The classic story of supernatural intervention and Ebenezer Scrooge’s redemption, read and dramatized more than any of the author’s other works, was his second piece with an otherworldly theme.
British Oral Tradition
Christmas ghost stories were uncommon in Britain, except in rural areas where oral traditions prevailed, until the 1830s when swapping those tales became a widely practiced Yuletide custom. As inexpensive, general interest magazines became accessible during the Victorian era, ghost stories literally came into their own in the favourite “Christmas Numbers”.
As owner/editor of two magazines, Household Words (1850-59) and All the Year Round (1859-70), Dickens presented his own works as well as those of other writers.
Dickens’ First Ghostly Tales
While the tradition did not begin with Dickens, it developed into a true art form with the prolific writer’s works. His first novel, The Posthumous Papers of the Pick-wick Club, commonly known as The Pickwick Papers, serialized in 1836-1837, contains five ghostly tales, most prominent of which is The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton.
It tells of sexton and gravedigger Gabriel Grub, a surly, lonely man with “a sulky face and grim scowl” who hates Christmas. Abducted by goblins who torment him, he sees the error of his ways and acknowledges the existence of decency and respectability in the world.
Modern era readers will recognize similarities to this tale in Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
The Chimes and Cricket on the Hearth
Though technically a New Year’s story, The Chimes, published in 1844, relates Trotty Veck’s struggles and despondency, and his night time ‘visit’ to a church bell tower, where he encounters the bell spirits’ goblin attendants.
Told that he is dead, the man accused of committing three wrongs, ‘sees’ the desperate situation of his daughter and her family after his death. Upon awakening in his home, Trotty hears the church bells ringing in the New Year, and resolves to be more understanding of others’ plights.
Less sombre, the 1845 novella, The Cricket on the Hearth quickly outsold Dickens’ two previous Christmas stories. A constantly chirping cricket that behaves as a family’s guardian angel intervenes with a human voice in order to ward off John Peerybingle’s suspicions regarding his wife Dot’s fidelity.
The Haunted Man and The Signalman
The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain, 1848, presents a variation on the Gothic theme of doppelgänger, with the story of a kindly man named Redlaw with sunken eyes and grizzled hair, who spoke slowly with a deep voice, and wore all black clothing.
During Christmas Eve, he strikes a disastrous deal with an apparition in order to eliminate painful memories. Travelling with a street urchin, he is indifferent to others’ pain and suffering until he meets his haunter on Christmas morning and is saved from the curse.
The author’s final spine-tingler, The Signalman (1866) relates the tale of a lonesome man employed as a railroad operator near a tunnel. Three times, after receiving telegraph messages and alarms, a spectre appeared to him with warnings of danger. The first two warnings proved to be accurate as terrible accidents occurred. The third phantom visit instilled fear in the signalman as it predicted the operator’s own death.
Typically, the stories exemplify Charles Dickens’ attempts to guide his readers towards behaving decently and honourably.
Sources:
Victorian Web, Dickens "The Man who Invented Christmas"
British Periodicals, 19th century
Kathleen Airdrie - Kathleen has thirty years' freelance writing experience covering history, biographical profiles, environmental and social issues
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