#charlesdickens — Public Fediverse posts

Grinds, Grinding and Grinders

When I moved to Ireland, almost nine years ago, one of the words I discovered had a usage with which I was unfamiliar was grind. My first encounter with this was after a lecture on vector calculus when a student asked if I knew of anyone who could offer him grinds. I didn’t know what he meant but was sure it wasn’t the meaning that sprang first into my mind so I just said no, I had just arrived in Ireland so didn’t know of anyone. I resisted the temptation to suggest he try finding an appropriate person via Grindr.

I only found out later that grinds are a form of private tuition and they are quite a big industry in Ireland, particularly at secondary school level. School students whose parents can afford it often take grinds in particular subjects to improve their performance on the Leaving Certificate. It seems to be less common for third level students to pay for grinds, but it does happen. More frequently, university students actually offer grinds to local schoolkids as a kind of part-time employment to help them through college.

The word grind can also refer to a private tutor, i.e. you can have a maths grind. It can also be used as a verb, in which sense it means `to instil or teach by persistent repetition’.

This sense of the word grind may be in use in the United Kingdom but I have never come across it before, and it seems to me to be specific to Ireland at least in current usage. A colleague sent me a link to an article about Carew Arthur Meredith, who worked at Trinity College Dublin from 1943 to 1964 but who was previously at Cambridge University and lived there until 1939:

After graduating, Meredith married Sybil Clark and settled down to what was to be for many years his occupation: that of university coach or “grinder.”

This establishes a possible conduit for the transfer of the word “grinder” from England to Ireland and it inspired me to look at the trusty online Oxford English dictionary which includes examples of usage. In fact the OED gives as examples of “grind” as a transitive or intransitive verbs and as a noun as well as the verbal noun “grinding” and the deverbal noun “grinder”. Here are some pertinent quotes. The first below, incidentally, is from a book of American college slang, demonstrating that the word had crossed the Atlantic by 1851.

Here are the most relevant examples, some of them hilariously susceptible to a double entendre.

n. Steady hard work; labour of a monotonous kind, esp. close and hard study; an instance of this, a dull and laborious task.

1851
Grind, an exaction; an oppressive action. Students speak of a very long lesson which they are required to learn, or of anything which is very unpleasant or difficult to perform as a grind.
B. H. Hall, Collection of College Words

1857
A medical student would have told him, that a ‘Grind’ meant the reading up for an examination under the tuition of one who was familiarly termed ‘a Grinder’—a process which Mr. Verdant Green’s friends would phrase as ‘Coaching’ under ‘a Coach’.
‘C. Bede’, Mr. Verdant Green Married xi. 93

vi. To work hard at a subject of study under the direction of a tutor or ‘grinder’.

1835
I am obliged to ‘grind’..that is, undergo a private examination with an authorized teacher or tutor.
E. Forbes in G. Wilson & A. Geikie, Memoir of Edward Forbes (1861) vi. 176

1870
After grinding with private-tutor Mylius the requisite time, Lessing entered the school of Camenz.
J. R. Lowell, Among my Books (1873) 1st Series 308

vt. To teach (a subject) in a steady laborious manner; also, to prepare (a pupil) in a subject.

1815
implied in:
Perhaps when Tom leaves Oxford..we may contrive some gainful grinding [i.e. tutorial] scheme between us. [at grinding n.]
J. Keble, Letter to Coleridge in Mem. (1869) iv. 63

1848
A pack of humbugs, and quacks, that weren’t fit to get their living but by grinding Latin and Greek.
W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero lvi. 502

1859
[Dr. Bennett] undertook to grind him in anatomy and physiology.
G. Wilson & A. Geikie, Memoir of Edward Forbes vi. 180

In Hard Times by Charles Dickens there is a character by the name of Mr Thomas Gradgrind, a grimly utilitarain school superintendent who insisted on teaching only facts. Hard Times was published in 1854 which is after some of the quotations above so Dickens did not originate the use of “grind” in teaching. He may have amplified it, of course.

This demonstrates that these terms were established in 19th Century England, but does not explain how their usage died out there but still flourishes in Ireland. Can anyone shed light on this? First recorded usages of grind, etc in Irish literature would be most helpful!

