At least one Christmas I am sure you have settled down to watch, or perhaps even read, ‘A Christmas Carol’ (1843). It is hard to go through life and avoid this Dickensian classic altogether – and why indeed would you want to! I wonder if you are aware, however, that this is not a one-off Christmas publication from the famous author.
Dickens, in fact, published five stand-alone Christmas books during the lead up to the Christmases of 1843-6 and 1848. He was too tired to write an offering for 1847 due to his work on ‘Dombey and Sons’. The second of these books (the follow-up to the Christmas Carol), ‘The Chimes’, is the one that holds the greatest intrigue for us at the National Art Library. It is the only one of the five for which we hold the manuscript and corrected proofs.
Dickens has a noteworthy relationship with the V&A, particularly the National Art Library, through the library’s special collection, the Forster Collection. John Forster was Dickens’ literary executor. They had been lifelong friends, having met at the age of 19 as young journalists starting out together on the London literary scene.
Forster, as Dickens’ literary executor, held 16 of Dickens’ manuscripts, many corrected proofs, letters & first editions within his over 10,000-volume strong gentleman’s library. Following Forster’s death in 1876, the library in its entirety came to the Museum, honouring his wishes to make it accessible to the public in the newly established Museum quarter in South Kensington. The 67-page manuscript for ‘The Chimes’, along with its corrected proofs can be found within the collection (and sometimes on view in exhibition spaces elsewhere in the world).
The story of ‘The Chimes’ revolves around the dramatic devise of the chiming of the bells from the local church, a recurring sound in the protagonist Trotty Veck’s day. Veck stands by the church every day waiting for jobs, a warm-hearted ticket-porter licenced by the City Corporation in London to be hired to carry messages or packages. His spirit, however, is worn-down by the attitudes of those in positions of authority and the media, regarding people of his social class.
The tale comes to its supernatural climax, much like ‘A Christmas Carol’, with Veck seemingly compelled to make his way to the church greeted by a menacing mob of goblins who reveal the effects of his apparent fall from the bell tower – alcoholism, prison, prostitution, suicide – on those he knows and loves. He manages to break the vision by taking the apparition of his daughter in his arms before she jumps into a river. The lesson comes from the goblin who attends the Great Bell, who chastises him for losing faith in himself, his values and the overarching importance of love and charity in human relationships.
“I see the spirit of the Chimes among you!” cried the old man…(“) I know that we must trust and hope, and neither doubt ourselves, nor doubt the Good in one another…Oh Spirits, merciful and good, I take your lesson to my breast along with her!…”
Charles Dickens, The chimes: a goblin story of some bells that rang an old year out and a new year in, London: Chapman and Hall, 1845. p.166.
Dickens mentioned the annoyance of the continually sounding bells in his letters to Forster during his stay in Genoa in 1844, where he composed ‘The Chimes’. He turned this disturbance into inspiration for the story. It was less well received by critics and the public than its predecessor, though initial sales were good. This period perhaps sees the beginnings of a more thematic, serious nature to Dickens’ work. Although now little-known, we only have to consider what is one of the most popular Christmas films of all time ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ (1946), to see how some of these themes have lived on in artistic content produced about this time of year.
Whilst living abroad to compose the work, Dickens came back to London to correct proofs and read the story to a few groups of his friends. He comments in a letter to his wife Catherine:
Anybody who has heard it has been moved in the most extraordinary manner. Forster read it (for dramatic purposes) to A’Beckett. He cried so much and so painfully, that Forster didn’t know whether to go on or stop…
Monday Dec. 2nd, 1844.
Charles Dickens and British Academy, Letters of Charles Dickens. Pilgrim edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002.
An advanced copy of the work was given to Lemon and À Beckett (mentioned in the quotation above), who brought out a dramatised version coinciding with the publication of ‘The Chimes’. It showed at the Adelphi theatre just two days after the book’s release on 16 December 1844. Other versions were staged, we can see below one which ran at the Theatre Royal, Lyceum in the January of 1845. This book in contrast to ‘A Christmas Carol’ had a slightly different focus with the action taking place up to the bells ringing in the new year, which made it more suitable to show after Christmas.
If your interest has been piqued by ‘The Chimes’ then you are welcome to come and see editions of this title and the other ‘Christmas Books‘ by Dickens in the National Art Library collection. Visit our webpages to find out how to register and become a member free of charge. You can then begin your journey of discovery and order items to view in our 19th century historic reading rooms.
