trick of wandering round and round a building of that sort, and moaning as it goes; and of trying, with its unseen hand, the windows and the doors . . .

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This book is in Electronic Paperback Format. If you view this book on any of the computer systems below, it will look like a book. Simple to run, no program to install. Just put the CD in your CDROM drive and start reading. The simple easy to use interface is child tested at pre-school levels.

Windows 3.11, Windows/95, Windows/98, OS/2 and MacIntosh and Linux with Windows Emulation.

Includes Quiet Vision's Dynamic Index. the abilty to build a index for any set of characters or words. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Wildside Press (February 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809597640
• ISBN-13: 978-0809597642
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,238,947 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A New Year's Eve Carol of Sorts..., September 12, 2003

By 

NotATameLion (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Chimes (Penguin Audiobooks) (Audio Cassette)

Modern readers of Dicken's A Christmas Carol are often inoculated to what a shocking piece of literature it was in its day. Familiarity has softened its blow to the public at large. This is not so with The Chimes.

The Chimes is the second of Dickens's "Christmas Books." Written in 1844 it came a year after A Christmas Carol and a year before The Cricket on the Hearth. Not nearly as widely read as either its predecessor or its successor, The Chimes probably packs more of an emotional wallop than either story.

Set on a New Year's Eve rather than on Christmas proper, The Chimes is a story about self-respect and the consequences of our choices. The main character, Trotty Veck is an inverse of sorts to A Christmas Carol's Ebeneezer Scrooge. He is poor and thinks so little of himself that he threatens to destroy himself and his family. Only through supernatural intervention can things hope to be set right.

I first listened to this recording of The Chimes on last New Year's Eve. First of all, this recording is unabridged (even though it is currently listed as abridged.) Secondly, this particular recording is a wonderful reading of The Chimes. One could not ask for more.

The Chimes is a tale that will--as the best of Dickensian melodrama does--grip you and wring your heart. One really gets the sense of what reading Dickens must have felt like to his contemporaries.

This is powerful stuff. Give it a try.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great find, December 18, 2011

By 

AlGoreBoy "10thguy" (Colorado, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Charles Dickens' The Chimes: A Radio Dramatization (Audible Audio Edition)

I was pleased to find a second Charles Dickens Christmas story. Apparently, he felt a need to follow up the success of A Christmas Carol. The Chimes is a holiday infused story, and Dickens being Dickens he had to include a little spooky in the mix. In this case it is a seemily haunted bell tower. I love the Colonial Radio Theatres version of A christmas Carol, and found this production to be just as professional and as enjoyable. While the story is a good one, it is not quite as good as a Christmas Carol, but so what. It was still a fun story, well told, and full of inspiration.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Use Our Time Wisely, January 1, 2011

By 

Fan of Time-Life Books "Chris" (Spokane, WA) - See all my reviews

The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells That Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In is one of five Christmas books written in the 1840s by English writer Charles Dickens (1812-1870). Set on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, it tells the story of Trotty Veck who witnesses visions presented by goblins residing in the bell tower of a church. The moral I took from this story (and many of Dickens' stories can be classified as morality tales) is that time is given to us for our advancement and improvement. Rather than focusing on the past we need to use the present to improve the human condition. I found this story to be somewhat similar to Dickens' A Christmas Carol, but not as good as the latter. Nevertheless, The Chimes is a good story with a pertinent message.