Description: Random Ramblings and Reviews from Trent P. McDonald
The Battle of Life is Dickens’ fourth holiday novella and my least favorite. I read it months ago, so I don’t remember all of the reasons I didn’t like it, but I will try to bring up a few.
The story takes place in a village were an ancient, great battle took place. There is a lot of words and great descriptions that go into the idea of the battle. A few times in the story the great battle is alluded to, but it really has no bearing at all. I think part of my problem is that the intro with the battle led me to expect one type of story and yet was presented with something totally different. I might have like the story better if Dickens had spent the words used to describe the battle filling
This is the only of the holiday novellas that has no supernatural themes, though with the Cricket, the supernatural isn’t as huge part of it as the other three (the Crickets are important, but the memories they bring, could just be a natural expression of the good people). There is a scene in Battle at Christmas, but it really isn’t a holiday story. There is a bit of a moral to the story, and there are lessons learned, but for the most part, these things, as well as social commentary, are far less importa