Grinds, Grinding and Grinders

When I moved to Ireland, almost nine years ago, one of the words I discovered had a usage with which I was unfamiliar was grind. My first encounter with this was after a lecture on vector calculus when a student asked if I knew of anyone who could offer him grinds. I didn’t know what he meant but was sure it wasn’t the meaning that sprang first into my mind so I just said no, I had just arrived in Ireland so didn’t know of anyone. I resisted the temptation to suggest he try finding an appropriate person via Grindr.

I only found out later that grinds are a form of private tuition and they are quite a big industry in Ireland, particularly at secondary school level. School students whose parents can afford it often take grinds in particular subjects to improve their performance on the Leaving Certificate. It seems to be less common for third level students to pay for grinds, but it does happen. More frequently, university students actually offer grinds to local schoolkids as a kind of part-time employment to help them through college.

The word grind can also refer to a private tutor, i.e. you can have a maths grind. It can also be used as a verb, in which sense it means `to instil or teach by persistent repetition’.

This sense of the word grind may be in use in the United Kingdom but I have never come across it before, and it seems to me to be specific to Ireland at least in current usage. A colleague sent me a link to an article about Carew Arthur Meredith, who worked at Trinity College Dublin from 1943 to 1964 but who was previously at Cambridge University and lived there until 1939:

After graduating, Meredith married Sybil Clark and settled down to what was to be for many years his occupation: that of university coach or “grinder.”

This establishes a possible conduit for the transfer of the word “grinder” from England to Ireland and it inspired me to look at the trusty online Oxford English dictionary which includes examples of usage. In fact the OED gives as examples of “grind” as a transitive or intransitive verbs and as a noun as well as the verbal noun “grinding” and the deverbal noun “grinder”. Here are some pertinent quotes. The first below, incidentally, is from a book of American college slang, demonstrating that the word had crossed the Atlantic by 1851.

Here are the most relevant examples, some of them hilariously susceptible to a double entendre.

n. Steady hard work; labour of a monotonous kind, esp. close and hard study; an instance of this, a dull and laborious task.

1851
Grind, an exaction; an oppressive action. Students speak of a very long lesson which they are required to learn, or of anything which is very unpleasant or difficult to perform as a grind.
B. H. Hall, Collection of College Words

1857
A medical student would have told him, that a ‘Grind’ meant the reading up for an examination under the tuition of one who was familiarly termed ‘a Grinder’—a process which Mr. Verdant Green’s friends would phrase as ‘Coaching’ under ‘a Coach’.
‘C. Bede’, Mr. Verdant Green Married xi. 93

vi. To work hard at a subject of study under the direction of a tutor or ‘grinder’.

1835
I am obliged to ‘grind’..that is, undergo a private examination with an authorized teacher or tutor.
E. Forbes in G. Wilson & A. Geikie, Memoir of Edward Forbes (1861) vi. 176

1870
After grinding with private-tutor Mylius the requisite time, Lessing entered the school of Camenz.
J. R. Lowell, Among my Books (1873) 1st Series 308

vt. To teach (a subject) in a steady laborious manner; also, to prepare (a pupil) in a subject.

1815
implied in:
Perhaps when Tom leaves Oxford..we may contrive some gainful grinding [i.e. tutorial] scheme between us. [at grinding n.]
J. Keble, Letter to Coleridge in Mem. (1869) iv. 63

1848
A pack of humbugs, and quacks, that weren’t fit to get their living but by grinding Latin and Greek.
W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero lvi. 502

1859
[Dr. Bennett] undertook to grind him in anatomy and physiology.
G. Wilson & A. Geikie, Memoir of Edward Forbes vi. 180

In Hard Times by Charles Dickens there is a character by the name of Mr Thomas Gradgrind, a grimly utilitarain school superintendent who insisted on teaching only facts. Hard Times was published in 1954 which is after some of the quotations above so Dickens did not originate the use of “grind” in teaching. He may have amplified it, of course.

This demonstrates that these terms were established in 19th Century England, but does not explain how their usage died out there but still flourishes in Ireland. Can anyone shed light on this? First recorded usages of grind, etc in Irish literature would be most helpful!

Grinds, Grinding and Grinders

When I moved to Ireland, almost nine years ago, one of the words I discovered had a usage with which I was unfamiliar was grind. My first encounter with this was after a lecture on vector calculus when a student asked if I knew of anyone who could offer him grinds. I didn’t know what he meant but was sure it wasn’t the meaning that sprang first into my mind so I just said no, I had just arrived in Ireland so didn’t know of anyone. I resisted the temptation to suggest he try finding an appropriate person via Grindr.

