Dickensians! discussion

illustrator Charles Green 1912

The Battle of Life by Charles Dickens is the fourth of our seasonal reads to take us over the end of the year. It was Charles Dickens's penultimate Christmas book, in a series which began with his perennially popular A Christmas Carol. We are reading them all in order, and once again, we are lucky to have Petra to host our popular Christmas read, so don't miss it!

We will read this during the month between the dates of 23rd December 2023 and approx. 24th January 2022.

**** PLEASE ALLOW PETRA, who is hosting this read, to comment first, Thanks!

The Battle of Life: A Love Story by Charles Dickens

Written in 1846, The Battle of Life is the fourth of Dickens’ five Christmas novellas. It never gained great popularity and is one of Dickens’ lesser known pieces.
This gives us the opportunity to explore it for ourselves and discover its wonderful secrets.

An adaption for the stage was made in 1846 by Albert Richard Smith, who also adapted The Cricket on the
Hearth for the stage the year before.

The Battle of Life 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.

On-line Sites to find the text of The Battle of Life:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/676

https://www.fulltextarchive.com/book/...

https://dickens-literature.com/The_Ba... (click on Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 at the right side to see the text)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDB9x... (YouTube Audio)

https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview... (YouTube Audio)

Part the First

Summary 1: Link to Post 14
To: For a long time, no village girl would dress her hair……too deep a stain on the hand that plucked them.)

Summary 2: Link to Post 40
To: The apple pickers on the ladders…..bestirred themselves to work again like bees

Summary 3: Link to Post 56
To: A kind and generous man by nature…..and every precious thing to poor account.

Summary 4: Link to Post 63
To: Such, in outward form and garb, was Clemency Newcome;……and jogged off to fetch it.

Summary 5: Link to Post 82
To: With a start, productive for the moment…….than by hinting that Mr. Craggs may possibly have considered it ‘too easy’

Summary 6: Link to Post 93
To: Do you know what else it has been doing? I don’t

Summary 7: Link to Post 105
To: One must either laugh or cry at such stupendous inconsistencies; and I prefer to laugh.

Summary 8: Link to Post 118
To: Grace pressed the blooming face against her cheek, and smiled

Summary 9: Link to Post 122
To: ‘I don’t understand’, retorted Clemency…….’I ain’t no lawyer.'

Summary 10: Link to Post 129
To: Run for the gate, and watch for the coach. Time flies, Alfred.

Summary 11: Link to Post 134


End of Part the First

Part the Second

Summary 1: Link to Post 156
To: And the name on the box being Michael Warden, Esquire……were in a bad way

Summary 2: Link to Post 173
To: I love where he loves, and I mean to win where he would win, if I can.

Summary 3: Link to Post 190
To: Mr. Craggs replying in the affirmative…..they groped their way out of the council chamber, now dark as the subject, or the law in general.

Summary 4: Link to Post 201
To: And the Doctor, still reposing in his easy chair…..these trifles were agreeable enough

Summary 5: Summary 1: Link to Post 206
To: "Will you?" returned Clemency. "Well! that's very good of you."

Summary 6: Link to Post 213
To: Could sink into a peaceful sleep, herself; ......and they had all forgotten her.

Summary 7: Link to Post 234
To: Tut, tut, tut”, said the Doctor gently……Let us be light, and warm, and merry, or I’ll not forgive some of you!”)

Summary 8: Link to Post 243
To: “Good.” Mr. Snitchey wiped his forehead again…..”I intend to spend the evening now, Mr. Craggs.”

Summary 9: Link to Post 250
To: It was an old custom among them, indeed……and would have considered it almost impossible for the Firm to maintain a successful and respectable existence, without her laudable exertions.

Summary 10: Link to Post 259
To: There was a frosty rime upon the trees……and the hum and murmur of voices greeted his ear sweetly.

Summary 11: Link to Post 276


End of Part the Second

Part the Third

Summary 1: Link to Post 286
To: ”Oh! Here we are at last!”

