Uma descoberta ao virar da página – a propósito de uma conversa sobre gostos literários

Como se aperceberam a propósito do último post troquei algumas impresões com o meu estimado amigo Angelo e “vieram à baila” os livros de ficção científica.

"L'Abbé Jean Jacques Huber" (1742)

de Quentin Maurice De La Tour (1704 - 1788).

Museu Antoine Lecuyer, Saint Quentin, França

Confesso que presentemente não sou um grande leitor deste tipo de obras embora reconheça nalgumas deles qualidades literárias evidentes.

No entanto, quando ele me falou no tema veio-me logo à memória um livro que li (nos anos 80!) e que me fez pensar bastante na altura. Memória essa que ainda não se desvaneceu. (Deverá ter sido importante para mim a sua leitura.…)

Mas vejamos então o livro:

CHRISTOPHER, John - A Última Fome. [The Death of Grass]. Tradução de Maria Luísa Ferreira da Costa. Mem Martins, Publicações Europa América, 1982. Livros de Bolso – Série Ficção Científica n.º 4. 172 pág. Capa mole.

Numa descrição sumária o livro aborda uma situação de catástrofe ecológica, quase apocalíptica, conforme se pode ler na sua sinopse:

O vírus Chung-li destruira todos os tipos de gramíneas. Arroz, trigo, aveia, cevada, todos os cereais que constituem a base da alimentação humana, tudo morrera. E de inanição morreram também milhões de pessoas acossadas pela fome, sem contar as outras, muito mais numerosas ainda, que pereceram nos motins que inevitavelmente eclodiram.

Mas no pesadelo daqueles dias não faltaram os que resolveram sobreviver à grande fome - sobreviver a todo o custo, sacrificando todos os valores da chamada civilização, tão rídiculos agora como o smoking e a cartola num frequentador de taberna dos subúrbios…

O roubo, o assassínio, a pilhagem, foram os meios de que lançaram mão para atingirem o santuário austero da sobrevivência, num mundo devastado, em que a Terra se transformara num verdadeiro inferno…

Agora pergunto-me eu: será que o livro tem algum valor bibliófilo? Ainda é procurado?

Cá pelas “nossas bandas” o livro está a preço quase de saldo!

Do mesmo autor ainda encontrei:

CHRISTOPHER, John – Os Possessores. [The Possessors]. Tradução de Maria Luísa Ferreira da Costa. Mem Martins, Publicações Europa América, 1980. Livros de Bolso – Série Ficção Científica n.º 8. 188 pág. Capa mole.

Esta obra é completamente diferente da anterior. Faz lembrar um pouco o filme "The Thing", do John Carpenter. Uma boa construção em termos de relações humanas e uma ameaça alienígena que ataca um grupo de pessoas que ficam isoladas enquanto passam uns dias de férias numa estância de esqui, no meio da neve. À parte o aspecto da ameaça ser relativa a seres extra-terrestres, este livro poderá ser considerado mais de terror do que propriamente de ficção-científica.

Mas quem foi afinal John Christopher (1) aliás Sam Youd?

John Christopher aliás Sam Youd

Sam Youd nasceu a 16 de Abril de 1922 e faleceu a 3 de Fevereiro de 2012. Profissionalmente conhecido como Christopher Samuel Youd, foi um escritor inglês bastante conhecido pelas suas obras de ficção científica sob o pseudónimo de John Christopher, especialmente a novela The Death of the Grass e a trilogia (a que se seguiria um quarto livro em 1988) para adolescentes The Tripods (2).Ganhou o Guardian Prize em 1971 e o Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis em 1976.

Youd também escreveu sob variantes do seu nome e sob vários peudónimos: Stanley Winchester, Hilary Ford, Willliam Godfrey, William Vine, Peter Graaf, Peter Nichols e Anthony Rye.

Bom, mas se entre nós os livros “estão a saldo” qual o seu valor no mercado internacional?

Para isso vamo-nos socorrer da AbeBooks.com.

CHRISTOPHER, John – The Death of Grass. London, Michael Joseph, UK, 1956.