I only found out later that grinds are a form of private tuition and they are quite a big industry in Ireland, particularly at secondary school level. School students whose parents can afford it often take grinds in particular subjects to improve their performance on the Leaving Certificate. It seems to be less common for third level students to pay for grinds, but it does happen. More frequently, university students actually offer grinds to local schoolkids as a kind of part-time employment to help them through college.

The word grind can also refer to a private tutor, i.e. you can have a maths grind. It can also be used as a verb, in which sense it means `to instil or teach by persistent repetition’.

This sense of the word grind may be in use in the United Kingdom but I have never come across it before, and it seems to me to be specific to Ireland at least in current usage. A colleague sent me a link to an article about Carew Arthur Meredith, who worked at Trinity College Dublin from 1943 to 1964 but who was previously at Cambridge University and lived there until 1939:

After graduating, Meredith married Sybil Clark and settled down to what was to be for many years his occupation: that of university coach or “grinder.”

This establishes a possible conduit for the transfer of the word “grinder” from England to Ireland and it inspired me to look at the trusty online Oxford English dictionary which includes examples of usage. In fact the OED gives as examples of “grind” as a transitive or intransitive verbs and as a noun as well as the verbal noun “grinding” and the deverbal noun “grinder”. Here are some pertinent quotes. The first below, incidentally, is from a book of American college slang, demonstrating that the word had crossed the Atlantic by 1851.

Here are the most relevant examples, some of them hilariously susceptible to a double entendre.

n. Steady hard work; labour of a monotonous kind, esp. close and hard study; an instance of this, a dull and laborious task.

1851
Grind, an exaction; an oppressive action. Students speak of a very long lesson which they are required to learn, or of anything which is very unpleasant or difficult to perform as a grind.
B. H. Hall, Collection of College Words

1857
A medical student would have told him, that a ‘Grind’ meant the reading up for an examination under the tuition of one who was familiarly termed ‘a Grinder’—a process which Mr. Verdant Green’s friends would phrase as ‘Coaching’ under ‘a Coach’.
‘C. Bede’, Mr. Verdant Green Married xi. 93

vi. To work hard at a subject of study under the direction of a tutor or ‘grinder’.

1835
I am obliged to ‘grind’..that is, undergo a private examination with an authorized teacher or tutor.
E. Forbes in G. Wilson & A. Geikie, Memoir of Edward Forbes (1861) vi. 176

1870
After grinding with private-tutor Mylius the requisite time, Lessing entered the school of Camenz.
J. R. Lowell, Among my Books (1873) 1st Series 308

vt. To teach (a subject) in a steady laborious manner; also, to prepare (a pupil) in a subject.

1815
implied in:
Perhaps when Tom leaves Oxford..we may contrive some gainful grinding [i.e. tutorial] scheme between us. [at grinding n.]
J. Keble, Letter to Coleridge in Mem. (1869) iv. 63

1848
A pack of humbugs, and quacks, that weren’t fit to get their living but by grinding Latin and Greek.
W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero lvi. 502

1859
[Dr. Bennett] undertook to grind him in anatomy and physiology.
G. Wilson & A. Geikie, Memoir of Edward Forbes vi. 180

In Hard Times by Charles Dickens there is a character by the name of Mr Thomas Gradgrind, a grimly utilitarain school superintendent who insisted on teaching only facts. Hard Times was published in 1954 which is after some of the quotations above so Dickens did not originate the use of “grind” in teaching. He may have amplified it, of course.

This demonstrates that these terms were established in 19th Century England, but does not explain how their usage died out there but still flourishes in Ireland. Can anyone shed light on this? First recorded usages of grind, etc in Irish literature would be most helpful!

Grinds, Grinding and Grinders

When I moved to Ireland, almost nine years ago, one of the words I discovered had a usage with which I was unfamiliar was grind. My first encounter with this was after a lecture on vector calculus when a student asked if I knew of anyone who could offer him grinds. I didn’t know what he meant but was sure it wasn’t the meaning that sprang first into my mind so I just said no, I had just arrived in Ireland so didn’t know of anyone. I resisted the temptation to suggest he try finding an appropriate person via Grindr.

