Charles Dickens is known not only for his novels, but also for his short stories, particularly "* A Christmas Carol*", "* The Cricket on the Hearth*", "* The Battle of Life*" and "* The Haunted Man*" which were all written for the Christmas market, and lay emp...

Charles Dickens is known not only for his novels, but also for his short stories, particularly "* A Christmas Carol*", "* The Cricket on the Hearth*", "* The Battle of Life*" and "* The Haunted Man*" which were all written for the Christmas market, and lay emphasis on family love and the delights of home. But there is more to these stories than surface sentimentality: their eager anticipation by a whole nation tells us much about the age Dickens lived in and these stories never would have survived without roots and power. Dickens portrays his characters in such a realistic manner that they appear to be life-like. Most of his stories had Christmas as a theme that led to the incidental creation of Christmas genre in the Victorian era. With his imaginative skills and fictional plots, Dickens has never failed to amaze his readers, irrespective of their age group.