Loved Richard Armitage as the narrator, the story was ok to me. It might've been because it took me so long to get through it because of my schedule and also partially because of how Dickens' writes.

I didn’t love listening to this book just because it was so sad in the bleak part- it was so gloomy, even though I knew it would come around. Well read, though.

The first Dickens story I didn't love.

One of Dickens five Christmas stories, where Christmas Carol is by far the best know and loved, the Chimes tells the story of Trotty an old Porter, who in a series of visions is forewarned of future events if he loses faith in his fellow humans.

As in most other Dickens stories there's a indignation towards the living conditions of the poor and a harsh criticism of the privileged classes indifference or misguided philanthropy, but here it's delivered heavyhanded and without the usual elegance and humour.

The writing is still brilliant and poetic in places (it is Dickens after all) but uncommon for Dickens, some of it felt really dated and full of references that has been lost in time.

This book wasn’t terribly gripping or memorable. It reminded me of A Christmas Carol since the main character learns a lesson from a spirit who shows him an alternate reality. A Christmas Carol was much more memorable and interesting, though. The main reason I finished listening to this book was because Richard Armitage was reading it and I would listen to him read a phone book. The reason I gave it two stars instead of one was because of his wonderful voice acting.

Not as good as "A Christmas Carol," but still pretty good - and better suited for New Year's reading.

Probably 3.5 but I could've attended better.

In an interesting comparison with wealthy Scrooge, we have poor Trotty who also needs to see the joy and value of living and loving.

This book is Dickens' equal opposite effort to A Christmas Carol. It is a story revolving around New Years, in which a simple poor old man named Trotty who is accosted by various wealthy Scrooge types who each condemn the poor for their vices and deprivations. Dispirited, he continues to eagerly show kindness to his fellow man and ends the last day of the old year by being spirited away by the bells of the church tower, experiencing a series of visions in which all the worst scenarios of deprivation and poverty take place in the lives of those he loves.

This book provides an incredibly well-fleshed out perspective on poverty and social class issues. Trotty receives all sorts of unwarranted and unasked for advice about what's wrong with the poor and how they could all fix themselves if they only tried. Trotty himself suffers from no illusions about the residual brokenness and pain caused by humanity, but his dark visions of a terrible future where all that he was told comes true only serves to prove that the relationships between us, which are often times more readily available where wealth is lacking, are the greatest social force for beauty and love in the places of generational brokenness.

A less emotionally lifting but far more socially complex alternative companion to A Christmas Carol.

Going through Charles Dickens' Christmas novellas. This one was written after [b:A Christmas Carol|5326|A Christmas Carol|Charles Dickens|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1406512317l/5326._SY75_.jpg|3097440], and this banger's about Christmas goblins showing a guy visions of the inevitable destruction of everyone he loves because of his lack of hope in his circumstances and because of his belief that poor people chose their poverty from inherent wickedness - from seeing relatives go through forced sex work to suicide. It's like if Bernie Sanders wrote fanfiction about Christmas.

It's a powerful commentary on poverty, and quite the tone shift from the whimsical folktale that was only written a year earlier.

A part of me kept shaking my head reading it: "You can't put Muppets in this," I whispered.