The Chimes A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, a short novel by Charles Dickens, was written and published in 1844, one year after A Christmas Carol. It is the second in his series of Christmas books five short books with strong social and moral messages that he published during the 1840's.

This book marks a new departure in the study of Dickens. The authors make use of first-hand evidence of Dickens’ actual methods and conditions of work; much of this evidence is examined and co-ordinated here for the first time. It includes Dickens’ detailed manuscript notes for novels, with a complete transcript of these for every instalment and chapter of David Copperfield. Seven other books are chosen, so that the different stages of his career and different kinds of work are well represented. The volume illustrates what modes of planning Dickens evolved as best suited to his genius and to the demands of serial publication, monthly or weekly; how he responded to the events of the day; and how he yet managed to combine the freshness of this "periodical", almost journalistic approach with the art of the novel.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1864.

There are few authors whose names can be as immediately identified by a large international public as that of Charles Dickens. Indisputably, to both his own time and all since, he is the greatest literary figure of Victorian England. To many readers, he is equally the English novelist par excellence. Indeed, part of the general significance of Dickens is that he, more than anyone else in the English-speaking world, ensured the triumph of the novel as the most highly regarded and widely read of literary genres, a position it has retained ever since. This edition of Dickens' major works includes, as a matter of course, all the novels and the most significant shorter fiction (Christmas books and stories, Sketches by Boz, etc.). It also includes two volumes of travel writing, considerable selections from Dickens' periodical writing, and his entire output of verse. CSP are particularly pleased to include in this edition, by permission of the editor's estate, the entirety of Prof. Ken Fielding's edition of Dickens's speeches, acknowledged as the standard edition but which has now been out of print for over twenty years. The contents of the volumes are as follows: Volume 1 (606 pp.): Introduction to the Works by Prof. Michael Hollington; Sketches by Boz and other sketches Volume 2 (707 pp.): The Pickwick Papers Volume 3 (774 pp.): Nicholas Nickleby Volume 4 (101 pp.): Master Humphrey's Clock Volume 5 (507 pp.): The Old Curiosity Shop Volume 6 (600 pp.): Barnaby Rudge Volume 7 (737 pp.): Martin Chuzzlewit Volume 8 (398 pp.): Oliver Twist Volume 9 (754 pp.): Dombey and Son Volume 10 (736 pp.): David Copperfield Volume 11 (758 pp.): Bleak House Volume 12 (255 pp.): Hard Times Volume 13 (746 pp.): Little Dorrit Volume 14 (344 pp.): A Tale of Two Cities Volume 15 (376 pp.): Great Expectations Volume 16 (749 pp.): Our Mutual Friend Volume 17 (237 pp.): The Mystery of Edwin Drood Volume 18 (362 pp.): complete Christmas books: A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain Volume 19 (631 pp.): complete Christmas stories (including collaborative material) Volume 20 (197 pp.): Reprinted Pieces Volume 21 (232 pp.): Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices, Bardell v. Pickwick, George Silverman's Explanation, Holiday Romance Volume 22 (216 pp.): American Notes Volume 23 (148 pp.): Pictures from Italy Volume 24 (341 pp.): A Child's History of England Volume 25 (301 pp.): The Uncommercial Traveller Volume 26 (660 pp.): Miscellaneous Papers Volume 27 (416 pp.): Uncollected Writings from Household Words Volume 28 (503 pp.): Speeches (ed. Ken Fielding) Volume 29 (72 pp.): Poems and Verses All the texts have been newly typeset for this edition.