December, here we come! It is the month of hot chocolates, sweet and spicy flavors and scents, fireplaces and candles, illuminations in the night. As Christmas is fast approaching, we slowly immerse ourselves in the heart of its magic. Leave the Christmas movies for an evening, wrap up in a plaid with a cup of tea still burning and let yourself soak up its magic through the pages of a book. The JustFocus editorial team has selected Christmas books for you.
Christmas tales
The Christmas Tale by Charles Dickens
Written in 1843, Charles Dickens' Christmas Tale has become a true classic in Christmas literature. Also called A Christmas Carol, Christmas Carol or Christmas Song, this tale is not only the first written by Charles Dickens, but also the most famous, thus considered the most perfect and representative of the Dickens style. In this work divided into five tales, the author tells us the adventures of Scrooge over the Christmases of the past, present and future. Beyond the celebration and magic of Christmas, between sharing and charity, he takes a critical look at inequalities and social injustices. Indeed, according to him, this holiday excluded the poor.
As Dominique Barberis writes, "these tales give us back a little childhood in its pure state, in the native vigor of feelings: indignation and pity, laughter, fear. They give us back the forgotten happiness of our first readings, these readings of adhesion without critical distance, without reservation, not skeptical and hardened, but wonderfully sensitive and gullible".
Hoffmann's nutcracker
Among the most emblematic stories about the fairytale Christmas season, we can mention The Nutcracker. Published in 1816, The Nutcracker and the King of Mice (also called The Nutcracker, The Nutcracker or The Kratakuk Nut) is a tale written by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann and translated into French by Émile de La Bédollière in 1838. However, Alexandre Dumas' adaptation, although not very faithful to moose, remained for a long time the best known. It was from the latter that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was inspired to create the ballet The Nutcracker in 1892.
This tale tells the story of a little girl surrounded by magical toys and her human-looking nutcracker. In a symbolic dimension, the author highlights the passage from childhood to adulthood.
Christmas books with mysterious atmospheres
The Christmas Tale by Guy de Maupassant
Paru in 1882, Le Conte de Noël by Guy de Maupassant tells a memory of Christmas lived by Dr. Bonenfant. "A Christmas memory?… A Christmas memory? And suddenly he cried out: "But yes, I have one, and a strange one yet; It's a fantastic story. I saw a miracle! »
Dr. Bonenfant remembers a miracle that occurred on Christmas Eve when he was a country doctor. This miracle is actually an exorcism on a patient in the middle of the midnight mass. The story tells us how the fervor of practitioners allowed the patient to free herself from Evil. At the heart of the magic of Christmas, Guy de Maupassant plunges us into an amazing story, made of mysteries and mysticisms. Thus, the fantastic narrative leaves room here for the strange.
Letters from Santa Claus from J.R.R.Tolkien
The Father Christmas Letters is a collection of letters written and illustrated by the famous J. R. R. Tolkien, best known for The Lord of the Rings. Written between 1920 and 1943, his collections were intended for his children, like Bilbo the Hobbit and Roverandom. Thus, these thirty letters (fifteen of which were translated for the first time, in this revised and expanded edition) were allegedly sent from the North Pole by Santa Claus or the Polar Bear.In his letters, he recounts the adventures of Santa Claus and his companions, the Polar Bear and his nephews Paksu and Valkotukka, or the elf Ilbereth.
Police investigations at Christmas time
Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie
The famous Agatha Christie is no exception to the rule of Christmas magic by plunging us into the heart of a police investigation with the short story Christmas Pudding (entitled The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding in the United Kingdom and The Theft of the Royal Ruby in the United States), originally published on September 25 and October 2, 1960 in the magazine This Week in the United States. It was first published in France in the collection Le Retour d'Hercule Poirot in 1962.
The novelist portrays the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in an English Christmas. An investigation into a theft of a ruby belonging to a young prince from an Eastern country takes him.
Under the Ice of Louise Penny
Louise Penny's novel Under the Ice immerses us in the small community of Three Pines, a Canadian village preparing for Christmas. While the cold and snow prevail, the inhabitants gather by the fire, with friends. The novel is then lulled by a jovial atmosphere bathed in a smell of rum, freshly cut fir trees. But it is in this winter postcard that a murder will take place, during the traditional Christmas curling. Worthy heiress of Agatha Christie, Louise Penny plunges us into the heart of a police investigation for murder
And Christmas books tinged with romance…
Christmas at Jenny Colgan's Little Bakery
Let's finish our selection of Christmas books with a much lighter atmosphere with Christmas at Jenny Colgan's small bakery. It is the third and final novel in the Little Bakery series. Through the bakery, the novelist makes us salivate between gingerbread houses, candied fruit buns, honey puff pastries… In a romantic atmosphere, she adds essential ingredients to capture the attention of her reader. Thus, lies, surprises and betrayals punctuate. Then promises to be a rather eventful Christmas.
Find our different selections of Christmas novels but also Halloween on Justfocus.
