Charles Dickens 
The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain 

Charles Dickens published his final
Christmas book , ‘The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain’, in 1848. 

While it has been upstaged by the most famous of his yuletide stories, ‘A Christmas Carol’, both share a distinct similarity: a ghostly plot. While Dickens is often credited with inventing the modern idea of Christmas, that of trees and garlands and presents, he also cast a spooky, haunting mood over the holiday. To Dickens, Christmas was not only a time for festive warmth, but one for dark examination, too.



In this story, Dickens narrates the hair raising experiences of a professor. As the protagonist dwells on his past sorrows and mistakes, a phantom visits him. It offers him a bizarre escape from painful recollections of yesteryear by offering to eradicate his memory. On seeing the professor turn into a man devoid of emotions, the reader realises how empty one becomes without a past.