Summary 2: Link to Post 309
To: Clemency, after meditating in silence for a few memoents……bustled off to look after the children.

Summary 3: Link to Post 321
To: He seemed attentive to their conversation, and not at all impatient to interrupt it.

Summary 4: Link to Post 345
To: "No two people ever more so. They have had no sorrow but this.”

Summary 5: Link to Post 353
To: “I had my suspicions, sir:….and been assured that you lost her.”

Summary 6: Link to Post 365
To: “Ah when will it be! When will it be!”

Summary 7: Link to Post 380
To: So beautiful, so happy…..she might have been a spirit visiting the earth upon some healing mission

Summary 8: Link to Post 390
To: Her face relaxed: …..and fondled her as if she were a child again

Summary 9: Link to Post 416
To: When looking up in wonder, ……and going into hysterics behind it.

Summary 10: Link to Post 444

End of Part the Third

Welcome to our Christmas read, The Battle of Life.

This will be a slow, relaxing read for our Holiday season. Dickens has again given us an entertaining read to help us navigate the Holidays.

I will add a short summary each day of the section we will be discussing that day. In the posts above names "Part the First", "Part the Second" and "Part the Third", I will put the first and last lines of each section to help us navigate each day's reading section.
Plus there will be a link to each summary to help find it.

On my ereader, with my settings, I am aiming for approx. 7 pages a day to give us approx. 4 weeks to complete and discuss this story. This will, I hope, allow everyone to join in, regardless of how busy the Season gets.

I am thoroughly looking forward to our Christmas read together.

We will start on December 23 with our first summary.

Who's joining in?

Albert Richard Smith (24 May 1816 – 23 May 1860) was an English author, entertainer, and mountaineer. Smith was born at Chertsey, Surrey. The son of a surgeon, he studied medicine in London and in Paris. He gradually abandoned his medical work in favour of writing.

He was one of the most popular writers of his time, and a favourite humorist. Albert was one of the early contributors to Punch , and was also a regular contributor to the Miscellany, in whose pages his first and best book, the novel the Adventures of Mr. Ledbury and His Friend Jack Johnson ... With Eighteen Illustrations by John Leech. , appeared in 1842.

In 1842 Smith's first play, Blanche Heriot, based on a legend from his home town, was produced at the Surrey Theatre. In 1843 he published The Wassail-Bowl: a Comic Christmas Sketch-Book.

He also wrote a series of so-called natural histories: The Natural History of the Gent (1847), The Natural History of the Ballet Girl (1847), The Natural History of 'Stuck-Up' People (1847), The Natural History of the Idler Upon Town (1848) and The Natural History of the Flirt (1848)

Smith wrote several extravaganzas for the Lyceum Theatre, including Aladdin (1844), Valentine and Orson (1844) and Whittington and His Cat (1845), and adapted for the same theatre Charles Dickens's The Cricket on the Hearth (1845) and The Battle of Life (1846).

With Angus Bethune Reach he founded and edited a monthly magazine called The Man in the Moon, which ran from January 1847 to June 1849.

In August 1851 he ascended Mont Blanc. The year after he published a book about his adventures, The Story of Mont Blanc, and produced at the Egyptian Hall an entertainment called "Mont Blanc", describing the ascent of the mountain and the Englishman abroad, which became the most popular exhibition of the kind ever known. In May 1854 he gave his performance before Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Smith's "Mont Blanc" show ran for 2000 performances over six years and helped to popularize mountain climbing in mid-Victorian Britain. He was one of the founder members of the Alpine Club in 1857.

In 1859 Smith married Mary Lucy Keeley (circa 1830–1870. In 1860 he died from bronchitis, and was buried in Brompton Cemetery.

Brompton Cemetery:



There are multiple pictures of this cemetery. It must be a very large place, with very interesting headstones.

