Dodo Collections brings you another classic from Charles Dickens, ‘The Battle of Life.’   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 isnt the final scene.) The story bears some resemblance to The Cricket on the Hearth in two aspects: it has a non-urban setting & its resolved with a romantic twist. Its even less of a social novel than is Cricket. As is typical with Dickens, the ending is a happy one. Its one of Dickens lesser-known works and has never attained the high level of popularity is perhaps deserves, a trait it shares among the Christmas Books with The Haunted Man.   Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the worlds best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.   Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for childrens rights, education, and other social reforms.