[US$ 808.61 | EUR 648.25]

Item Description: Michael Joseph, UK, 1956. Hardback. Book Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. UK First Edition and First Impression hardback published in 1956 by Michael Joseph. The book and jacket are fine. The only flaw is very minimal curling to the top of the spine (less than 1mm) and a tiny bit of wear to the lower front corner (less than 1mm). This is likely the best copy available, and almost flawless other than a neat price-clip. A stunning copy carrying the Trevor Denning jacket.

©Hyraxia Books. ABA, PBFA (Leeds, United Kingdom)

CHRISTOPHER, John – The Death of Grass. London, Michael Joseph, UK, 1956.

[US$ 650.00| EUR EUR 521.09]

Description: Octavo, boards. First edition. "A rapidly mutating virus wipes out all of Earth's grasses, including grain crops." - Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 3-42. Filmed in 1970 as "No Blade of Grass," which is the title of the U.S. edition of this book. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-240. Pringle, Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels 21. Survey of Science Fiction Literature IV, pp. 1541-44. Page edges a bit dusty, a near fine copy in about near fine dust jacket with light rubbing along front flap fold, edges, tiny closed tear to lower front panel, and some dust soiling to rear panel.

©Currey, L.W. Inc. ABAA/ILAB (Elizabethtown, NY, U.S.A.)

Podemos constatar que existre uma boa oferta desta obra na AbeBooks.com., embora os seus preços variem em especial quanto ao seu estado de conservação.

Teremos então que os seus preços podem variar entes [US$ 808.61 | EUR 648.25] e [US$ 404.30| EUR 324.12] ainda que não tenha encontrado nenhum exemplar de colecção (quase perfeito!) embora o primeiro seja excelente.

CHRISTOPHER, John – The Possessors. London, Hodder and Stoughton, UK , 1965. Hardcover.

[US$ 242.58| EUR 194.47]

Item Description: Hodder and Stoughton, UK, 1965. Cloth. Book Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good++. First Edition. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. 1st Edition 1965. Flat signed by the author to the title page. 

Book is near fine and very bright. The wrapper is very good++ and bright. Edges lightly rubbed. Scarce signed. More digital images can be taken upon request. Ref8262. Signed by Author.

© Lasting Words Ltd PBFA (Northampton, UK, United Kingdom)

CHRISTOPHER, John – The Possessors. London, Hodder and Stoughton, UK , 1965. Hardcover.

[US$ 224.84 | EUR 175.00]

Book Condition: Very Good +. 1st Edition. First UK Edition, First Printing. This is the true first edition, first printing (first impression) in a very good plus Dust Jacket which has rubbing and creasing to the extremities. Slight spine slant with unmarked pages with some soiling to the top of the text block. Signed by John Christopher to the title page. Signed by Author(s).

©Kelleher Rare Books (Co Kildare, ., Ireland)

Quanto à trilogia (ou melhor tetralogia)  The Tripods, apenas encontrei estsa 1ª edição:

CHRISTOPHER, John – The White Mountains (Tripods (Pb)). New York: The Macmillan Company, 1967. 184 pp.

[US$ 224.84 | EUR 175.00]

Description: FIRST EDITION. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1967. 184 pp. First edition, first printing. (Stated "First Printing" on copyright page.) Illustrated library binding. Very Good condition. No jacket. Clean pages: no inscriptions, etc. NOT an ex-library copy! Sturdy binding. Light rubbing and staining to covers. Tiny tear in bottom of front end paper, spine creased. A nice copy. The first novel in the juvenile sci-fi series The Tripods.

Synopsis: Young Will Parker and his companions make a perilous journey toward an outpost of freedom where they hope to escape from the ruling Tripods, who capture mature human beings and make them beings docile, obedient servants.

©Singing Saw Books (Portland, OR, U.S.A.)

The Tripods (A trilogia)

Bom nesta conversa bem distinta daquelas a que penso estarem mais habituados, quero reforçar a minha opinião de que para se ser bibliófilo mais do que ter “uma bolsa bem recheada” é muito mais importante “ter uma mente bem recheada de ideias”!