Albert Richard Smith was a speedy writer! He published 3 natural histories in 1847!

Also.....don't you just want to get your hands on The Natural History of the Flirt (1848) to find out what was considered a Flirt in those days?! LOL!

Here are the quotes from letters written by Charles Dickens that are quoted in John Forster's Life of Charles Dickens relating to The Battle of Life:

“One word more. What do you think, as a name for the Christmas book, of THE BATTLE FOR LIFE? It is not a name I have conned at all but has just occurred to me in connection with that foggy idea. If I can see my way, I think I will take it next, and clear it off. If you knew how it hangs about me, I am sure you say so too. It would be an immense relief to have it done, and nothing standing in the way of Dombey.”


“I send you….the first two parts of the Christmas book…..Be sure you read the first and second parts together. There seems to be to be interest in it, and a pretty idea; and it is unlike the others…..There are some minor points for consideration:
As, the necessity of some slight alteration in one or two of the Doctor’s speeches in the first part; and whether it should be called The Battle of Life: A Love Story – to express both a love story in the common acceptation of the phrase, and also a story of love; with or two other things of that sort.”


“I dreamed last week that The Battle of Life was a series of chambers impossible to be got to rights or got out of, through which I wandered drearily all night. On Saturday night I don’t think I slept an hour. I was perpetually roaming through the story, and endeavouring to dove-tail the revolution here into the plot. The mental distress, quite horrible.”
To which John Forster explained the revolution that Dickens mentioned by saying:
"Of the “revolution” he had written to me a week before. The news had just reached them that, upon the Federal Diet decreeing the expulsion of the Jesuits, the Roman Catholic cantons had risen against the decree, the result being that the Protestants had deposed the grand council and established a provisional government, dissolving he Catholic league. His interest in this is every way characteristic of Dickens."

First Edition of The Battle of Life

By Richard Doyle, 1846


Link to a short biography of Richard Doyle

Summary 1

A long time ago, somewhere in England, a horrible, one day battle ensues. Many were horribly killed. The fields became a muddy, bloody marshy piece of land. The flowers cups filled with blood, the insects were sprayed with droplets of blood, the stream flowed red with blood.

The battle lasted one long day. Many suffered and died that day and night. It was many moons before the fields hid the marks of the battle.

Nature heals and hides its scars. The birds returned to flit over the flowers & fly in the sky above the green fields. Crops grew and were harvested, the stream powered a watermill, sheep flourished in the fields, men whistled and worked, children played. All this occurred on and around the fields where thousands had died in battle.

However, in the corn fields, there were large patches of green that the people knew covered the bones of men and horses from the battle. These patches were rich in nutrients, grew the best corn (Battle Sheaves) which always went first at the Harvest Home festivals. For many a year, the ground revealed items from the battle when furrowed, the girls wouldn’t dress their hair with flowers from the fields and the berries grew especially red, deeply staining the hand that picked them.

Welcome to our Holiday Group read!

What a way to start the Holidays.....with a fierce and horrific battle, and it's aftermath, which lasted for generations.

Merry Christmas????

I'm getting a sense of healing from the first few pages of this work. The battle is not named, but the bloodied soil is transformed over the years into beautiful trees and farmland. But the battle is not totally forgotten since there are buried armaments that occasionally surface. I have not read the story before, but am looking forward to seeing how the title, "The Battle of Life," might also be referring to a transformation.

Thanks for your informative posts, Petra. Happy Holidays to everyone!!!!

It does start with quite a jolt, doesn't it?

Thank you for these fantastic posts, Petra! I have the Pears edition (the one on our group shelves) so if there are any very special illustrations by Charles Green (1840–1898) I can share those. I like that first one by Richard Doyle though.

This read begins today everyone! Please keep an eye on Petra's timetable to stay in synch 😊

Thank you so much for doing this, Petra, and the introductory posts. I sometimes find these Dickens stories hard to decipher on my own, and look forward to what we’ll discover here. I also like that first illustration!

