Christmas stories

Charles John Huffy Dickens (1812–1870) - English writer, stenographer, reporter, novelist and essayist. The classic of world literature, one of the largest prose writers of the 19th century, he became the most popular English -language writer during his lifetime. Dickens novels are attributed to the heights of realism, but in his work you can find both a romantic and a fabulous principle. An example of such works was the “Christmas Tales”, to which Dickens began after the publication of the “posthumous notes of the Pickwick Club” and “Adventures of Oliver Twist”, who glorified him. Tales in which ghosts, elves and fairies appear, were completed by 1848
in 1871, a year after the death of Dickens, the famous British publishing house “Capen And Hall” decided to release the writer"s nine -dinosaum, including all the very most Large works of the classic. The English artist Frederik Barnard (1846–1896) was invited to illustrate them, who had managed to become famous by this time, publishing his drawings in the British satirical weekly Punch, the weekly newspaper London News and the American political journal Harpers Writok. Frederick happily agreed and went to work with his head. For eight years, he created about 450 illustrations, some of which adorn this publication. Barnard had a difficult task, because before him the excellent illustrations for many works of Dickens were performed by the famous British artist Heeble Knight Brown, who was personally familiar with the writer. Through the prism of Brown’s artistic gaze, his numerous admirers perceived the world of Dickens. Giving tribute to the talent of Brown, Barnard went his own way. Having abandoned the image of multi -figure compositions, he emphasized on a thorough drawing of individual characters and succeeded in this. In addition, he used some images successfully found by Brown, complementing and enriching them in his illustrations. After the publication of the nine -dickens, Frederick Barnard won the well -deserved glory of the beautiful illustrator, he was even called Dickens among the graphs. By the end of the XIX century. Barnard managed to become famous as a talented painter - he wrote portraits of the English aristocracy and the royal family. However, the end of his life was sad. In 1891, at the age of 19, his beloved son Jeffrey died from the innate defect of the heart. And although Barnard had two more daughters left, he could not transfer this loss, because his son followed in the footsteps of his father and could also become a famous artist. Fighting depression, Barnard began to take an opium tincture and at the end of September 1896 died in his own house in Wimbledon - his bed caught fire during sleep, and the artist suffocated from smoke. In which ghosts, elves and fairies appear. Dickens wrote them from 1843 to 1848, drawing wide strokes of the scene from the life of modern English society. At the same time, he appealed to human humanism, trying to improve the position of the poorest segments of the population. Illustrations for the collection are made by the English cartoonist of the XIX century. Frederick Barnard. The sharp pencil was useful to the artist while working on illustrations for various works of Dickens with acute social orientation