Christmas Classics Collection: The Nutcracker, Old Christmas, a Christmas Carol (Deluxe 3-Book Boxed Set)

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was the outstanding English novelist of the Victorian era as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Dickens’s novels were renowned for their vivid and complex characters, their social commentary, and their portrayal of the struggles of ordinary people in Victorian England. His most famous works include Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Hard Times and A Christmas Carol.

Washington Irving (1783-1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat. He is best known for his short stories ’Rip Van Winkle’ (1819) and ’The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’(1820), both of which appear in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Irving was one of the first American writers to find acclaim in Europe and admirers included Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley, and Walter Scott.

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (E. T. A.) Hoffmann) (1776-1822) was a German romantic novelist of fantasy and Gothic horror. A number of his stories have inspired operas and ballets including Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, in which a fictionalized version of Hoffmann is the hero. Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker is based on the novella The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.

John Leech (1817-1864) was a British illustrator and caricaturist. He was best known for his work for Punch, a humorous magazine combining political satire and light social comedy. He is also recognized for his illustrations in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Randolph Caldecott (1846-1886) was an influential British artist and book illustrator. His work was exhibited by the Royal Academy and was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colors in 1882. Among well-known admirers of his work were Gauguin and Van Gogh.