The Chimes (Dodo Press) [Paperback]

Charles Dickens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2007

The Chimes. A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, a short novel by Charles Dickens, was written and published in 1844, one year after A Christmas Carol. It is the second in his series of "Christmas Books": five short books with strong social and moral messages that he published during the 1840s. Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870), also known as "Boz", was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Considered one of the English language's greatest writers, he was acclaimed for his rich storytelling and memorable characters, and achieved massive worldwide popularity in his lifetime. The popularity of his novels and short stories has meant that not one has ever gone out of print. Dickens wrote serialised novels, the usual format for fiction at the time, and each new part of his stories was eagerly anticipated by the reading public. Among his best-known works are Sketches by Boz (1836), The Pickwick Papers (1837), Oliver Twist (1838), Nicholas Nickleby (1839), Barnaby Rudge (1841), A Christmas Carol (1843), Martin Chuzzlewit (1844), David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), Little Dorrit (1857), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1861) and Our Mutual Friend (1865).

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

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: Dodo Press (August 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1406554510
• ISBN-13: 978-1406554519
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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.