Não estamos perante livros antigos dos séc. XVI-XVII que nos deliciam a todos, pois claro que não! Mas estamos perante livros que fizeram uma escola/temática ainda hoje não esquecida por alguns e que merece ser preservada.

Não estamos perante livros antigos

Reparem que são livros mais de jovens/adolescentes,que pela natureza do seu uso, são frequentemente raros em muito bom estado!

Saudações bibliófilas e votos de boas leituras.

Notas:

(1) John Christopher – Wikipedia [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Christopher ]

(2) The Tripods – Wikipedia [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods ]

Bauman Rare Books – Spring 2014 Catalogue

93. (GERMANY) (ACKERMANN, Rudolph) GERNING, Baron Johann Isaac von. A Picturesque Tour Along the Rhine, from Mentz to Cologne. London, 1820. Folio, early 20th-century full green straight-grain morocco gilt.

A Bauman Rare Books lançou recentemente lançamos o seu catálogo para o final da Primavera/início do Verão, um catálogo ricamente ilustrado onde apresenta 254 itens notáveis de todos os campos de interesse e com uma grande variedade de preços [estamos a falar do mercado americano…].

Mas confesso que não consigo resistir à excelente qualidade destes catálogos nem à sua excepcional beleza estética – são de facto uma pequena jóia (mas como diria a raposa da fábula de La Fontaine: “pena é que as uvas estejam tão verdes!”

Catálogo

E deixo apenas estas três referências:

Este catálogo apresenta uma muito desejada 1ª edição de Pride and Prejudice, o segundo e o mais popular romance de Jane Austen, um dos títulos mais procurados na literatura inglesa.

115. AUSTEN, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. A Novel. In Three Volumes. By the Author of “Sense and Sensibility.” London, 1813. Three volumes. 12mo, contemporary full speckled calf gilt rebacked, later endpapers. [$72,000].

First edition of Jane Austen’s second and most popular novel, one of the most sought-after titles in English literature, in contemporary calf boards.

“Elizabeth’s own energy and defiance of character respond to Rousseau’s and the popular notion of the pliant, submissive female… None of her novels delighted Jane Austen more than Pride and Prejudice… She had given a rare example of fiction as a highly intelligent form… This remains her most popular and widely translated novel” (Honan, 313-20). “The size of the edition is not known… perhaps 1500 copies… The first edition was sold off very rapidly and a second one was printed in the same year” (Keynes, 8). “The print run of the first edition isn’t known but is likely to have been around seven hundred copies. It sold fast enough for a second edition to appear later the same year, which was still available in 1815; a third edition came out in 1817. A conservative estimate of those sales (based on the print runs of other Austen novels) would be 1500 copies” (Harman, Jane’s Fame, 42). Volume I of the first edition was printed by Roworth and Volumes II and III by Sidney, and their imprints appear at the end of the text of each volume. Volumes I and II with first edition half titles; Volume III with second edition half title (most often, half titles are not present). Keynes 3. Gilson A3. Armorial bookplates. Scattered light foxing. Volume I with loss to upper corner of leaf C1, not affecting text. Contemporary speckled calf boards most handsome with expert restoration. Scarce in contemporary binding and with half titles.

Mas iremos encontrar também uma 1ª edição de Emma:

116. AUSTEN, Jane. Emma: A Novel. By the Author of “Pride and Prejudice.” London, 1816. Three volumes. Tall 12mo, contemporary marbled boards rebacked and recornered in green straight-grain morocco gilt, original endpapers preserved. [$38,000].

First edition of the last novel Austen published in her lifetime, her exquisitely comedic and unerringly insightful social satire, a tall copy in contemporary marbled boards.

