A Christmas Carol and Other Stories

The Chimes and The Cricket on the Hearth also have themes which stress the value of goodwill towards those who are less fortunate. While providing serious insights into the life of the poor in the Victorian age, Dickens contrives to give his readers three stories eminently suitable for family entertainment. The Seven Travellers has a most interesting description of the Travellers House which still stands in the High Street in Rochester. At the time it was written, many people walked from London to Dover, and Rochester was about halfway. So the charity house, founded with money from the will of Richard Watts, which offered poor travellers a bed for the night, entertainment and fourpence in the morning, was popular. In the course of the narrative, Dickens as the seventh traveller, takes his turn at telling a story - 'The Story of Richard Doubledick' - an erstwhile ne'er-do-well, who, by fighting heroically through all the great battles of the time, rises to become compassionate Captail Doubledick. The other three stories are ghostly tales which, thanks to Dicken's love of gothic horror will make the hairs stand on the back of your neck and should on no account be read after dark.