Charles Dickens is known not only for his novels, but also for his short stories, particularly "A Christmas Carol." In the latter genre, interestingly, these stories had a powerful commercial impulse, for they were serialized in magazines at the Christmas season."The Cricket on the Hearth," "The Battle of Life" and "The Haunted Man" were written for the Christmas market, and all lay emphasis on family love and the delights of home. But there is more to these stories than surface sentimentality: their eager anticipation by a whole nation tells us much about the age Dickens lived in. And these stories never would have survived without roots and power.