Other editions of book The Chimes

The Chimes is the second in Charles Dickens' Christmas Books, the collection of particular moral messages. One New Year's Eve, the main character of Dickens' story, 60-year-old messenger Trotty Veck is filled with gloom because of the reports of immorality and crimes of the working class in the newspapers. Trotty wonders whether the workers are wicked by nature or oppression and poverty made them like that...The full name of The Chimes is The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year written by Charles Dickens - a classic of the English literature.

The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, a short novel by Charles Dickens, was written and published in 1844, one year after A Christmas Carol and one year before The Cricket on the Hearth. It is the second in his series of "Christmas books": five short books with strong social and moral messages that he published during the 1840s. Narrated by Michael Ward.

The second in Dickens’ Christmas novels, The Chimes is the story of a poor ticket porter, whose outlook is changed from despair to hope by the spirits of the chimes on New Year's Eve. In the second of his series of Christmas books, Charles Dickens wrote The Chimes one year after A Christmas Carol. Tackling familiar themes of redemption, social injustice and family, it is a story of hope and contemplation and is a moving festive read well worth discovering. As Trotty’s working day as a lowly messenger draws to a close, his daughter, Meg, arrives with her fiancé Richard in tow, and they proudly announce their wedding for the following day. This is cause for celebration of course, although their happiness is tempered by the comments of an alderman and other well-off citizens on the rights of the poor to marry. During the night, Trotty hears the chimes of a church bell and ventures out to climb the belltower. At the top he is greeted by goblins that tell him that he died during the climb and must now spend his time watching his friends and family live out their lives. What he witnesses makes for grim viewing: Richard turns to drink and dies penniless, leaving a widowed Meg to cope with bringing up their child; Trotty’s friend Will is in and out of prison, and Will’s daughter Lilian ends up falling into prostitution. But the worst is yet to come. Destitute and desperate, Meg contemplates drowning herself and her young child. Wild with fear, Trotty cries out that he has learnt his lesson and suddenly his daughter is able to see him. At the last second, he rescues her from the brink of destruction. Trotty wakes as if from a dream to the bells chiming out the beginning of a new year, and finds that no time has passed and it is New Year’s Day. But as he sees his daughter cheerfully preparing for her wedding day, he is baffled as to whether this is just a dream within a dream.

The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, commonly referred to as The Chimes, is a novella written by Charles Dickens and first published in 1844, one year after A Christmas Carol. It is the second in his series of "Christmas books," five novellas with strong social and moral messages that he published during the 1840s. In addition to A Christmas Carol and The Chimes, the Christmas books include The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846), and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848).

putting it in his pocket again: 'but it almost goes against the grain with me to read a paper now. It frightens me almost. I don't know what we poor people are coming to. Lord send we may be coming to something better in the New Year nigh upon us!''Why, father, father!' said a pleasant voice, hard by.But Toby, not hearing it, continued to trot backwards and forwards: musing as he went, and talking to himself.'It seems as if we can't go right, or do right, or be righted,' said Toby. 'I hadn't much schooling, myself, when I was young; and I can't make out whether we have any business on the face of the earth, or not. Sometimes I think we must have--a little; and sometimes I think we must be intruding. I get so puzzled sometimes that I am not even able to make up my mind whether there is any good at all in us, or whether we are born bad. We seem to be dreadful things; we seem to give a deal of trouble; we are always being complained of and guarded against.