The Goblins Grave

After beating up a little boy on Christmas Eve – as you do – Gabriel Grub, a grumpy and mean-spirited gravedigger, goes to dig a grave in the churchyard. His work is interrupted when goblins come by to show him what a nasty and spiteful fellow he is. The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton is a quick and festive read which appeared in Charles Dickens’ first novel, The Pickwick Papers, Britain’s first publishing phenomenon. It’s a haunting and imaginative short story and readers familiar with Dickens will find many parallels to A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English author, social critic, and philanthropist. Much of his writing first appeared in small instalments in magazines and was widely popular. Among his most famous novels are Oliver Twist (1839), David Copperfield (1850), and Great Expectations (1861).

Graves and Goblins (+Biography and Bibliography) (Glossy Cover Finish): Now talk we of graves and goblins! Fit themes, start not! gentle reader, fit for a ghost like me. Yes; though an earthclogged fancy is laboring with these conceptions, and an earthly hand will write them down, for mortal eyes to read, still their essence flows from as airy a ghost as ever basked in the pale starlight, at twelve o'clock. Judge them not by the gross and heavy form in which they now appear. They may be gross, indeed, with the earthly pollution contracted from the brain, through which they pass; and heavy with the burden of mortal language, that crushes all the finer intelligences of the soul. This is no fault of mine.

When Johnnykin protects a stone goblin from a destructive bully, the goblin comes to life and transports Johnnykin to the annual gathering of goblins, fairies, and nursery rhyme characters.

»The Story of the Goblin who Stole a Sexton« is a short story by Charles Dickens, originally published in 1836. CHARLES DICKENS [1812–1870], born in Portsmouth, England, was the most popular English-language novelist of his time. He created a fictional world that reflected the social and technological changes during the Victorian era. Among his most famous works are David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, and The Pickwick Papers.