“Emma was the fourth and last novel which Jane Austen published in her lifetime. When it was written the author was at the height of her powers, and she wrote the book rapidly and surely, encouraged by the success of her previous novels to express herself with confidence in the way peculiarly her own” (Rosenbach 29:24). “Jane Austen’s fourth novel has a profundity similar to that of Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility, only more elusive since Emma’s character is far more subtle than Elizabeth or Marianne’s… Austen’s self-knowledge, her love of detail… [helped her] to create a proud, self-willed, self-guided, vexing and outrageous Emma and her greatest novel” (Honan, Jane Austen, 356-364). Complete, with rare half titles. Armorial bookplates. Scattered light foxing, lower corner of leaf H2 in Volume III expertly restored, touching only catchword. Volume III rear board renewed; contemporary marbled boards mildly rubbed, with expert restoration. A tall copy, exceptional in contemporary boards.

Destaco também um conjunto completo das três viagens no Pacífico de James Cook, in 4º e dois volumes in-folio, compreendendo a segunda edição (preferível à primeira) da primeira viagem —“considered the best edition” (Hill)— junto com as primeiras edições das segunda e terceiras viagens, completa com o volume de atlas num esplêndido folio grande para acompanhar a terceira viagem e com muitas das gravuras para a segunda viagem encadernados separadamente num volume de in-folio — um conjunto raro e procurado.

113. (WORLD) (COOK, James). Cook’s Three Voyages, Comprising: HAWKESWORTH, John. An Account of the Voyages undertaken for making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere. Three volumes. WITH: COOK, James. A Voyage towards the South Pole, and Round the World. Three volumes (two quarto volumes plus atlas folio). WITH: COOK, James and KING, James. A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean for making Discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere. Four volumes (three quarto volumes plus atlas folio). London, 1773, 1777, 1784. Ten volumes altogether. Quartos, contemporary full diced brown calf gilt rebacked; Atlas volumes large folio, contemporary marbled boards rebacked and recornered in tan calf gilt. [$65,000].

Scarce complete set of Cook’s three Pacific voyages, comprising the preferred second edition of the first voyage—issued the same year as the first, and “considered the best edition” (Hill), with material suppressed from the first—along with first editions of the second and third voyages, complete with the splendid large folio atlas volume to accompany the third voyage, and with many plates for the second voyage bound separately in a atlas folio plate volume, an unusual and desirable arrangement. Superbly illustrated with 205 engraved charts, maps and plates, many double-page or folding, with many plates for the second voyage additionally provided in two copies. A uniformly and very handsomely bound set.

Facing challenges surpassed only by modern space flight, Captain James Cook embodied the spirit of the great age of maritime discovery. The only 18th-century explorer to lead more than one Pacific voyage, he embarked on three circumnavigations between 1768 and 1776, essentially transforming into their modern form the dangerously unreliable maps of the Pacific’s expanse and the New World’s western coast. Official accounts of his three voyages, with their remarkable engravings and splendid atlas, found an eager public, the first edition of the final voyage selling out in three days. In the words of his principal biographer, “The study of Cook is the illumination of all discovery.” “The famous accounts of Captain Cook’s three voyages form the basis for any collection of Pacific books. In three great voyages Cook did more to clarify the geographical knowledge of the Southern Hemisphere than all his predecessors had done together. He was the first really scientific navigator and his voyages made great contributions to many fields of knowledge” (Hill).

In his first voyage (1768-1771), Cook observed the Transit of Venus at Tahiti, rediscovered and charted New Zealand, and discovered and charted the east coast of Australia. This second edition is “considered the best one” (Hill 783) and contains 52 engraved plates, maps and charts, several folding, and includes the strategically important (and previously suppressed) “Chart of the Streight of Magellan,” and the “Directions for placing the Cuts and Charts,” neither of which are present in the earliest issues of the first edition. In his second voyage (1772-75), Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time in history and disproved the existence of the supposed “Great Southern Continent”; includes 64 engraved plates and maps, several folding. In his third voyage (1776-79), he searched for the North-West Passage, charted the American west coast from Northern California through the Bering Strait, and discovered the Hawaiian Islands, which he named the Sandwich Islands; includes frontispiece portraits of Cook (Volume I) and King (Volume III), and 24 plates and maps, several folding, accompanied by the atlas folio volume of two maps and 61 large folio plates. This especially important third voyage was “the first voyage attempting an adequate examination and charting of our northwest coast” (Howes C729a). The first voyage is from the preferred second edition, but is bound with first edition title pages (likely by the publisher). A few plates bound out of order; text and plates complete, with many plates for the second voyage provided in two copies, one bound with the text and one in the separate atlas volume. PMM 223. Holmes 5, 24, 47. Beddie, 650, 1216, 1543. Bookplates. Plates and text generally fine, contemporary boards of quarto volumes quite handsome, light wear to original marbled boards on atlas volumes. An excellent set, unusual and desirable with two atlas volumes.

