Seven Poor Travellers
Dickens spent Christmas Eve 1854 at Richard Watts's Charity in Rochester, an ancient institution that has provided shelter to weary travelers for centuries. What begins as a quiet evening of hospitality becomes something far more luminous as Dickens settles in with seven poor strangers and tells them the story of Richard Doubledick, a tale of a humble man whose courage in the Peninsular War earns him redemption and reunion with the officer who once saved his life. The narrative moves between Dickens's present-tense observations of the charity's hallowed halls and his story within a story, building toward a Christmas morning journey home that leaves the reader profoundly moved. This is Dickens at his most intimate and generous, less famous than A Christmas Carol but equally heartfelt in its celebration of kindness across class boundaries.
X-Ray
