Things were better in the past! It is amazing how far civilization has sunk. We are so lowly now. Especially the poor. The poor just keep getting worse and worse and commit crimes that are so hideous! They shouldn’t be allowed to marry, for marrying just brings more kids, i.e., more poor people to commit more of the heinous crimes..
At least that was what Toby “Trotty” Veck was beginning to believe.
And the church chimes, his only true companions through much of his life, seemed to echo those sentiments.
Trotty never dared to think these thoughts out loud, but the rich and powerful did it for him, with the chimes echoing their words.
Of course Trotty himself was very poor and yet would give his last penny to help a stranger in need. That did not in any way influence his views on “the poor”.
Being totally disgusted after reading about a mother who drowned herself and her baby, the chimes called him. They demanded his presence.
What was going to happen on this New Years Eve? Remember that The Chimes in some ways was the sequel to “A Christmas Carol” and expect anything.
The Chimes was one of five of Dickens’ “Christmas” novellas. Not all of them were about Christmas, but they were all released at the end of the year and they all had simple messages about life. The first one, “A Christmas Carol”, is, of course, the most famous, but they all have their place.
Just a reminder about the Dickens Challenge. Did you forget already?!? If so, that is why I’m doing a reminder 😉😎 Anyway, I am co-hosting the challenge with Yvette and Marsha. The challenge this year is pretty easy, you only need to read one of Charles Dickens’ novellas by June 9th. Yeah, June is still a long way away, but time goes by so quickly!
This book has the five Christmas novellas:
Here
This year’s Invitation:
- The 2023 #DickensChallenge invites you to read ANY of Dickens’ novellas between February 7th and June 9th, 2023 (the dates for the challenge align with Dickens’ date of birth and date of death). Then share about your reading in a post (or posts) or via comments on one or all of the host blogs.
- We will allow comments to be shared until around June 16th – and then we will raffle off the gift cards by entering the names of participants into a raffle.
- Use this hashtag: #Dickenschallenge
- We will be making a master page with info – coming soon
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Hi Trent, I really enjoyed this particular novella. I liked your interpretation of the important points and messages. I have one more novella to read and one read for which I need to post a commentary/review. I’m trying not to rush it all in a 5 minutes.
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It was an interesting novella, in ways the closest tot A Christmas Carol.
I also only have one left to read. I will get to it in a few weeks.
My plan is to write a review for all five novellas and post them in June. I’ll have an opening post on Sunday, do the five reviews through the week, and then a recap on Saturday. I will most likely reuse the opening of this post on the review for The Chimes.
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That sounds like a plan 🌺
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From “Things were better” …. to “They demanded his presence” … is that you, or from the novella.
I’m too busy to take part, but I like the sounds of it. I also like Dickens, a lot.
You did this last year, right?
Have fun co-hosting Trent!
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The opening paragraph is a paraphrase of the first few pages of the novella. I thought it would be fun to take on that idea for a paragraph before letting people know that, no, I don’t feel that way, it was Dickens making a point.
This is the third year of doing a Dickens Challenge. This year is a little easier wince we are only asking people to read one novella, not one of the longest books ever written, like last year ;)
Thanks!
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Hahaha! I now remember…. the …. longest ….book!
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Yes, it was huge! but fun. So this year we are giving people a little relief…
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Also, side note – I had to smile with your awesome use of commas… especially in this sentence
“The first one, “A Christmas Carol”, is, of course, the most famous, but they all have their place.
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Thanks! I am pretty “old school” with my commas and over use them by modern advice, but I still like to go with, “If there is a pause or a detour in the sentence, you need a comma.”
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yes – and I have a book with support for just that use of commas.
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Hi Trent – enjoyed your post and pulled us in with that opening segment about the poor.
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Thanks, Yvette. Yeah, I thought that the opening would draw people in, hopefully mostly people who wanted to argue with me before they knew where the idea was coming from :)
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:)
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