These might well be considered ghost stories but they are not necessarily scary stories, not when judged against the heart stopping terror to be found in most modern horror. Some of these stories are not even conventional by Victorian standards of the macabre. Some even contain elements of what could be considered proto-science fiction. Others have a rich vein of humor running through them, humor which lends itself to being spoken aloud. One feels quite Dickensian rattling them off.
The most well known of the stories is off course A Christmas Carol, a story that will stand the test of ages. My newly discovered favorite, for me anyway, is The Goblin Who Stole A Sexton. It is a spooky yarn constructed in much the same form as that classic Christmas tale of misery and its unearthly rewards, but uses goblins instead of ghosts. Instead of the miserly Scrooge we have a misreable undertaker who's only joy in life is burying the bodies of others and gloating about the misfortunes of others. He is pulled into goblin hell from the snowy graveyard and is judged before Old Nick in much the same way Old Scrooge was. It is so dark and so joyfully macabre I could not help but think what a treat it would have been to hear it read and performed by the man himself, as I have no doubt he did.
There are twenty stories in all, ranging in length from one page to the admirably proportioned, yet none outstay their welcome. This is a great book for any time of year, despite the seasonal theme, not just for Christmas, a spring heeled Victorian puppy which will grow as the years go by in preciousness, as the yarns between its covers become ingrained in the readers mind.
What the Dickens, indeed.