I only found out later that grinds are a form of private tuition and they are quite a big industry in Ireland, particularly at secondary school level. School students whose parents can afford it often take grinds in particular subjects to improve their performance on the Leaving Certificate. It seems to be less common for third level students to pay for grinds, but it does happen. More frequently, university students actually offer grinds to local schoolkids as a kind of part-time employment to help them through college.

The word grind can also refer to a private tutor, i.e. you can have a maths grind. It can also be used as a verb, in which sense it means `to instil or teach by persistent repetition’.

This sense of the word grind may be in use in the United Kingdom but I have never come across it before, and it seems to me to be specific to Ireland at least in current usage. A colleague sent me a link to an article about Carew Arthur Meredith, who worked at Trinity College Dublin from 1943 to 1964 but who was previously at Cambridge University and lived there until 1939:

After graduating, Meredith married Sybil Clark and settled down to what was to be for many years his occupation: that of university coach or “grinder.”

This establishes a possible conduit for the transfer of the word “grinder” from England to Ireland and it inspired me to look at the trusty online Oxford English dictionary which includes examples of usage. In fact the OED gives as examples of “grind” as a transitive or intransitive verbs and as a noun as well as the verbal noun “grinding” and the deverbal noun “grinder”. Here are some pertinent quotes. The first below, incidentally, is from a book of American college slang, demonstrating that the word had crossed the Atlantic by 1851.

Here are the most relevant examples, some of them hilariously susceptible to a double entendre.

n. Steady hard work; labour of a monotonous kind, esp. close and hard study; an instance of this, a dull and laborious task.

1851
Grind, an exaction; an oppressive action. Students speak of a very long lesson which they are required to learn, or of anything which is very unpleasant or difficult to perform as a grind.
B. H. Hall, Collection of College Words

1857
A medical student would have told him, that a ‘Grind’ meant the reading up for an examination under the tuition of one who was familiarly termed ‘a Grinder’—a process which Mr. Verdant Green’s friends would phrase as ‘Coaching’ under ‘a Coach’.
‘C. Bede’, Mr. Verdant Green Married xi. 93

vi. To work hard at a subject of study under the direction of a tutor or ‘grinder’.

1835
I am obliged to ‘grind’..that is, undergo a private examination with an authorized teacher or tutor.
E. Forbes in G. Wilson & A. Geikie, Memoir of Edward Forbes (1861) vi. 176

1870
After grinding with private-tutor Mylius the requisite time, Lessing entered the school of Camenz.
J. R. Lowell, Among my Books (1873) 1st Series 308

vt. To teach (a subject) in a steady laborious manner; also, to prepare (a pupil) in a subject.

1815
implied in:
Perhaps when Tom leaves Oxford..we may contrive some gainful grinding [i.e. tutorial] scheme between us. [at grinding n.]
J. Keble, Letter to Coleridge in Mem. (1869) iv. 63

1848
A pack of humbugs, and quacks, that weren’t fit to get their living but by grinding Latin and Greek.
W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero lvi. 502

1859
[Dr. Bennett] undertook to grind him in anatomy and physiology.
G. Wilson & A. Geikie, Memoir of Edward Forbes vi. 180

In Hard Times by Charles Dickens there is a character by the name of Mr Thomas Gradgrind, a grimly utilitarain school superintendent who insisted on teaching only facts. Hard Times was published in 1954 which is after some of the quotations above so Dickens did not originate the use of “grind” in teaching. He may have amplified it, of course.

This demonstrates that these terms were established in 19th Century England, but does not explain how their usage died out there but still flourishes in Ireland. Can anyone shed light on this? First recorded usages of grind, etc in Irish literature would be most helpful!

Grinds, Grinding and Grinders

When I moved to Ireland, almost nine years ago, one of the words I discovered had a usage with which I was unfamiliar was grind. My first encounter with this was after a lecture on vector calculus when a student asked if I knew of anyone who could offer him grinds. I didn’t know what he meant but was sure it wasn’t the meaning that sprang first into my mind so I just said no, I had just arrived in Ireland so didn’t know of anyone. I resisted the temptation to suggest he try finding an appropriate person via Grindr.