Como veêm as obras são de grande raride e muito boa qualidade (claro que o preço corresponde a estes atributos... pelo menos os americanos lá saberão).

Resta-me convidá-los para a consulta e leitura deste excelente catálogo.

Saudações bibliófilas.

No Dia Mundial do Livro – William Shakespeare

Parece-me uma forma perfeita de celebrar este dia mundial do livro – embora para mim todos os dias sejam dia do livro – o folhear deste precioso catálogo dedicado à obra de William Shakespeare editado pela Bauman Rare Books no ano em que se celebra o 450.º aniversário do seu nascimento.

William Shakespeare (Stratford-upon-Avon, 23 de Abril de 1564 — Stratford-upon-Avon, 23 de Abril de 1616) foi um poeta e dramaturgo inglês, considerado por muitos como o maior escritor do língua inglesa e o mais influente dramaturgo do mundo.

É frequentemente referido como o poeta nacional da Inglaterra e apelidado de "Bardo do Avon" (ou simplesmente The Bard, "O Bardo").

Das suas obras chegaram até aos dias de hoje 38 peças, 3154 sonetos, 2 longos poemas narrativos e diversos outros poemas.

As suas peças foram traduzidas para os principais idiomas do mundo, e são encenadas mais do que as de qualquer outro dramaturgo (mesmo ainda nos nossos dias)

Muitos de seus textos e temas, especialmente os do teatro, permaneceram actuais e são repostos com frequência tanto pelo teatro, televisão, cinema e literatura.

Entre suas obras mais conhecidas estão Romeu e Julieta, que se tornou a história de amor por excelência, e Hamlet, que possui uma das frases mais conhecidas da língua inglesa: To be or not to be: that's the question (Ser ou não ser, eis a questão).

Bauman Rare Books

Com efeito, a Bauman Rare Books editou recentemente um catalogo onde reune um excelente conjunto de obras de e sobre William Shakespeare.

Catálogo da Bauman Rare Books

Deste catálogo destaco apenas este lote pela sua grande raridade: 

3. SHAKESPEARE, William. The Historie of Henry the Fourth. London, 1639. Slim quarto, early 19th-century three-quarter calf; custom box.

[$185,000]

 An exceptional complete copy of the extraordinarily rare 1639 Shakespeare quarto edition of Henry IV, Part I. This is the earliest obtainable quarto edition of one of the greatest and most important of Shakespeare’s history plays.

Henry IV, Part I, likely written in 1597, is one of Shakespeare’s greatest and most important history plays, introducing the memorable characters of Prince Hal, Hotspur and Falstaff—a “veritable monarch of language” whose very name, Fal/staff, playfully parallels Shake/spear (Bloom, Shakespeare, 294). “For his sources Shakespeare consulted the second edition of Holinshed’s Chronicles (1587), Samuel Daniel’s The Civil Wars (1595), and an anonymous play, The Famous Victories of Henry V (1594). In this last source Shakespeare found the name of Sir John Oldcastle, a Protestant martyr, which he changed to Sir John Falstaff when Oldcastle’s relatives protested…. Most critics agree that Henry IV, Part I, marks the first totally successful product of Shakespeare’s mature talent” (Ruoff, 190-1).

