Paul Slater Libri

A Christmas carol: Seven years after the death of his business partner Jacob Marley, a miserable old man named Ebenezer Scrooge is working in his office. He hates happiness, love, family, generosity, Christmas, and probably also puppies. When his nephew Fred invites him over to Christmas dinner, Scrooge yells at him and refuses. Scrooge then tells off the people collecting charity donations, and grumbles and complains that the fact that his clerk Bob Cratchit gets a paid day off for Christmas is theft. The chimes: A goblin story of some bells that rang an old year out and a new year in is set during New Year's Eve in London. The story commences with a lengthy, haunting description of a churchyard at night. Dickens sets an evocative scene by stating in the opening paragraph: " ... there are not, I say, many people who would care to sleep in a church."

The Cricket on the Hearth , Dickens's third, eagerly awaited Christmas book, was the most popular of all. Set in a pantomime world of toys, it was acclaimed by an amused and delighted Thackeray as a fancy 'crammed with extra bonbons, French plums and sweetnesses...a Christmas pageant which you witness in the arm-chair -- your private box by the fireside'. The Battle of Life , subtitled 'A Love Story', has little in common with the other Christmas books, although it does share the theme of the morally beneficial effects of memory, which runs throughout the genre and is central to The Haunted Man. This last Christmas book contains one of Dickens's greatest comic families -- the Tetterbys -- and a horrifying, concentrated poignancy in its depiction of the Hungry Forties which foreshadowed the achievement of Bleak House. The Christmas Books , Volume 1, containing The Christmas Carol and The Chimes , is also published in Penguin Classics.

The Macmillan Readers series is one of the most popular simplified readers for learners of English. The information is carefully controlled, with pictures helping explain the difficult words and phrases. This brilliant starter-level book describes how a sea captain and his crew find an empty ship which holds a dark secret.