Fiction · 1846
The Battle of Life
Doctor Jeddler raises his two daughters, Grace and Marion, in a quiet English village built over the site of a battle fought and forgotten generations ago. Marion is engaged to Alfred Heathfield, her father's ward, who leaves to complete his studies abroad on Grace's promise to watch over her sister until his return — a promise tested when Marion vanishes on the eve of his homecoming.
Published on 19 December 1846 by Bradbury and Evans, this was the fourth of Dickens's five Christmas Books, following A Christmas Carol (1843), The Chimes (1844) and The Cricket on the Hearth (1845) — and the only one of the five with no ghost or supernatural figure of any kind.
This Bibliomancer edition presents the complete 1846 text, in its original three parts.
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The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
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About the author
1812–1870 · Victorian
Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was born at Portsmouth and worked as a child in a blacking factory while his father was imprisoned for debt — an experience he drew on for the rest of his life. A parliamentary reporter by twenty, he became the most popular novelist in English with The Pickwick Papers (1836–37) and never lost that place: Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and Great Expectations (1861) followed. He died at Gad’s Hill, Kent.
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