Dickens' Christmas Novellas Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Chimes

'The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In', to give the full title, was written in 1844. Dickens gave public readings in early December, to gauge public opinion, before it was published. The chimes of the title are the bells in the church outside of which Trotty Veck works as a messenger for hire. On New Year's Eve, he goes to the tower, and is scolded by the spirits of the bells for having lost faith in humanity.

He is shown a series of visions detailing the unfortunate future for those about whom he cares, if his pessimism is accurate. Repenting, he wakes in his own bed, and finds joy all around hum.

But was that just a dream within a dream?

Answer: The Battle of Life

'The Battle of Life: A Love Story', published for Christmas of 1846, was the fourth novella in the series, and proved less popular than the first three had been. Possibly this is related to the fact that it was not set explicitly around Christmas (although there is a Christmas scene), and it lacked the supernatural element of the previous novellas. Grace and Marion Jeddler are sisters, living in a small village that was built over the site of an historic battle, which is used to provide the overarching metaphor of the story.

When Marion disappears one night, everyone thinks she has eloped, and her former fiance Alfred soothes his broken heart by falling in love with Grace, whom he marries. Jump five years, and Marion reappears, letting everyone know that she has been in hiding all that time so that her sister and Alfred could discover their true feelings for each other.

Answer: A Christmas Carol

The original title of Dickens' first, and best-loved, Christmas novella, published on 19 December of 1843, was 'A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas', but most people just call it 'A Christmas Carol'. The sections of the book are called staves instead of chapters, a reference to the term then used to describe the divisions of a song which we would now call verses. If you don't already know that Ebenezer Scrooge is a miser who develops an entirely new personality following the Christmas Eve visits of four ghosts (his former business partner Jacob Marley, Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come) then you probably didn't recognise many of the characters from the other novellas!

Answer: The Cricket on the Hearth

'The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home' was published in 1845, the third in the series of Christmas novellas. John Peerybingle and his wife Dot live happily with their baby boy, and a cricket on the hearth that acts as their guardian angel. That is, until the miser Tackleton convinces John that Dot has been unfaithful to him.

When the mysterious lodger with whom she had been seen is revealed to be long-presumed-dead son of their friend Caleb Plummer, everything gets sorted out, and we manage to have the traditional happy ending.

Answer: The Haunted Man

Professor Redlaw, also called the Chemist, is the central character of 'The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain, A Fancy for Christmas-Time', the last of Dickens' Christmas novellas to be published. He is prone to brooding over past events, and believes that he would be happy if only he could forget them.

When a ghost offers him the gift of forgetting pain, he accepts it, along with the provision that he will pass this on to those he meets. Needless to say, a bit like Midas' golden touch, this turns out to be a bad idea, as those who forget pain from their past become much less pleasant people. Redlaw reverses the spell by an act of kindness to the mysterious child who has been his companion through the book, and who is explained to be the embodiment of his curse. By learning to live with his past, he lifts the curse, and everyone returns to their original characters.

Answer: The Cricket on the Hearth

Returning home in disguise after a long absence, Edward Plummer takes up lodging with the Peerybingles, which leads to some complications in their relationship. However, it all gets sorted, and Edward manages to marry his sweetheart, May Fielding, hours before she was to be forced into a loveless marriage with the miser Tackleton. True to the tradition of Dickens' Christmas novellas, Tackleton succumbs to the joy around him, and does not enforce his rights as May's fiance.

This book was so widely anticipated that there were several dozen performances planned for the Christmas season of its release. A 1967 animated film featured Roddy McDowall as the voice of the cricket, from whose perspective the story was told.

Answer: The Battle of Life

Michael Warden is the young man with whom Marion Jeddler is thought to have eloped near the start of the book. He left the country at the time she went to stay with an aunt for five years, and returned shortly after she resurfaced on her birthday to explain everything. A reformed character, his past is forgiven by Dr Jeddler, and he and Marion wed. A nice Dickens happy ending.

Because this book was not very popular, it has been less adapted than many of Dickens' other works. There was a stage adaptation by Albert Richard Smith soon after it was first published.

Answer: The Haunted Man

Milly is Professor Redlaw's cook, a sweet and loving woman who has also been caring for Mr Denham, a seriously ill student of Redlaw's. When she arrives at the place where Denham is staying at the same time as Redlaw, he hides behind the curtains to avoid spreading the curse to her. Denham's abuse of her, when he has forgotten his recent illness and her care for him, is one of the major triggers that leads Redlaw to beg the ghost to lift the curse.

This novella did not have many adaptations, but one of them, in 1862, is of historical interest as the first time when John Henry Pepper demonstrated an illusion now known as Pepper's Ghost. This illusion uses a carefully placed piece of glass to produce a reflection of the stage which appears to be located at a different point. Changing the relative lighting of the two parts of the stage can make a ghost come and go.

Answer: A Christmas Carol

The contrast between the heartfelt sorrow of the Cratchit family following the death of Tiny Tim, which Ebenezer Scrooge was shown by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, and the demeanour of those attending his own funeral, may have been the final touch needed to cause the transformation we see in Stave Five.

This section sees Scrooge make a substantial donation to the charity he had rejected the day before, send a Christmas turkey to the Cratchit family, and spend Christmas afternoon with his nephew Fred.

Although Tiny Tim only appears briefly, his blessing of their Christmas dinner ("God bless us, every one!") is an iconic moment in most adaptations of the book, and Dickens repeats it at the end of the story, emphasising the redemption that Scrooge has found.

Answer: The Chimes

Trotty Veck's delivery of a message from Alderman Cute to Sir Joseph Rowley leads to his intense feeling that people are poor because they are inherently destined to fail (a nice example of Social Darwinism). Sir Joseph's ostentatious charity is accompanied with comments to make the recipient feel badly about their lack of success, and Trotty's consequent despondence is behind his New Year's vision. The spirits of the bells guide him to realise that it is the oppression of society, not native weakness or wickedness, that leads to the dire straits he sees in this visions.

'The Chimes' was adapted into a 1914 silent film, and a musical in 1992. There have also been a number of radio adaptations.