I only found out later that grinds are a form of private tuition and they are quite a big industry in Ireland, particularly at secondary school level. School students whose parents can afford it often take grinds in particular subjects to improve their performance on the Leaving Certificate. It seems to be less common for third level students to pay for grinds, but it does happen. More frequently, university students actually offer grinds to local schoolkids as a kind of part-time employment to help them through college.

The word grind can also refer to a private tutor, i.e. you can have a maths grind. It can also be used as a verb, in which sense it means `to instil or teach by persistent repetition’.

This sense of the word grind may be in use in the United Kingdom but I have never come across it before, and it seems to me to be specific to Ireland at least in current usage. A colleague sent me a link to an article about Carew Arthur Meredith, who worked at Trinity College Dublin from 1943 to 1964 but who was previously at Cambridge University and lived there until 1939:

After graduating, Meredith married Sybil Clark and settled down to what was to be for many years his occupation: that of university coach or “grinder.”

This establishes a possible conduit for the transfer of the word “grinder” from England to Ireland and it inspired me to look at the trusty online Oxford English dictionary which includes examples of usage. In fact the OED gives as examples of “grind” as a transitive or intransitive verbs and as a noun as well as the verbal noun “grinding” and the deverbal noun “grinder”. Here are some pertinent quotes. The first below, incidentally, is from a book of American college slang, demonstrating that the word had crossed the Atlantic by 1851.

Here are the most relevant examples, some of them hilariously susceptible to a double entendre.

n. Steady hard work; labour of a monotonous kind, esp. close and hard study; an instance of this, a dull and laborious task.

1851
Grind, an exaction; an oppressive action. Students speak of a very long lesson which they are required to learn, or of anything which is very unpleasant or difficult to perform as a grind.
B. H. Hall, Collection of College Words

1857
A medical student would have told him, that a ‘Grind’ meant the reading up for an examination under the tuition of one who was familiarly termed ‘a Grinder’—a process which Mr. Verdant Green’s friends would phrase as ‘Coaching’ under ‘a Coach’.
‘C. Bede’, Mr. Verdant Green Married xi. 93

vi. To work hard at a subject of study under the direction of a tutor or ‘grinder’.

1835
I am obliged to ‘grind’..that is, undergo a private examination with an authorized teacher or tutor.
E. Forbes in G. Wilson & A. Geikie, Memoir of Edward Forbes (1861) vi. 176

1870
After grinding with private-tutor Mylius the requisite time, Lessing entered the school of Camenz.
J. R. Lowell, Among my Books (1873) 1st Series 308

vt. To teach (a subject) in a steady laborious manner; also, to prepare (a pupil) in a subject.

1815
implied in:
Perhaps when Tom leaves Oxford..we may contrive some gainful grinding [i.e. tutorial] scheme between us. [at grinding n.]
J. Keble, Letter to Coleridge in Mem. (1869) iv. 63

1848
A pack of humbugs, and quacks, that weren’t fit to get their living but by grinding Latin and Greek.
W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero lvi. 502

1859
[Dr. Bennett] undertook to grind him in anatomy and physiology.
G. Wilson & A. Geikie, Memoir of Edward Forbes vi. 180

In Hard Times by Charles Dickens there is a character by the name of Mr Thomas Gradgrind, a grimly utilitarain school superintendent who insisted on teaching only facts. Hard Times was published in 1954 which is after some of the quotations above so Dickens did not originate the use of “grind” in teaching. He may have amplified it, of course.

This demonstrates that these terms were established in 19th Century England, but does not explain how their usage died out there but still flourishes in Ireland. Can anyone shed light on this? First recorded usages of grind, etc in Irish literature would be most helpful!

“In this journal, Elliotson further explored #mesmeric phenomena now in a strange combination with #phrenology that Elliotson called ‘phrenomesmerism’.” dickensproject.substack.com/p/charles-di... #CharlesDickens #mesmerism

“In this journal, Elliotson further explored #mesmeric phenomena now in a strange combination with #phrenology that Elliotson called ‘phrenomesmerism’.” dickensproject.substack.com/p/charles-di... #CharlesDickens #mesmerism

“In this journal, Elliotson further explored #mesmeric phenomena now in a strange combination with #phrenology that Elliotson called ‘phrenomesmerism’.” dickensproject.substack.com/p/charles-di... #CharlesDickens #mesmerism

