Customer Reviews

The Chimes

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

As other reviews have stated, "The Chimes" isn't "A Christmas Carol." What is? But Colonial Radio Theatre does a wonderful production of this little known Dickens story. The performances are great (Especially Toby Veck) and the scene in the tower with the great Bell and the goblins is every bit as scary as Scrooge meeting Jacob Marley! Its a great show for the price and one of the few dramatizations of this story. Loved it!

I think this book is worth reading, but it's populist theme is a little overpowering and doesn't fit as easily into the narrative as it did with "Christmas Carol". I realize that the comparison is a little unfair as "Christmas Carol" is a near perfect story, but "The Chimes" felt a little forced to me.

The basic theme of "Carol" is the redemption of a rich man, while the theme of "Chimes" is the redemption of a poor man. But Dickens writes both stories from the same viewpoint, that being rich places one in peril of being evil. It is a very basic theme and quite effective, but it was much less clear to me how the narrative could redeem a poor man. The poor man's sin was "despair", but there was very little in the book about despair, and what despair there was seemed entirely justified by the circumstances.

In both books, Dickens is basically lecturing the reader. After all, the more affluent tended to buy books and read in Dickens' time. I think his lecture is quite effective in "Carol", but somewhat misaligned to the story in "Chimes".

Like General Breadbasket, I, too, was confused about exactly what was supposed to be happening in the bell tower. After reading NotATameLion's review and rereading certain parts of the story, I tend to think that perhaps Trotty, a la George Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life", committed or thought to commit suicide. That would fit with the story in the newspaper that had so disturbed him. (Makes me wonder if that's where Capra got the idea--and the bell.) The child guide showed him what life would be like if he were not around to care for his daughter and the others, and if they thought of themselves the way their "betters" did. What makes "A Christmas Carol" great and "The Chimes" only so-so is that the former can be easily understood superficially upon the first reading, but upon rereading (and rereading again, and watching/listening to many versions of the story) it reveals multiple layers of character and story that continue to affect the reader more deeply each time. Over the years, "A Christmas Carol" has changed the way I view society and my place in it. I doubt that "The Chimes" has that power.

Toby "Trotty" Veck is a ticket-porter, an honest man, a man who hears the chimes from the local church as he goes from place to place on his errands. He relates to their rhythms, and imagines them speaking to him. He and his daughter Meg aren't the richest people in the world, and Toby feels that being in the lower classes, no good can come from him. Comments from the likes of chaps like Alderman Cute don't help much with his feelings. Toby's way of looking at things, though, is changed forever when one day he finally visits the tower of the Chimes...

Charles Dickens wrote this book in 1844, from around October to November that year apparently, for release that December as a sort of sequel to "A Christmas Carol", focused around New Years rather than Christmas Day, and on a man who is too hard on himself, rather than being hard on others like Ebenezer Scrooge. It has good moments, yeah, (I liked Toby, Meg and the setting of the scene) but I really struggled to get through this one. After Toby visits the Chimes, I got a bit confused and found things rather hard to follow. I didn't know what was going on, I didn't know where Toby was, I didn't know what Dickens was getting at. It was a bit frustrating actually. Found it pretty hard to finish.