Only 17 Shakespeare plays were separately printed prior to 1640 (the rest appearing only in the First and Second Folio). Of the plays appearing in quarto editions, Henry IV, Part I was perhaps the most popular, with nine distinct editions appearing between 1598 and 1700; there also exists a fragment of four leaves from what is assumed to be the earliest 1598 printing. This 1639 edition is identified by Bartlett and Pollard as the eighth edition, the last early (pre-1640) printing of Henry IV, Part I. In their 1914 census of the Shakespeare quartos, Bartlett and Pollard list only 19 existing copies of this 1639 quarto edition, some defective or restored most in libraries or institutional collections; their updated 1939 census listed 27 copies. All of the earlier printings are virtually unobtainable, existing in very small numbers (from as few as three to about a dozen copies), many of which are imperfect, and nearly all of which are in libraries or institutional collections. STC 22287. Jaggard, 328. This copy is complete and essentially in excellent condition; the text is lightly browned, primarily around the edges, with a few very minor stains and small marginal tears; the early calf is somewhat age-worn with the front board separating at the joint. The first few pages of text have a number of corrections in red ink in an 18th-century hand, evidently based upon readings from the folios. Few Shakespeare quartos remain undiscovered, and of those that are known, only a handful will ever come onto the market. A superb Shakespeare item of the utmost rarity and desirability.

The Shakespeare Standard

Para os mais interessados nos eventos relacionados com este aniversário proponho a visita a The Shakespeare Standard 

Boa leitura tanto do catálogo como de alguns trechos ou de algum dos livros deste escritor.

Saudações bibliófilas.

Charles Dickens e o Natal

Illustrated London News, Christmas 1886:

covers: Cock Robin, unsigned; "Christmas has come again !, drawn by Florence Gravie",

signed R. Taylor

The Merry The’s Christmas Collection

Quando se fala em Natal há sempre um escritor que nos ocorre de imediato ao pensamento – Charles Dickens.

Retrato de Charles Dickens enquanto jovem

Oleo sobre tela de Daniel Maclise (1839)

National Portrait Gallery, Londres

Com efeito ele publicou vários livros e outras pequenas histórias onde o tema é o Natal. Dos contos editados em livro temos:

A Christmas Carol (1843)

A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens, first published by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation resulting from supernatural visits from Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim.

The book was written and published in early Victorian Era Britain, a period when there was both strong nostalgia for old Christmas traditions and an initiation of new practices such as Christmas trees and greeting cards. Dickens's sources for the tale appear to be many and varied but are principally the humiliating experiences of his childhood, his sympathy for the poor, and various Christmas stories and fairy tales.

"He had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church."

DICKENS, Charles – A Christmas Carol HRISTMAS CAROL.

New York: The Baker & Taylor Company, 1905.

Illustrated by George Alfred Williams.

The tale has been viewed by critics as an indictment of 19th-century industrial capitalism. It has been credited with restoring the holiday to one of merriment and festivity in Britain and America after a period of sobriety and sombreness.

The Chimes (1844)

The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, a short novel by Charles Dickens, was written and published in 1844, one year after A Christmas Carol and one year before The Cricket on the Hearth. It is the second in his series of "Christmas books": five short books with strong social and moral messages that he published during the 1840s.

"The Chimes, A Goblin Story" by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Charles Green, R.I

The Merry The’s Christmas Collection

The chimes are old bells in the church on whose steps Trotty Veck plies his trade. The book is divided into four parts named "quarters", after the quarter chimes of a striking clock. (This parallels Dickens naming the parts of A Christmas Carol "staves" – that is "stanzas" – and dividing The Cricket on the Hearth into "chirps".)

The Cricket on the Hearth (1845)

The Cricket on the Hearth. A Fairy Tale of Home is a novella by Charles Dickens, published by Bradbury and Evans, and released 20 December 1845 with illustrations by Daniel Maclise, John Leech, Richard Doyle, Clarkson Stanfield and Edwin Henry Landseer. Dickens began writing the book around 17 October 1845 and finished it by 1 December. Like all of Dickens' Christmas books, it was published in book form, not as a serial. Dickens described the novel as "quiet and domestic [...] innocent and pretty." It is subdivided into chapters called "Chirps", similar to the "Quarters" of The Chimes or the "Staves" of A Christmas Carol. It is the third of Dickens's five Christmas books, the others being A Christmas Carol (1843), The Chimes (1844), The Battle of Life (1846), and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848)

The Battle of Life (1846)

The Battle of Life: A Love Story is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in 1846. It is the fourth of his five "Christmas Books", coming after The Cricket on the Hearth and followed by The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain.