“In this journal, Elliotson further explored #mesmeric phenomena now in a strange combination with #phrenology that Elliotson called ‘phrenomesmerism’.” dickensproject.substack.com/p/charles-di... #CharlesDickens #mesmerism

‘All the watering places are crammed with hot people’: on holiday with Dickens https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/aug/20/holiday-charles-dickens-exhibition #CharlesDickens #Books #Exhibitions #Culture #ArtAndDesign #London #Kent #IsleOfWight #Travel

‘Armed with a hamper from Fortnum & Mason’: on holiday with Charles Dickens
By Caroline Davies

Exhibition at Charles Dickens Museum in London looks at writer’s holiday pursuits, from Kent to the Isle of Wight

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/aug/20/holiday-charles-dickens-exhibition

#CharlesDickens #Books #Exhibitions #Culture #Artanddesign #London #Kent #IsleofWight #Travel #TheGuardian #CarolineDavies

#YukioMishima on vanhastaankin lempikirjailijoitani. Jostakin syystä moni kirjallisuuden lempparini on kaukana oikealla, vaikka itse olen niin vasemmalla kuin pelilaudalla pääsee. Eilen ei #VinhanKirjakauppa kuitenkaan vielä tarjonnut ”uutta” Mishimaa. Ostin toisia lemppareita, #JorgeLuisBorges'ia ja #CharlesDickens'iä. Kyllä, kulutan klassikoita. #kirjallisuus
https://yle.fi/a/74-20223127

#TimeTravelAuthors 06/01 Dreams in your stories – Now I have.
#TimeTravelingGhost Part 9

The boy looked at Ghost. “I had a dream, sir. If it ain’t too silly to say so.”

“There was a man in black, like one of those mimes in Piccadilly, only black, not white. I even know his name, bless me. It was on his chest, proud as a toff with his misses. ‘Quasi Temporal,’ it said. I remember quite distinctly.”

“He handed me a box, square, warm… Oh, but the smell, like all the food vendors had piled their food in your lap, so fine it made my mouth hurt. When I opened it, there was a great round of bread inside, all covered with cheese. Cheese all melty and shining, like the sun on a morning like this.”

The boy stopped and pointed at the sun, which had just peeked through the buildings across the street.

“Sir, the taste. It was the best thing I’ve ever eaten. I was quite the pig. I ate the whole thing, every crumb, sir. A mouse couldn’t have found a bit to eat. I know I shouldn’t have, not all at once, but I couldn’t help myself.”

“And then, I said, very soft-like, not wanting to be rude, ‘Please, sir, may I have more?’”

The boy’s eyes got wide with wonder and excitement. “And he gave me more. A stack of them, like plates at a feast.”

“And just when I thought I ought to say a proper thank you, he vanished like chimney smoke.”

This time, the boy pointed to the coal smoke rising from the houses.

“And he says, ‘Anytime Time Traveling Pizza,’ just like that. I don’t know what it meant, but I wish he were real.”

“Then I wake up, so hungry and not anything to eat except my shoes and dust under the bed. You mentioned food, sir. Could we go? I’ll be like at church and make no more noise than a mouse. Please, sir.”

“Boo, hoo, creeek, hoo” Jeckle cried.

Ghost floated up and held out her hand. “Sure, let’s go, little sir.”

#MicroFiction #NMPrompts #NMTTA #CharlesDickens #pastiche #DavidCopperfield #HeckleAndJeckle #Pizza
@QuasiTemporal

#TimeTravelAuthors 06/01 Tell us about your story
#TimeTravelingGhost Part 8

Ghost drifted out of Scrooge’s house, where she hadn’t felt welcome, and sat on the steps in the grim pre-dawn light. As the light grew stronger, a ragged, dirty boy sat down beside her. Silence stretched between them until the boy tentatively began talking.

“Sir—if you please, sir—are you quite deceased?” the boy inquired, tugging his threadbare cap.

“Yeah, it sucks.”

“If it wouldn’t trouble you greatly, sir, I should like to hear your story. I expect I shall be dead soon myself, what with the hunger and all.”

“Sure. Then I’ll take you someplace where there’s food—Bob Cratchit’s house.”

