The Battle Of Life
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The Battle Of Life
''The Battle of Life: A Love Story'' is an 1846 novel by Charles Dickens. It is the fourth of his five "Christmas Books", coming after ''The Cricket on the Hearth'' and followed by ''The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain''. The setting is an English village that stands on the site of an historic battle. Some characters refer to the battle as a metaphor for the struggles of life, hence the title. ''Battle'' is the only one of the five Christmas Books that has no supernatural or explicitly religious elements. (One scene takes place at Christmas time, but it is not the final scene.) The story bears some resemblance to ''The Cricket on the Hearth'' in two respects: it has a non-urban setting, and it is resolved with a romantic twist. It is even less of a social novel than is ''Cricket''. As is typical with Dickens, the ending is a happy one. It is one of Dickens's lesser-known works and has never attained any high level of popularity – a trait it shares with ''The Haunted Man ...
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Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school at the age of 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. After three years he returned to school, before he began his literary career as a journalist. Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed readings extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, for education, and for other social ...
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Bradbury And Evans
Bradbury & Evans (est.1830) was an English printing and publishing business founded by William Bradbury (1799–1869)England, Derbyshire, Church of England Parish Registers, 1538–1910. and Frederick Mullett Evans (1804–1870)General Register Office: Birth Certificates from the Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist Registry and from the Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry. in London.Bradbury and Evans
at , last accessed January 2011.


History

For the first ten years Bradbury & Evans were printers, then added publishing in 1841 after they purchased ''

