<p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">Walker Illustrated Classics is a new series which brings together some of the best-loved stories ever told, illustrated by some of today^s finest artists. These exquisitely designed books, with their magnificent words and glorious pictures, are a pleasure to read – and re-read. The classics have never looked so good!</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); min-height: 14px;"><br></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">Dickens^s ghostly tale of Ebenezer Scrooge has become as much a part of Christmas as trees and stockings, plum pudding and mistletoe. First published in 1843, this lavish, unabridged new edition resonates with the true spirit of Christmas. It is superbly illustrated by Ireland^s fourth Laureate na nÓg, PJ Lynch, whose detailed, atmospheric artwork brings Dickensian London vividly alive.</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); min-height: 14px;"><br></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">From the author of ^Oliver Twist^ and ^David Copperfield^ comes this classic Christmas tale for children.</p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><strong><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Google Sans", sans-serif;"><br></span></strong></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><strong style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Google Sans", sans-serif;">About the Author</span></strong><br></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);"><b>Charles John Huffam Dickens</b> was a writer and social critic who created some of the world^s best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); min-height: 14px;"><br></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors^ prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children^s rights, education, and other social reforms.</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); min-height: 14px;"><br></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, <i>A Christmas Carol</i>, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. <i>Oliver Twist</i> and <i>Great Expectations</i> are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, <i>A Tale of Two Cities</i>, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens^s creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); min-height: 14px;"><br></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day^s work on <i>Edwin Drood.</i> He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad^s Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets^ Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England^s most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England^s greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina^s request that he lie down.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);"><br></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);"><br></p>