Book Details
Title: | A House to Let. The Extra Christmas Number of Household Words, Christmas, 1858. | ||||||||||
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Published: | 1858 | ||||||||||
Publisher: | Household Words | ||||||||||
Tags: | Christmas, fiction, short stories | ||||||||||
Description: | This is the full original Christmas 1858 number of Dicken's Household Words. The version of this story normally published is the parts written by Charles Dickens himself. This version is the original, where Dickens has written part of the story, and connected it with sections written by other authors. [Suggest a different description.] |
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Downloads: | 523 | ||||||||||
Pages: | 81 |
Author Bio for Dickens, Charles
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.
Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens's literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers. Within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humour, satire, and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication. The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience's reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback. For example, when his wife's chiropodist expressed distress at the way Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield seemed to reflect her disabilities, Dickens improved the character with positive features. His plots were carefully constructed, and he often wove elements from topical events into his narratives. Masses of the illiterate poor chipped in ha'pennies to have each new monthly episode read to them, opening up and inspiring a new class of readers.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.--Wikipedia.
Author Bio for Collins, Wilkie
William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known for The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868). The last has been called the first modern English detective novel. Born to a London painter, William Collins, and his wife, the family moved to Italy when Collins was twelve, living there and in France for two years, so that he learned Italian and French. On publishing his first novel, Antonina, in 1850, Collins met Charles Dickens, who became a friend and mentor. Some Collins works appeared first in Dickens's journals Household Words and All the Year Round. The two also collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins reached financial stability and an international following in the 1860s from his best-known works, but began to suffer from gout. He took opium for the pain, but became addicted to it. His health and his writing quality declined in the 1870s and 1880s. Collins was critical of the institution of marriage: he later split his time between widow Caroline Graves, with whom he had lived most of his adult life, treating her daughter as his, and the younger Martha Rudd, by whom he had three children.--Wikipedia.
Author Bio for Gaskell, (Mrs.) Elizabeth
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson, (1810-1865) was an English novelist. She was born in London, the only surviving daughter of a Unitarian minister. Her father became keeper of the Records of the Treasury. She was raised in the Unitarian tradition which led to a marriage with William Gaskell, who was also a Unitarian minister. The union was a happy one and each took a keen interest in each other's professional life. They raised four daughters, and a son who died of scarlet fever. Her only brother John an officer in the merchant navy disappeared at sea. Both events figured prominently as characters or themes in her novels.
Her first novel, "Mary Barton", was published in 1848. It was a story about difficult industrial relations, featuring a strike and an assassination. the work was praised by the likes of Charles Dickens and criticized by industrialists. Dickens encouraged her to contribute to his weekly magazine, "Household Words", which gave her a wider audience for her work. From 1850 to 1855, she was close friends with Charlotte Bronte. After Bronte's death in 1855, her family commissioned her to write Bronte's biography, "The Life of Charlotte Bronte". It was one of the most celebrated biographies of the time and was widely praised but also fomented threatened lawsuits by some people mentioned in the book. She published "Cousin Phillis" in 1864 which was touted as her best work. (Oxford Guide to British Women Writers)
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