The Battle of Life (1846)
I picked the 51-page story, The Battle of Life as my first novella to read and had it delivered free of charge on my Kindle. This is my second post about the novel, and I’ll post one more post because it is a three-part story.
Feel free to read along with the posts or speed ahead. It doesn’t take long to finish. If you create a post about the novella, I will list the links to my next post. For this post, I created links to each person who commented along with a portion of their comment.
Part Two
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The Characters
In Part One we meet the main characters, and there are only a few:
What do the names of the characters suggest to you? Do any of the names have meaning? Can you guess their personalities or character?
- two sisters, Grace & Marion
- their father, Dr. Jeddler
- their two servants, Clemency Newcome and Ben Britain
- their father’s ward, Alfred Heathfield,
- two attorneys, Snitchey and Craggs
- another client of the attorneys, Michael Warden.
The Problem
At the top of the image, we can see the battlefield with one man down. The reader here has to work at connecting the imagery between the battlefield and the battle of life.
At the close of part one, the reader learned that there are two sisters, and two men, but only one is an eligible bachelor, Alfred Heathfield, a childhood friend of the sisters. The other bachelor, Michael Warden, is a gentleman who has gambled away his fortune and consults with the Jedder family attorneys to see how to fix his finances.
Since there are two sisters, it would make sense that one could have one man and the other sister would be left with the second available bachelor. The problem is that little sister, Marion, has been engaged or promised to Alfred, the one without money problems, most likely since childhood. Does she love him? They’ve been friends for as long as she can remember, and big sister wants the best for her little sister.
The problem as Michael Warden sees it is that Marion doesn’t love Alfred, she loves him. Marion hasn’t shown any signs to us as readers that this is the case. However, we do get the sense that she is not as anxious to get married to Alfred as her sister Grace thinks she is. Could it be that Grace is living vicariously through Marion?
Might the literary connection be that love is war?
Comments on Part One Post
- Deb’s World – I love the names of the characters, they are spot on!
- Retirement Reflections Goodreads review I got into a flow and read it in just over two hours. The opening description of the ancient bloody battle threw me a bit. I feared the novella was going to be quite dark. But the full title, “The Battle of Life: A Love Story” and the “Once upon a time” beginning gave me hope for a lighter tale. The intoxicatingly poetic passages, and vivid characterizations, helped make the reading flow (and prevented me from being otherwise distracted…which can sometimes happen)!
- Roberta Writes – Review One – Christmas Carol, Review Two – The Cricket on the Hearth Hi Marsha a lovely post about this novella. Project Gutenberg is a great place to get the book as it includes a lot of other information about the book and the author. Fantastic. I’ve shared to my FB page devoted to classic books and poems.
- Sadje – You’re way ahead of me. I did get the complete works of Dickens on my kindle but haven’t selected any book to read. Are you doing one book or three as originally suggested?
- Uniquely Fit – I love the pictures you picked that draw the reader in immediately.
The Challenge
The hosts are Trent, Yvette, and me.
- Year One: 2021 – Little Dorrit
- Year Two: 2022 – Bleak House
- Year Three: 2023 – One of the Five Novellas of Your Choice
Get to Know Charles Dickens
Learn more about Charles Dickens from the Charles Dicken’s Museum
This Year’s Invitation:
- For the 2023 #DickensChallenge we invite you to read ANY ONE of Dickens’ five novellas between February 7th and June 9th, 2023 (the dates for the challenge align with Dickens’ date of birth and date of death). Then share about your reading in a post or via comments on one or all of the host blogs.
- Use this hashtag: #Dickenschallenge if you link a post so we don’t miss you.
- We will be making a master page with info – coming soon
- Readers can find a nice list of Dickens’s works here:
- Readers can access some of Dickens’s works on Project Gutenberg here
Don’t forget!
You can also link to What’s on your Bookshelf for even more interactions. Remember that there are four places to link for that challenge.
I also like to list what I’m reading each week to Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share and read about what others are doing as well.
See you tomorrow for WQ (Wednesday Quotes). There’s still time to post your link for Bridges, or get your new post ready for spring. There are lots of challenges for you to double dip.
- WQ Page
- WQ #13: March 29: CHANGE/WRITER’S CHOICE/DOUBLE DIP CHALLENGES
- #DICKENSCHALLENGE started February 7th. Join Yvette Prior, Trent McDonald, and me in reading ONE – not THREE Dickens’ novellas by June 9th. Donna from Retirement Reflections posted an excellent review on her challenge, What’s On Your Bookshelf this month.
