Charles Dickens, The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In

James Hamby (Middle Tennessee State University)

Ed. by Grace Moore, University of Otago
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

First circulation or publication Dec 1844

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novella

Resources

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The second of Charles Dickens’s five Christmas books,

The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells That Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In

, exhibits many of the social concerns that Dickens addressed throughout his writing career, and that are specifically associated with his Christmas books. As Robert Douglas-Fairhurst observes, Dickens’s Christmas books “represent Dickens’s most concentrated and sustained investigation into the benefits and dangers of fiction: how it works and what we use it for” and that for Dickens there existed “a strong association […] between fairy-tales and Christmas, both of which he connected with the idea of conversion” (xxiv).

The Chimes

was published by Chapman and Hall on December 16, 1844, one year after the enormously popular

A Christmas

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2087 words

Citation: Hamby, James. "The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 June 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=24932, accessed 27 July 2024.]

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