In the 1840s Charles Dickens wrote five short stories with strong social and moral messages. The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells That Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, is the second of these stories, whose predecessor was the famous A Christmas Carol.
The Chimes focuses on Trotty, a poor elderly messenger who is filled with gloom over reports of crime and immorality in the newspapers. After losing faith in the society, Trotty follows a call to the church bell tower where he encounters goblins that teach him, and listeners, lessons in the form of visions about the mistreatment of the lower class in society.
This story of social awakening inspires listeners to treat everyone with fair kindness.
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“Narrator Steven Crossley deftly transports listeners to 1844 for this second in Dickens’s Christmas series. He wrote this one year after he produced A Christmas Carol. It’s New Year’s Eve, and Toby ‘Trotty’ Veck, a poor porter, plies his trade by a church whose bells cheer him. Crossley’s portrayal of Veck is sweet and naïve even as threatening politicians tell him he has no right to live. Crossley cleverly combines the tones of a fairy tale and a horror story. When Veck’s loving daughter, Meg, brings him hot food, listeners will be charmed by the guessing game they play about what she’s brought. Because he’s become weary of life, Veck has a dream in which the bells’ goblins, with their chiming voices, force him to realize he’s worthy of living, giving him a second chance at life.”
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