Happy Reading!
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
49 responses to “#DickensChallenge Novella #4 – The Battle of Life Part 2”
[…] started February 7th. Join Yvette Prior, Trent McDonald, and me in reading ONE – not THREE Dickens’ novellas by June 9th. Donna from Retirement […]
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[…] started February 7th. Join Yvette Prior, Trent McDonald, and me in reading ONE – not THREE Dickens’ novellas by June 9th. Donna from Retirement […]
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Hi Marsha, as I mentioned above, this has been my least favourit novella to date. My opinion is based on the fact that I think the behaviours of the two sisters and Alfred was unlikely and even unnatural. That being said, Dickens description of the battlefield in the beginning is sterling, the best depiction of a battle I’ve ever read. It is well worth reading just for that. I’ve re-read it a few times already and am working up to drawing it.
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I agree totally about the sister’s relationship with Alfred, and his with them. He doesn’t play any part in the choices Marion, the beloved made. And if you loved someone so much, and they loved you, why would you give that up? There must have been something in her that screamed, “I don’t feel that way about you! or I’m not ready, don’t rush me!” Yet, she comes back after six years and says, “I never loved him more than when I left him.”
That was so unnatural, especially with your first love, which you feel so strongly.
Then there’s the other side, how would Grace feel knowing that her sister “gave” her Alfred. Second fiddle! She probably felt that anyway but that would have made it worse.
If I had been Grace, I would have hated Marion for 1. leaving and not telling me when she claims to love me, 2. leaving Alfred, who I cared about and breaking his heart (supposedly, though we don’t feel this from him.), 3. for being pompous and assuming that I feel the same way about Alfred that she does, and not that I love him like a brother. Where does she get off second guessing my feelings like that? Now I’ve got to marry the poor bloke because he’s so brokenhearted.
As usual, Robbie, you hit the nail on the head, in my mind when you called them, “unnatural.”
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Hi Marsha, you have set out my thoughts about the three main characters very succinctly here. I would also have been horrified if I were Grace to be gifted my husband by my sister. I think Dickens had some odd notions about women thought.
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He thought she was being noble. He was writing to a different generation, too, in which marriage was everything, especially for the oldest sister. There was an expectation that they marry first, and if they didn’t, they might become the old maid. It was also up to them to bring in the money by marrying well. Marion might have thought that Alfred would be a good provider – for the family, and Michael definitely was not that at the time, even if she had loved him. They were times that are hard for us to imagine with arranged marriages with all ages of men and women just to make sure the family was set up well. I’m not sure that love was often a part of it – at least in the upper classes. I also think that men in general had odd thoughts about women. Women did write in the 18th and 19th century. “CHARLOTTE BRONTE, EMILY BRONTE, Mrs. Gaskell and GEORGE ELIOT were in prime focus in England.” (online source) Louisa May Alcott and Harriette Beecher Stowe in America. So we get some of the women’s views, but for the most part life in the 1800s was still recorded in literature by men. Now it’s 50.5% to 49.5% female to male writers literature.
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You are quite correct about the oldest being expected to marry well and for money. From that perspective, Marian was being kind to her sister and preventing her self sacrifice. I suppose relationships have always been very complex. Writing was not considered to be ladylike and women were also generally considered to be to ‘silly’ to be taken seriously as writers. All part of the male dominance messaging.
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Glad those days and ideas have died down!!
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[…] started February 7th. Join Yvette Prior, Trent McDonald, and me in reading ONE – not THREE Dickens’ novellas by June 9th. Donna from Retirement […]
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This sounds so interesting. What a neat challenge.
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You would love it, Kirstin because you love to read. The novellas are short, and fun to read. I hope you join us.
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I’ve read the battle of life. Should I write a review?
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That would be great! Please do! Thanks, Sadje. Just send the link in comments and you can add the link to my last post, if you want. 🙂
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Thanks Marsha. I’ll do it.
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Yay!
