Robert L. Patten retired as Autrey Professor Emeritus in Humanities and Emeritus Professor of English at Rice University; he continues as a Senior Research Fellow, non-resident, at the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. He earned his B.A. at Swarthmore and his PhD at Princeton and has devoted his research and teaching primarily to British nineteenth-century literature, book illustration, and print history. For these subjects he has received Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Humanities, and other grants, and spent a year each at the National Humanities Center and the National Gallery of Art.

• Prologue 1: A Frequent Visitor 2: Dickens's Christmases to 1836 3: Pickwick and After 4: Dickens Contemplates Sledge-Hammer Blows 5: Yuletide Celebrations in the 1840s 6: Marley Was Dead 7: Ringing Out Change 8: Chirping 9: Battling for His Life 10: Bargain Haunters 11: Thereafter 12: Endings Appendix I: Dickens's Essays Appendix II: Dickens and Unitarianism Appendix III: Dickens on Victorian religious disputes Bibliography

In this beautifully illustrated, richly contextualized study, Robert Patten traces the often surprising and deeply-rooted connections between death and Christmas festivities in Dickens's Christmas books and in his own experiences of the winter solstice holidays.

Robert L. Patten retired as Autrey Professor Emeritus in Humanities and Emeritus Professor of English at Rice University; he continues as a Senior Research Fellow, non-resident, at the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. He earned his B.A. at Swarthmore and his PhD at Princeton and has devoted his research and teaching primarily to British nineteenth-century literature, book illustration, and print history. For these subjects he has received Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Humanities, and other grants, and spent a year each at the National Humanities Center and the National Gallery of Art.

• Prologue 1: A Frequent Visitor 2: Dickens's Christmases to 1836 3: Pickwick and After 4: Dickens Contemplates Sledge-Hammer Blows 5: Yuletide Celebrations in the 1840s 6: Marley Was Dead 7: Ringing Out Change 8: Chirping 9: Battling for His Life 10: Bargain Haunters 11: Thereafter 12: Endings Appendix I: Dickens's Essays Appendix II: Dickens and Unitarianism Appendix III: Dickens on Victorian religious disputes Bibliography

In this beautifully illustrated, richly contextualized study, Robert Patten traces the often surprising and deeply-rooted connections between death and Christmas festivities in Dickens's Christmas books and in his own experiences of the winter solstice holidays.

Robert L. Patten retired as Autrey Professor Emeritus in Humanities and Emeritus Professor of English at Rice University; he continues as a Senior Research Fellow, non-resident, at the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. He earned his B.A. at Swarthmore and his PhD at Princeton and has devoted his research and teaching primarily to British nineteenth-century literature, book illustration, and print history. For these subjects he has received Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Humanities, and other grants, and spent a year each at the National Humanities Center and the National Gallery of Art.

• Prologue 1: A Frequent Visitor 2: Dickens's Christmases to 1836 3: Pickwick and After 4: Dickens Contemplates Sledge-Hammer Blows 5: Yuletide Celebrations in the 1840s 6: Marley Was Dead 7: Ringing Out Change 8: Chirping 9: Battling for His Life 10: Bargain Haunters 11: Thereafter 12: Endings Appendix I: Dickens's Essays Appendix II: Dickens and Unitarianism Appendix III: Dickens on Victorian religious disputes Bibliography

In this beautifully illustrated, richly contextualized study, Robert Patten traces the often surprising and deeply-rooted connections between death and Christmas festivities in Dickens's Christmas books and in his own experiences of the winter solstice holidays.