So much better than The Chimes!
A bit confused we were at times but thanks ,as often is the case to the brilliant reviews on here we were straightened out..
Lots of good character sketches in this one, the big family in particular offers one some light hearted moments whole there are deeply affecting bits also.
If you are missing someone who has died some parts will be particularly empathetic...

I always 'do a Dickens' each winter, hoping to read them all before I shuffle off, and this is a good warm up to get my ear in before I begin Edwin Drood.

A novella, in the Christmas Carol mode, with a man haunted by a spectre who teaches him a life lesson. The poor chap's issue is somewhat more complex than Ebenezer Scrooge's. He is stewing on past hurts and has the choice of being relieved of the pain of those hurts on two conditions - that he is also loses the memories of the cause, and that he passes the contract on to everyone he meets. As in A Christmas Carol, events take place over one night and conclude on Christmas morning. The more gnostic 'message' and the complexity of the contract was, I found, difficult to hang on too - I have the same problem with existentialism! The characters were the usual mix of the jolly poor alongside the disenchanted middle class, and I was taken with some of the characters, notably, (and in thrall to authorial manipulation) of course, benighted Johnny and his burden. It was satisfyingly concluded and I am glad I read it - tick!

Reading Dickens Christmas Books in publication order. My ranking:

1. A Christmas Carol
2. The Cricket on the Hearth
3. The Battle of Life
4. The Haunted Man
5. The Chimes

Just as good as "A Christmas Carol" from my perspective. Beautiful allegory about trauma, memory, and forgiveness.

Here's the point at which I stop blaming my read-them-all-in-sequence silliness for my relative apathy to the Christmas books and instead cock an eye at Dickens and his audaciously-indistinct narrative elements. Okay, so I'm not accusing the man of being lazy, but just how many tales of spiritual seasonal self-realisation does he expect us to endure before it all feels a bit familiar? Well five apparently. Good move to stop right there.

Well, that was incredibly tedious.