I found this first part very comforting, actually. It opens powerfully, particularly the blood on the butterfly’s wings. But Dickens hints that nature is above man, and it made me feel like no matter what we do, nature is around us to comfort us.

I'm glad to have a few fellow readers joining me in this story. It's wonderfully descriptive in this section. It brings the battle to life, which is chilling, I find.

When Dickens writes "...looked upon the plain, strewn with upturned faces that had once at mothers' breasts sought morthers' eyes or slumbered happily", I could feel the anguish that the families would feel and the loss of so many sons. The moon in the story rose to a sad and somber sight, indeed.

Connie and Kathleen, welcome and thanks for joining in! It's wonderful to have you here.

I also believe in the restorative traits of Nature. We, as a species, may cause harm and destroy ourselves, but the Earth will heal itself over time. I did smile in this section when Dickens wrote "for, Nature, far above the evil passions of men, soon recovered Her serenity, and smiled upon the guilty battle-ground as she had done before, when it was innocent."
Nature doesn't see the evil of man; it is all goodness and healing.

Yet, there were areas that required more time to heal. The green patches, the darker berries with staining powers, the fragments of bone that would appear. Things take time to heal, even for Nature.

Yes, Petra, that's how I felt in reading this first passage... an overwhelming sadness for the men who died in battle. It was the way I felt when I walked the grounds of famous battlefields, like Verdun and Shiloh. So much loss! And oh, what a mental picture Dickens drew for us!

But Connie and Kathleen, you also made very good points that with the deaths came renewal.

The illustration you posted in message 15, Petra, reminds me that, even in death, life must and does go on. How powerful that Doyle juxtaposed the two together.

Jean, I have a few pictures to share today. If you have others, we'd love to see them. The illustrator's of Dickens' stories were all an incridible group of artists.

Yes, thank you. I am adding each day's "from" and "to" reading sections in this link, for Part the First to keep us together in the discussions.

Shirley, welcome!
Like you, I felt the weight of the loss in this section. Yes, Life continues, as it must, but those living had constant reminders of the losses of that day with the Battle Sheaves of corn and the flowers that the girls avoided for their hair, etc. People continued and thrived but they were wounded and didn't forget, as well. They were scarred by this battle.
It's a somber beginning, for sure. An interesting beginning for a Christmas piece, I find.

Battlefield by Charles Green, 1912



"Many a lonely moon was bright upon the battle-ground, and many a star kept mournful watch upon it, and many a wind from every quarter of the earth blew over it, before the traces of the fight were worn away."

Illustration is from The Victorian Web

Short biography of Charles Green linked here.

Charles Green also drew the Title Page to the 1912 edition of The Battle of Life, as seen in Jean's first post in this thread (Post 1). It showes an armoured knight going into battle.

Title Page by Daniel Maclise, 1946



From The Victorian Web site.

Short biography of Daniel Maclise can be found here.

War by Clarkson Stanfield, 1846



From The Victorian Web.

Short biography of Clarkson Stanfield can be found here.

The beginning of the story is so vivid! I was especially struck by the image of the flowers filled with blood:

Many a wild flower formed by the Almighty Hand to be a perfumed goblet for the dew, felt its enamelled cup filled high with blood that day, and shrinking dropped.

I'm intrigued by the title and curious to know how The Battle of Life will be A Love Story.

Glad to see you doing this story Petra. Another I haven't read before.
Though it starts a bit grisly, the prose is well-considered and has a romantic or earlier poetic style that evokes the past and also enjoins us to consider this story in relation to larger themes. I like how the descriptive passages already point toward the symbolic use of words and wonder if Dickens intends to continue this style or move towards a more contemporary, realistic style. I could see Thomas Hardy starting a story this way but I don't see Hardy working as hard to get the opening to the point Dickens has-- where it feels-- "just right!" I am borrowing from the renowned critic Goldilocks of Three Bears fame, with my last phrase.

