Christmas Short Stories

By: Charles Dickens

Narrated by: James Adams

Charles Dickens is known for writing the greatest of all Christmas stories: A Christmas Carol. But few know that he wrote a number of other short stories for that holiday season. Here in one wonderful audio collection are six short stories about Christmas: "A Christmas Tree", "What Christmas Is as We Grow Older", "The Poor Relation's Story", "The Child's Story", "The Schoolboy's Story" and "Nobody's Story".

Public Domain (P)2011 eChristian, Inc.

Hard to Get Into

These stories are really only for the serious Dickens fans, and even those might be disappointed. It's collection of lesser known Christmas stories by Charles Dickens, and...most of them are a bit difficult to to connect with. Many are pretty melancholy, which isn't a bad thing, and some of them feel more like ruminations on Christmas than actual stories, which is also not a bad thing. But for me, the stories often fell flat.

Adams reads them competently, but didn't really elevate the stories (to my ears).

I doubt I'll be listening to this particular collection again.

It was just OK

The Christmas Tree: This story was… weird… He begins by describing a Christmas tree. As he looks at it closer and closer, it becomes larger than life and each of the ornaments come alive. Lots of abstract imagery. Lots of ghosts. It was confusing. I honestly didn’t get it.

What Christmas Is as We Grow Older: This was a bit sad, contemplating the jadedness of adulthood and how we shift from children believing in magic to distrusting everything. I didn’t find it uplifting.

The Poor Relations Story: The principle character of this story seems to weave in and out of being a rough sketch of Scrooge. Obviously, it isn’t consistent, and there are many differences. Dickens wrote it as its own short story outright, it just had strong “Christmas Carol” vibes.

The Child’s Story: This one also had a bit of “Christmas Carol” vibes! The narrator gets to travel in time to a variety of stages in his life. Each stage informs on the building blocks that make the man who he presently is.

The Schoolboy’s Story: This one had a charming, Christmas happy ending. It had the typical dreary view of British boarding schools, so the happy ending was necessary to redeem the drudgery of the piece.

Nobody’s Story: This was clever! Characters such as the “Bigwig Family” seemed to be abstract images of stereotypes. In true Dickens fashion, he uses the misery of the lower class to convict those who are more fortunate for their lack of compassion.

“Nobody lived and died in the old, old way... Let us think of them this year at the Christmas fire and not forget them when it is burnt out.”

Altogether, I wasn’t blown away by the writing. “Nobody’s Story” was the most interesting, but I found a lot of the imagery difficult to follow. The narrator didn’t help bring any of it to life for me.

A disastrous recording

This was a geat disappointment. The narrator sounds totally unimterested in his task - almost on the verge of sleep. Certainly the dull monotone makes one want to go to sleep anyway. And the performance is particularly irritating with its pronunciation. This is an English author, read by someone with an apparently English accent. So where did that abomination "Zee" come from when referring to "Zed" the last letter of the English language. And what on earth prompted him to refer to a "Clurk" when taking about someone who worked in an office (the word, in English is pronounced "Clark"). All in all an ill thought out and badly performed waste of money and space.

Disappointing!

Written by Charles Dickens and the subject is Christmas stories? Who could go wrong?? Well, take it from me -- don't waste your time on this one; the stories are pointless ramblings that go on and on to no purpose. I kept thinking the next one would be better but none of the stories were worthy of any author, least of all Charles Dickens.

The reader is satisfactory, but it just doesn't make up for the lack of content.