The Cricket On The Hearth
''The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home'' is a novella by Charles Dickens, published by Bradbury and Evans, and released 20 December 1845 with illustrations by Daniel Maclise, John Leech, Richard Doyle, Clarkson Stanfield and Edwin Henry Landseer. Dickens began writing the book around 17 October 1845 and finished it by 1 December. Like all of Dickens's Christmas books, it was published in book form, not as a serial. Dickens described the novel as "quiet and domestic ..innocent and pretty." It is subdivided into chapters called "Chirps", similar to the "Quarters" of ''The Chimes'' or the "Staves" of ''A Christmas Carol''. It is the third of Dickens's five Christmas books, preceded by ''A Christmas Carol'' (1843) and ''The Chimes'' (1844), and followed by ''The Battle of Life'' (1846) and ''The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain'' (1848). Background In July 1845, Dickens contemplated forming a periodical focusing on the concerns of the home. It was to be called ''Th ...
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The Haunted Man And The Ghost's Bargain
''The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain, A Fancy for Christmas-Time'' (better known as ''The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain'' or simply as ''The Haunted Man'') is a novella by Charles Dickens first published in 1848. It is the fifth and last of Dickens's Christmas novellas. The story is more about the spirit of Christmas than about the holiday itself, harking back to the first in the series, ''A Christmas Carol''. The tale centres on a Professor Redlaw and those close to him. Plot summary The Gift Bestowed Redlaw is a teacher of chemistry who often broods over wrongs done him and grief from his past. He is attended to by his servants Mr. Swidger and his 87-year-old father who helps the cook, Milly William, decorate Redlaw's rooms with holly. He is haunted by a spirit, who is not so much a ghost as Redlaw's phantom twin and is "an awful likeness of himself...with his features, and his bright eyes, and his grizzled hair, and dressed in the gloomy shadow of his dress... ...
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Novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the histori ...
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Social Novel
The social novel, also known as the social problem (or social protest) novel, is a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel". More specific examples of social problems that are addressed in such works include poverty, conditions in factories and mines, the plight of child labor, violence against women, rising criminality, and epidemics because of over-crowding and poor sanitation in cities. Terms like thesis novel, propaganda novel, industrial novel, working-class novel and problem novel are also used to describe this type of novel; a recent development in this genre is the young adult problem novel. It is also referred to as the sociological novel. The social protest novel is a form of social novel which places an emphasis on the idea of social change, while the proletarian novel is a political form of the social protest novel which may emphasize revolution. While e ...
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Farce
Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense; satire, parody, and mockery of real-life situations, people, events, and interactions; unlikely and humorous instances of miscommunication; ludicrous, improbable, and exaggerated characters; and broadly stylized performances. Genre Despite involving absurd situations and characters, the genre generally maintains at least a slight degree of realism and narrative continuity within the context of the irrational or ludicrous situations, often distinguishing it from completely absurdist or fantastical genres. Farces are often episodic or short in duration, often being set in one specific location where all events occur. Farces have historically been performed for the stage and film. Historical context The term ''farce'' is deri ...
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Elopement
Elopement is a term that is used in reference to a marriage which is conducted in a sudden and secretive fashion, usually involving a hurried flight away from one's place of residence together with one's beloved with the intention of getting married without parental approval. An elopement is contrasted with an abduction (e.g., a bride kidnapping), in which either the bride or groom has not consented, or a shotgun wedding in which the parents of one (prototypically the bride's) coerce both into marriage. The term ''elopement'' is sometimes used in its original, more general sense of escape or flight (e.g., an escape from a psychiatric institution). Controversially, in modern times, ''elopement'' is sometimes applied to any small, inexpensive wedding, even when it is performed with parental foreknowledge. In addition, the term ''elopement'' (or ''wandering'') is used in psychiatric hospitals to refer to a patient with dementia leaving the psychiatric unit without authorization. ...
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Tavern
A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that has a license to put up guests as lodgers. The word derives from the Latin ''taberna'' whose original meaning was a shed, workshop, stall, or pub. Over time, the words "tavern" and "inn" became interchangeable and synonymous. In England, inns started to be referred to as public houses or pubs and the term became standard for all drinking houses. Europe France From at least the 14th century, taverns, along with inns and later cabarets, were the main places to dine out. Typically, a tavern offered various roast meats, as well as simple foods like bread, cheese, herring and bacon. Some offered a richer variety of foods, though it would be cabarets and later ''traiteurs'' which offered the finest meals before the restaurant appeared in the 1 ...
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Albert Richard Smith
Albert Richard Smith (24 May 181623 May 1860) was an English author, entertainer, and mountaineer. Biography Literary career Smith was born at Chertsey, Surrey. The son of a surgeon, he studied medicine in London and in Paris, and his first literary effort was an account of his life in Paris, which appeared in the ''Mirror''. He gradually abandoned his medical work in favour of writing. Though a journalist rather than a literary figure, he was one of the most popular writers of his time, and a favourite humorist. He was one of the early contributors to ''Punch'' 1842, and was also a regular contributor to Richard Bentley's ''Miscellany'', in whose pages his first and best book, the novel ''The Adventures of Mr Ledbury'', appeared in 1842. His other novels were ''The Fortunes of the Scattergood Family'' (1845), ''The Marchioness of Brinvilliers: The Poisoner of the Seventeenth Century'' (1846), ''The Struggles and Adventures of Christopher Tadpole'' (1848), and ''The Pottleto ...
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Surrey Theatre
The Surrey Theatre, London began life in 1782 as the Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy, one of the many circuses that provided entertainment of both horsemanship and drama (hippodrama). It stood in Blackfriars Road, near the junction with Westminster Bridge Road, just south of the River Thames in what is now the London Borough of Southwark. History The ''Royal Circus'' was opened on 4 November 1782 by the composer and song writer, Charles Dibdin (who coined the term "circus" for that usage), aided by Charles Hughes, a well-known equestrian performer. The entertainments were at first performed by children with the goal of its being a nursery for young actors. Delphini, a celebrated buffo, became manager in 1788 and produced a spectacle including a real stag-hunt. Other animal acts followed, including the popular dog act ''Gelert and Victor'', lecture pieces, pantomimes and local spectacles. The popular comedian John Palmer then managed the theatre until 1789 ...
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Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, movies/videos, moving images, and millions of books. In addition to its archiving function, the Archive is an activist organization, advocating a free and open Internet. , the Internet Archive holds over 35 million books and texts, 8.5 million movies, videos and TV shows, 894 thousand software programs, 14 million audio files, 4.4 million images, 2.4 million TV clips, 241 thousand concerts, and over 734 billion web pages in the Wayback Machine. The Internet Archive allows the public to upload and download digital material to its data cluster, but the bulk of its data is collected automatically by its web crawlers, which work to preserve as much of the public web as possible. Its web archiving, web archive, the Wayback Machine, contains hu ...
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