I could not help reflecting upon the fleeting mark man has upon the earth. Nature would cover it and soon the human anguish that occurred here...the "upturned faces that had once at mothers' beasts sought mothers' eyes,"...would be legend alone. No one would remember who these men were individually, and yet their deaths made such an impact upon the current population that even the berries seemed tainted with their blood.

I am heading out today and not back until after Christmas, but I will rejoin this read and conversation when I return. Thank you, Petra, for such a beautiful start!

Oh good, you'll have some of the Charles Green ones 😊

what a powerful opening. like so many of you, the image of flowers as a goblet for battlefield blood really stays with me.

I liked how flowers were mentioned again where Petra chose to end this section "no village girl would dress her hair or bosom inthe sweetest flower from that field". It felt complete to end there today. That image of berries from that field having a deeper stain also stays with me.

Great start Petra!

Erich C wrote: "The beginning of the story is so vivid! I was especially struck by the image of the flowers filled with blood:

Many a wild flower formed by the Almighty Hand to be a perfumed goblet for the dew, felt its enamelled cup filled high with blood that day, and shrinking dropped...."

Welcome, Erich. It's wonderful that you are here.

I was also struck with the image of the flowers filling with blood, then "shrinking dropped". With our actions, we destroy beauty. Yet nothing can stop the flowers from finding a way to grow again.
However, the new flowers are seen in a different way than before, as we see with the girls not using them in their hair.
That suggests the question: what changes after a regeneration? The flowers are the same but the girls )people?) view them differently and avoid them.
Are regenerated life forms to be rejected because of the memories that they conjure in our minds? Are we not responsible, ourselves, for these memories and projecting the horrific events onto the newly regenerated object (in this case the beautiful, blameless flowers)?

Sam, welcome. It's great to have you along for this read.

Yes, Dickens knows how to phrase words so perfectly. He conjures up images that can be both frightful and peaceful. Dickens does get the words "just right". He puts us into the atmospheric surroundings of the story and makes us a part of it.

Within all the gruesome and violent actions in this section, is also a prayer, of sorts:

"Heaven keep us from a knowledge of the sights the moon beheld upon that field, when .... she rose into the sky .... .
Heaven keep us from a knowledge of the secrets whispered afterwards upon the tainted wind that blew across the scene ... . "

What I'm unsure of at the moment, is whether this is a prayer of Forgetfulness or a prayer to have such horrible events never be repeated so that future generations have no knowledge of these evils.

Hello,
Although not a new group member, to date I've read but not contributed to discussions. However, I'd just finished reading Battle of Life for the first time when I noticed it was a group read, so I'm now rereading ...

I had a thought about the corn yielded by the battle field. Reference to the Battle Sheaves not being among the last load at Harvest Home might also be associated with mention of the more fertile, greener patches being viewed 'awfully', the ploughman's revulsion at the large worms in those patches, and so in keeping with the villagers' general aversion to the field.

Since, traditionally, the last sheaf of the harvest was fashioned as a corn dolly, to preserve the spirit of the field, ensuring the Battle Sheaves weren't part of the Harvest Home suggests avoidance of preserving the spirit(s) they were associated with.
Marguerite

Sara wrote: "I could not help reflecting upon the fleeting mark man has upon the earth. Nature would cover it and soon the human anguish that occurred here...the "upturned faces that had once at mothers' beasts..."

Sara, have a wonderful Christmas! We'll see you when you return. May your family find the Season to be joyous and heartfelt. Happy Holidays!

I agree with your thoughts that whatever damage we put onto this Earth, Nature will cover up, given the chance to.

Bridget wrote: "what a powerful opening. like so many of you, the image of flowers as a goblet for battlefield blood really stays with me. ..."

Welcome, Bridget! I am so glad that you are reading along with us!

There are so many powerful images in these opening pages. The flowers and that poor butterfly with blood droplets on it's wings will stay with me, too.

