SOURCE: "Dickens at Work: The Chimes," in Dickens and the Scandalmongers: Essays in Criticism, University of Oklahoma Press, 1965, pp. 50-70.

Wagenknecht is an American biographer and critic. His works include critical surveys of the English and American novel and studies of Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and Henry James, among many others. In the following excerpt, which was originally published in the 1931 edition of The Chimes, Wagenknecht asserts that this story is an important source for understanding Dickens's art and spirit.

The enormous vogue of A Christinas Carol has probably served, in a measure at least, to draw the attention of at least the casual reader away from the fact that Dickens wrote four other Christmas books on a similar plan. I do not claim that The Chimes is worthy to stand beside the incomparable Carol. I do not even think it attains the stature of The Cricket on...