Customer Reviews

Christmas: Penhaligon's Scented Treasury of Verse and Prose

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It's been many years now since my father brought home this small coffee-table book for Christmas, but every year I find myself pulling it out along with the rest of the holiday decorations in order to browse through it. It's a beautifully designed and presented volume; not particularly big, but with glossy pages that are scented with Penhaligon's "The Winter Garden" scent (described as "cloves, cinnamon and fir cones"). Even if I don't have the time to read the contents, I still like burying my nose into the spine and taking a whiff.

The hardcover version comes with a thick slipcase, and the book itself is bound like a Victorian journal, complete with its own bookmark. With an introduction by editor Sheila Pickles, the book contains a collection of Christmas-related material: poems, carols, plays, opera lyrics, diary entries, letters, and extracts from novels. Everyone you would expect is included: Charles Dickens, D. H. Lawrence, Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Hardy, G.K. Chesterton, Dylan Thomas, Mark Twain, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Christina Rossetti, Alfred Tennyson, Virginia Woolf, and more. Though many of the works included may be unfamiliar to a modern reader (though this may well encourage them to seek out the source material), there are some inevitable favourites: A Christmas Carol, Little Women, The Wind in the Willows, The Night Before Christmas, and verses from The Bible. Sadly, Francis Pharcellus Church's famous "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" editorial is missing, though most of the content of this book comes from the 19th century, and so would have felt out of place here.

The book is beautifully presented and scented, and would make a lovely, thoughtful gift, especially for those with an interest in Victorian literature and/or poetry.

We have had this book for 17 years and have made it a Christmas tradition to read aloud from it nightly during the Christmas season. There are so many wonderful classic selections that are sure to bring a smile or a tear to the eye. We have loved this so much that this year we are purchasing copies to give as gifts. If you love Christmas, you will love this treasury of classic excerpts from Dickens, Victorian carols, Lousia May Alcott, and more.

I have bought this for a number of my friends after receiving it as a gift. There are poems, essays, and lovely pictures all related to the Christmas season. I look at it every Christmas, and sometimes during other seasons. There is a smaller version of this book, but I like this one best. Be careful ordering to make sure you are getting the size you desire.