Written in 1836 as part of what would become Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers, this festive children’s book introduces a morose and lonely sexton, Gabriel Grub. The book details Grub’s conversion from pessimism to kindness as he endures a redemption path very similar to the celebrated Dickens character, Ebenezer Scrooge. (Dickens would publish A Christmas Carol seven years later.) The reader follows Grub on Christmas Eve as he is kidnapped and tortured by goblins who teach him moral lessons so that he can better appreciate the Christmas season.
