Seven Xmas Eves: Restored Classics to Go Edition

· Otbebookpublishing
Ebook
147
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

Seven Christmas Eves begins in the warm, comic voice of washerwoman Mary Cheevers, who tells of a poor but decent home and the hidden children who transform it. When Mary discovers ragged, starving Nick and Nan huddled in an attic like "Babes in the Wood," she and her husband bring them downstairs, feed and clothe them, and quietly make them part of the family. Their bond grows into a lasting affection that the narrator treats as proof that kinship can be formed by care, not blood. But the book's Christmas tenderness is shadowed by poverty, loss, and moral danger. Nick's innocent gift of a red ribbon to Nan is followed by the return of his long-absent mother, a ruined woman whose despair ends in suicide at Waterloo Bridge. Mary's grief is tempered by compassion, and the story insists on mercy for the desperate. In another lively episode, Nick and Nan's good-hearted mistake leads them to a foundling baby, and their kindness is rewarded with money and a donkey. The final movement shifts to David Dix, a night watchman whose sober testimony brings a darker tale of crime, trial, transportation, and unfulfilled love, as Nick is sentenced to seven years and Nan is left behind. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
Seven Christmas Eves begins in the warm, comic voice of washerwoman Mary Cheevers, who tells of a poor but decent home and the hidden children who transform it. When Mary discovers ragged, starving Nick and Nan huddled in an attic like "Babes in the Wood," she and her husband bring them downstair...

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About the author

Richard Dehan was the pen name of Clotilde Inez Mary Graves, an Anglo-Irish writer who built a varied literary career in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, moving between journalism, fiction, and social observation with ease and confidence. Born into a world shaped by empire, class distinctions, and rapid cultural change, she brought a sharp eye to the tensions of her age and a keen interest in the inner lives of ordinary people as well as the manners of the privileged. Her fiction earned attention for its lively storytelling, emotional warmth, and gift for blending realism with a touch of humor, while her most admired work showed a particular talent for capturing seasonal atmosphere, family feeling, and the complex pressures hidden beneath domestic life. Across her writing, recurring themes include duty, memory, social identity, faith, and the small but decisive moments that shape human relationships, themes that still resonate because they speak to the universal struggle to balance private longing with public expectation. Dehan's legacy lies in her ability to make social detail feel intimate and morally alive, offering readers both entertainment and insight into the world she knew. Today, she will especially appeal to readers who enjoy historical fiction with emotional depth, strong characterization, and a subtle awareness of the forces that shape family and society.

Richard Dehan was the pen name of Clotilde Inez Mary Graves, an Anglo-Irish writer who built a varied literary career in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, moving between journalism, fiction, and social observation with ease and confidence. Born into a world shaped by empire, clas...

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