Penguin Christmas Classics ~ Multiple-item retail product ~ Charles Dickens

The six volumes in the Penguin Christmas Classics are not only our most beloved Christmas tales, they also have given us much of what we love about the holiday itself. Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol revived in Victorian England such Christmas hallmarks as the Christmas tree, holiday cards, and caroling. The Yuletide yarns of Anthony Trollope, brought together in Christmas at Thompson Hall and Other Christmas Stories, popularized throughout the British Empire and around the world the trappings of Christmas in London. L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus created the origin story for the presiding spirit of Christmas as we know it. The holiday tales of Louisa May Alcott, collected in A Merry Christmas and Other Christmas Stories, shaped the ideal of an American Christmas. Nikolai Gogol's The Night Before Christmas brought forth some of our earliest Christmas traditions as passed down through folk tales. And E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Nutcracker inspired the most famous ballet in history, one seen by millions in the twilight of every year. Beautifully designed hardcovers-with foil-stamped jackets, decorative endpapers, and nameplates for personalization-in a small trim size that makes them perfect stocking stuffers, Penguin Christmas Classics embody the spirit of giving that is at the heart of our most time-honoured stories about the holiday.Author BiographyCharles Dickens (1812-70) is one of the most recognized celebrities of English literature. His many books include Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol. Louisa May Alcott (1832-88) was brought up in Pennsylvania, USA. She turned to writing in order to supplement the family income and had many short stories published in magazines and newspapers. Then, in 1862, during the height of the American Civil War, Louisa went to Georgetown to work as a nurse, but she contracted typhoid. Out of her experiences she wrote Hospital Sketches (1864) which won wide acclaim, followed by an adult novel, Moods. She was reluctant to write a children's book but then realized that in herself and her three sisters she had the perfect models. The result was Little Women (1868) which became the earliest American children's novel to become a classic