The Chimes

Written and published in 1844, one year after A Christmas Carol and one year before The Cricket on the Hearth, "The Chimes" is the second in Dickens' series of "Christmas books" five short books with strong social and moral messages that he published during the 1840s. In addition to A Christmas Carol and The Cricket on the Hearth, the Christmas books include The Battle of Life (1846) and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain(1848).