Seven Poor Travellers
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