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🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
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Hi, Marsha – I love how Dickens creatively invented names to reflect the characters assigned to them and to add greater depth and humour to his stories. In Battle of Life, the sister Grace is actually full of grace, kindness and goodwill. The lawyers, Snitchey and Craggs, are exactly that: snitching/conniving and rough/rugged. You can count on Dickens to never provide his characters with boring/meaningless names! 😀
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I agree. I hadn’t thought of Snitchey actually being a snitch, but they were going to get Michael all squared away in 6-7 years. I can see a lot of conniving going on behind the scenes there! What about Marion? I looked it up. It means Star of the sea; Beloved. I think that fit her. And like a sailor, she disappeared for a very long time.
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Hi, Marsha – I love these details that you found out about the name Marion. They make great sense. I believe that the name ‘Marion’ as derived from the New Testament can also mean “Wished For Child”, which also fits here. Dickens was incredibly clever!
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I love how deep you go in your reviews! You inspire me to dig!
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I thought Snitchey was actually rather a nice character by the end. He was bound by the non-disclosure rules of his profession, but he did his best to behave appropriately with his knowledge. He was very fond of his friend Craggs which was a positive about his character. His wife didn’t seem to be particularly nice. She was well named as Mrs Snitchey.
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I agree with this analysis, too, Robbie. Mrs. S was very insecure.
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Hi, Roberta and Marsha – Thanks so much for commenting. I love discussions like this! As soon as Dickens mentions a lawyer (he included at least one lawyer in 11 of his novels), I automatically expect bloodless Mr. Vohles (Bleakhouse) or cold and forbidding Jaggers (GE)., so I may be jaded in my reading. Early in the Battle of Life, Dickens plays off contrasting views of the world from Jeddler viewing it as a ‘practical joke…too absurd to be taken seriously’ to Cragg and Snitchey’s view of life as a ‘battle for survival won by the craftiest’ to Clemency’s ‘Do as you would be done by”. At least, that was the way that I read it. ❤
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Yes, I do remember that scene and at the beginning, I did think that Snitchey and Cragg weren’t very likeable. As the story progressed though, the pair became a lot more loyal to Dr Jeddler and his family. You are right about Mr Jaggers although he too showed some soft spots and humanity towards the end, didn’t he?
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Hi, Robbie – Thanks for continuin g the conversation. I agree with both of your points here. I am 2/3rds of the way through GE but can already see hints of a (somewhat) softer interior to Mr. Jagers.
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Ah, yes, I’m remembering . 🙂
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I just finished this Sunday night. Interesting. Anyway, I did not see your part 1. Is there a link to it?
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There was, I will go back and fix it.
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Thanks for this Marsha. We’re still working our way through Great Expectations in our on-line bookclub and in our first discussion we noted the names and how descriptive they were.
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I love his ability to name. He has so many good qualities as a writer. I read GE last year when my friend was reading it.
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Great Expectations is marvelous, Debbie. My favourite Dickens and I’ve read it a few times. All the best with your reading.
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I agree, Deb. I loved Great Expectations.
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Thank you, all going well!
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That’s always good to hear! 🙂
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I am just about ready to make my first post. The Cricket on the Hearth is the first book I’m reading (I joined when there were three to read and I decided to stick with that)/ I didn’t read/choose The Battle of Life so this was a nice post to read. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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Thanks, Dan. Be sure and send me a link via my comment section and I’ll post it on my next post as well. 🙂
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Will do.
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🙂
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Hi Dan, I must admit that out of the four novellas I have read to date, The Battle of Life is the one I have liked the least. Other than the obvious, A Christmas Carol, I liked The Chimes best and then The Cricket on the Hearth.
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Hmmm. Well, I’m ready to move on with The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain, as I want to finish with A Christmas Carol.
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You are speedy, my friend. I’m reading The Haunted Man right now, but I haven’t been in a hurry because I’m behind on writing posts. That always happens to me. 🙂
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My schedule is fractured 10 different ways, Marsha. I’m trying to finish something.
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LOL! I know your problem. My life has been fractured into a million pieces since November when we started moving, remodeling our rental where we were moving to, and caring for sick animals. I think it is going to calm down soon. I won’t know what to do with myself. 🙂
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HI Dan, I have left that one until last. I started with A Christmas Carol and have read four and posted about three to date.
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You are a reading/writing machine, Robbie. I will read three before June 9th. I hope to get three posts written.
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That is great, Dan. I am very behind with review writing at the moment and have six to write. Eeek!
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Yikes!
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Yikes is right!
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I am way behind you on these. I’m saving the Christmas Carol for last since it is so familiar.
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