The Child's Story

by Charles Dickens

Overview

From one of the world's most beloved writers comes this memorable parable of life's transitions.

Originally published by Charles Dickens in the mid-1800s, The Child's Story is a timeless account of the journey we all take, from carefree childhood and spontaneous youth, through adulthood and marriage, and into our golden years. Now, almost 150 years after its original publication, acclaimed artist Harvey Chan adds his stirring images to Dickens's classic words, creating a unique and powerful reading experience that's ideal for children of all ages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789635270583
Publisher:	Booklassic
Publication date:	07/07/2015
Series:	The Child's Story
Sold by:	PUBLISHDRIVE KFT
Format:	eBook
Pages:	3
File size:	330 KB

About the Author

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is probably the greatest novelist England has ever produced, the author of such famous books as A Christmas Carol, Hard Times, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, and Oliver Twist. His innate comic genius and shrewd depictions of Victorian life — along with his indelible characters — have made his books beloved by readers the world over. Dickens was born in Landport, Portsea, England and died in Kent after suffering a stroke. The second of eight children of a family continually plagued by debt, the young Dickens came to know hunger, privation, and the horrors of the infamous debtors' prison and the evils of child labor. These unfortunate early life experiences helped shape many of his greatest works.

Date of Birth:

February 7, 1812

Date of Death:

June 18, 1870

Place of Birth:

Portsmouth, England

Place of Death:

Gad's Hill, Kent, England

Education:

Home-schooling; attended Dame School at Chatham briefly and Wellington

Editorial Reviews

Rendered in oil pastels, Chan's (Music for the Tsar of the Sea) softly focused, shadowy paintings at once capture a Victorian sensibility and the ethereal, romantic tenor of Dickens's lyrical parable about the cycle of life. Marked by a verbal economy not usually associated with this novelist, the narrative describes a traveler who sets out upon a "magic journey [that] was to seem very long when he began it, and very short when he got halfway through." Along the way he makes several stops: he spends time with a beautiful child who "is always at play"; a handsome boy who is "always learning" (but finds time to partake in "the merriest games that ever were played"); and later a young man who announces, "I am always in love." Chan's illustrations hint at the story's outcome as he charts the resemblance between the boy, the young man and finally the old man who is "always remembering. Come and remember with me!" On a final spread, all the traveler's friends reappear and bring the tale full circle. Though youngsters may need shepherding through this unabashedly sentimental journey, readers young and old will appreciate Dickens's vision and honesty, as well as Chan's evocative artwork. All ages. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 3-6-Originally published as a short story in the mid-1800s, this allegory for life's journey introduces a traveler who joins and "loses" various companions along the way. He meets a child who is always at play, a boy who is always learning, a young man who is always in love, a grown man who is always working, and, finally, an old man who is always remembering. Players come and go while the observing wayfarer moves inexorably forward and the tone of the narrative and the illustrations darkens. Chan's dramatic, often murky paintings, rendered in oil pastels, reveal the companions at rest or at work while the never-depicted traveler remains offstage. Children are likely to understand Dickens's comparison of life and journeys. However, with no plot, an enigmatic intrusive nod to "grandfather" (the old man) at the end, and various unfamiliar Victorian circumlocutions and references, this easy introduction to allegory may not find an audience.-Susan Hepler, Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Chan (Music for the Tsar of the Sea, 1998, etc.) illustrates one of Dickens's lesser-known Christmas stories (in this case there's only a passing reference to the holiday) with lustrous, full-page scenes of figures in antique dress, slightly hazy as if viewed through a scrim, and moving through shadowy woods. It's an allegorical journey, in which a never-seen traveler is accompanied for a time, in turn, by a child, a student, a young swain, and a hardworking family man, then sits down at the end with an elder to bring them all back in memory. Except for one brief omission, the author's stately, eloquent, sentiment-rich narrative is left untouched: "They had plenty of the finest toys in the world and the most astonishing picture books: all about scimitars and slippers and turbans, and dwarfs and giants and genii and fairies, and blue-beards and bean-stalks and riches and caverns and forests and Valentines and Orsons: and all new and all true." Still among the greatest of "crossover" writers, Dickens broadens the appeal of this most ancient of metaphors by casting it as a tale told by a child—and it positively begs to be read aloud. (Picture book. 9-11, adult)

Kirkus Reviews