Fiction Gallery

Scene from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843. Artist: John Leech

Scene from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843. The irascible, curmudgeonly Ebenezer Scrooge, sitting alone on Christmas Eve, is visited by the ghost of Marley, his late business partner. The same night he is visited by three more apparitions, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future, whose revelations cause him to wake on Christmas Day a changed man. He sends a turkey to Bob Cratchit his clerk, thoroughly enjoys the festivities and becomes a kindly, jolly old man. From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. (London, 1843). This was the first in the series of five Christmas books Dickens published

© Ann Ronan Picture Library / Heritage-Images

Cervantess Don Quixote in his library

Cervantes's Don Quixote in his library, 1863 French edition. Don Quixote reading books on chivalry in his library before setting out on his quest. Don Quixote is a work published in two parts (1605 and 1615) by Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). It tells the story of a Spanish nobleman and would-be knight Alonso Quijano (who calls himself Don Quixote) and the farmer Sancho who travels with him as his squire. Artwork, by French artist Gustave Dore (1832-1883; engraved by Heliodore Joseph Pisan (1822-1890)

© MIDDLE TEMPLE LIBRARY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Rasselas and Imlac digging a tunnel

Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, together with his companion, the wise man Imlac, digging a tunnel in order to escape the Happy Valley and see what life is like beyond it. An early scene from Samuel Johnson's novella

© Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 - https://copyrighthub.org/s0/hub1/creation/maryevans/MaryEvansPictureID/10006237

1750s, 1759, Abissinia, Abyssin Ia, Book, Books, Companion, Dig, Digging, Eastern, English, Escape, Escaping, Fiction, Happiness, Happy, Historical, History, Imlac, Johnson, Literature, Man, Novella, Oriental, Pick, Pick Axe, Prince, Prose, Published, Rasselas, Samuel, Scene, Tunnel, Turban, Valley, Vanity, Wise