Book #2 in Dickens' Christmas Books series.

‘A new heart for a New Year, always!’

Published after the huge success of A Christmas Carol in 1844, The Chimes is the second instalment in Dickens’s charming series of festive books.

Toby Veck is a poor, elderly city messenger, nicknamed ‘Trotty’ for his habit of jogging on the spot to keep warm. Between reading gloomy newspaper reports about working-class crime, and witnessing his daughter being rejected by the Alderman for having too little money to marry, Trotty grows ever more doubtful about the goodness of humanity. While sitting up alone on New Year’s Eve, his hope for the future squandered, Trotty hears the chimes of the local church ring out – the start of an unforgettable lesson that will stay with him for the rest of his days. A moving exploration of compassion, faith and redemption, The Chimes is a remarkable moral allegory that continues to delight modern readers today.

Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He is regarded by many 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 recognized him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read, performed and adapted today.