The setting is an English village that stands on the site of a historic battle. Some characters refer to the battle as a metaphor for the struggles of life, hence the title.

Battle is the only one of the five Christmas Books that has no supernatural or explicitly religious elements. (One scene takes place at Christmas time, but it is not the final scene.) The story bears some resemblance to The Cricket on the Hearth in two aspects: it has a non-urban setting and it is resolved with a romantic twist. It is even less of a social novel than is Cricket. As is typical with Dickens, the ending is a happy one.

It is one of Dickens' lesser-known works and has never attained any high level of popularity, a trait it shares among the Christmas Books with The Haunted Man.

The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848)

The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain, A Fancy for Christmas-Time (better known as The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain or simply as The Haunted Man) is a novella by Charles Dickens first published in 1848. It is the fifth and last of Dickens' Christmas novellas. The story is more about the spirit of the holidays than about the holidays themselves, harking back to the first of the series, A Christmas Carol. The tale centers around a Professor Redlaw and those close to him.

Advertisement for Dickens's Household Words

Publicou ainda no Household Words magazine os seguintes contos:

Front cover of Vol. II,

of Dickens's Household Words

September 28, 1850- March 22, 1851

What Christmas Is, as We Grow Older (1851)

A Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire (1852)

Another Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire (1853)

The Seven Poor Travellers (1854)

Illustration for "The Tale of Richard Doubledick" by Fred Barnard (1870s)

"The Tale of Richard Doubledick" from "The Seven Poor Travellers"

originally appeared in Household Words (1854).

The Holly-Tree Inn (1855)

The Wreck of the "Golden Mary" (1856)

The Perils of Certain English Prisoners (1857)

A House to Let (1858)

A House to Let is a short story by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell and Adelaide Anne Procter. It was originally published in 1858 in the Christmas edition of Dickens' Household Words magazine. Each of the contributors wrote a chapter and the story was edited by Dickens.

A House to Let was the first collaboration between the four writers, although Collins and Dickens had worked with Procter on previous Christmas stories for the magazine in 1854, 1855, and 1856. The four authors would write together again in 1859's "The Haunted House" which appeared in the extra Christmas number of All the Year Round, the successor to Household Words which Dickens had started after a dispute with his publishers.

Para o All the Year Round magazine escreveria ainda estes outros contos:

Advertisement for Dickens's All the Year Round

All the Year Round, Series 1, Volume 1

(30 April 1859(1859-04-30)–22 October 1859(1859-10-22)

The Haunted House (1859)

A Message from the Sea (1860)

Tom Tiddler's Ground (1861)

Somebody's Luggage (1862)

Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings (1863)

Cover of the Christmas issue for Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings

Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy (1864)

Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions (1865)

Mugby Junction (1866)

No Thoroughfare (1867)

In 1867 Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins collaborated to produce a stage play titled No Thoroughfare: A Drama: In Five Acts. This was the last stage production to be associated with Dickens, who died in June 1870. The play opened at the Adelphi Theatre on 26 December 1867.

Cover of the Christmas issue for No Thoroughfare by Dickens & Collins 1st ed

The novel No Thoroughfare was also first published in 1867, in the Christmas number of Dickens' periodical All The Year Round. There are thematic parallels with other books from Dickens' mature writings, including Little Dorrit (1857) and especially Our Mutual Friend (1865).

 

Charles Dickens

E após este apontamento natalício resta-me apenas expressar os meus votos de Boas Festas e de um Feliz Natal para todos vós.

Saudações natalícias

Fontes consultadas:

Charles Dickens (Wikipedia)
The Merry The’s Christmas Collection