Download or read book Dickens, Death, and Christmas written by Robert L. Patten and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-05-02 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Marley was dead, to begin with." Why does the most beloved of Christmas books open with a death? What has death to do with Christmas and New Years, and with Dickens's Christmas books and stories over his entire life? Robert L. Patten weaves together Dickens's life, career, writings, journalism, travel, theatrical presentations, and religious convictions to offer a richly designed and entertaining narrative, fulsomely illustrated, of the manifold ways Dickensfigures the spirit and traditions of the winter holidays in Victorian England.