Welcome, MN!

Thank you for the information on the Battle Sheaves. I was unaware of this tradition. This does add a level of remembrance and avoidance to the plots of land where the dead are known to be buried.

I was, when I read this section, a bit confused about the Battle Sheaves. As it was mentioned that they were not the last load of Harvest Home, I wondered what happened to them and why this corn had been mentioned at all
I'm glad you mentioned this tradition of the Corn Dolly and preserving the Spirits. Thanks!

Part the First, Summary 2:

But, over the generations these marks of the battle slowly disappeared from sight. The fields of unpicked flowers and berries became gardens, homes. The wounded trees had been chopped down and burned as firewood, the green patches were no longer greener than surrounding lands. A dented corselet and helmet still hung in the Church, high above the arch, unnoticed and unseen.

If the fallen could once again stand where they were slain, they would have surrounded the town and the homes. They would stand in every house and hearth; in every barn and field. They would stand hundreds deep. The land had changed so since the terrible battle.

The most change had occurred, about a hundred years ago, on a small homestead consisting of a small orchard and a small stone house with a honeysuckle porch. It was Autumn and two girls danced to music and with laughter. While they danced and laughed, the peasant woman picking the orchard apples looked down from the trees at them happily, sharing their enjoyment.

The girls danced with abandonment. They danced for joy and happiness, for themselves. They danced around and between the trees in the orchard. The land, the sun, the sky…..everything between them and a man & plough upon a ridge and seen against the skyline, was dancing as well.

The youngest sister, out of breath, twirled herself onto a bench. Her sister leaned against a tree. The music, supplied by a wandering harp & fiddle, came to a stop. The apple pickers smiled again, then went back to their work.

"The Ploughshare Still Turned up from Time to Time Some Rusty Bits of Metal" by Fred Barnard, 1878



Barnard's initial illustration for The Battle of Life reifies Dickens's general proposition that, years after a battle fought on farmland, military objects turned up in ploughing will look alien to later generations.

From The Victorian Web

The Old Dinted Corselet by Charles Green, 1912

Peace by Clarkston Stanfield, 1846

I love Dickens' vibrant prose as he describes the two girls dancing. They are so joyous as they twirl around with their hair streaming and their skirts fluttering. There is so much circular motion in the girls, the air, the trees, and the windmill. Their happy mood was infectious, spreading to the workers, so everyone just had to stop what they were doing and take in the scene.

Hi!, regarding the first summary section,as mentioned earlier, its very effective the way Dickens reminds us of the deceased as sons of mothers who loved them, particularly he reminds us they were once innocent babies, uncapable of doing harm and horror to fellow man.

I liked as well that Nature doesn't hold back it's process of healing, she doesn't hold any grudges (is there to be a grudge in this story?), but at at the same time not even nature can erase the evidence of the battle as can be seen for generations.

regardind summary 2 of part 1, I gather that the sisters dancing together both for their own enjoyment, must have a good relationship, since they let themselves be swetp up by the moment.

I enjoye that the moment the dance stopped the girls couldn't physically have danced any longer, this brings to my mind an image of "living life to the fullest"

Connie, the dance scene brought a smile to me, for sure. There is so much joy, plus we know the girls are having a fun time. Such a contrast from the grim battle scene.

Omar, I'm so glad you are reading with us. Welcome!

Dickens has a knack for descriptions. He can write in a way that really brings the scenes and people to life......or, in this case, their deaths. We feel for these unknown people because he's made them real. They are sons, they were loved and they mattered.

I like the image of living life to the fullest. The girls, in their dance, are doing just that in this particular moment. They have given their all to this dance.

Grace and Marion Dancing In The Orchard by Charles Green, 1912

I like your suggestion, Omar, that the dancing girls are living life to the fullest. The musicians, also, wouldn't have been able to play any longer, so there is a kind of universal harmony (in more than one way) in the scene.