There’s an author who writes silly things, and she wanted to write a story for a prompt (#WSS366). #HEAVEN knows why! So, she made a “Lass” who... (Let me cut that short.) Anyway, she killed the Lass most cruelly. Then she found another prompt for time travel stories (#TimeTravelAuthors) and had the Lass summon me. I think I’m a kind of ghost, but not really. (Frankly, it makes little sense.) The ghost can time travel and is named “Time Traveling Ghost.” (That’s me.) “Ghost,” for short. Only Author (that’s her name in the story) hasn’t told Ghost how to time travel. All Ghost wants is to get revenge on the people who killed Lass (Poe and Time Manager—TM for short). The—

The boy raised a hand. “You believe the strangest things, sir,” said the boy, wide-eyed. “But I dare say the world is full of such strangeness, if only one’s stomach weren’t growling too loud to hear it.”

Jeckle, who perched below them on Scrooge’s steps, added, “She sure does, don’t she, Boy? Let’s EAT!”

Heckle, sitting next to Jeckle, screeched, “Chow down. Chow down. Get yer feed bag!”

#MicroFiction #NMPrompts #NMTTA #AChristmasCarol #CharlesDickens #pastiche #DavidCopperfield #HeckleAndJeckle #Crow #Corvid #Plushies @ShadowPlay @plush_bot

#TimeTravelAuthors May 31 Author choice
#TimeTravelingGhost Part 7 (Long)

The word “Goodbye” resounded like a pen’s ultimate declaration, and Ghost found herself in a dark room smelling of mildew. In front of her was a moth-eaten four-poster bed with a figure struggling to arise.

“Have you come to call upon me as well?” inquired the figure, an old gentleman whose nightgown hung on him like a shroud, his cap askew, and blankets heaped around him. “I assure you, good spirit, I am a reformed soul. Pray, tell me, who are you?”

“Time Traveling Ghost, and who might you be?” Ghost took the chance to look around. She found herself in a bedroom furnished only by the bed and a writing desk with a lone bowl, a spoon handle protruding from it. Underfoot was a threadbare carpet with an incongruous holly leaf and three red berries scattered on it.

“Ebenezer Scrooge!” came the astonished reply. “But I was given to understand — most solemnly — that there would be three spirits, and three alone. What business have you here?”

“I think it’s a joke by Author.” Ghost said, as perplexed as Scrooge at the turn of events. She cast her eyes about and spotted Heckle and Jeckle in the corner. “Damn, just my luck they would come along,” she muttered so low Scrooge couldn’t make out the words.

The elder blinked at him, befuddled. “I know not this Arthur of whom you speak, nor have I an appetite for riddles at this hour. The cock has not crowed, and come dawn I am beset by more tasks than I can bear. Go your way, sir, and take your visions with you.”

“I don’t suppose you’d spare me a farthing for a morning cup of coffee?” Ghost asked. “As you say, it’s rather early.”

“Not a farthing, nay, not a penny, ill-begotten beggar!” Scrooge cried, waving his arms as if to banish a vapour. “Begone, figment conjured by the tyrannies of undigested mustard!”

“Changed man,” Jeckle croaked, “Not.”

“Coffee? You’re a ghost,” Heckle screeched. “Hey buddy, can you spare me a dime?”

Scrooge pivoted to where the voices came from. “And what ill-begotten jesters are these? Vile emanations of prunes left too long to stew. Begone, thou late-born fragment of muddled sleep! Coffee indeed! Brazen haunt, seek you an almshouse, not my abode.” And with that, he dove under the covers.

#MicroFiction #NMPrompts #NMTTA
#AChristmasCarol #CharlesDickens #pastiche
#HeckleAndJeckle

Post Christmas feeling and look and I don’t even drink! 😳😆

“It wasn't the wine,' murmured Mr. Snodgrass, in a broken voice. 'It was the salmon.' (Somehow or other, it never is the wine, in these cases.)”

The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
#ClassicLitMonday 📖

Art 🎨 by Leo Viti

#CharlesDickens #ThePickwickPapers #book #books #literature #Christmas #BoxingDay

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens 📖🎄
#ClassicLitMonday

Art 🎨 by Paul Mellender

#Scrooge #CharlesDickens #Literature #book #books #bookquotes

I've edited an anthology of 30 Christmas ghost stories penned from 1820 to 1929. In paperback & Kindle from all Amazon marketplaces.
https://www.amazon.com/Ghost.../dp/B0BHMPR3RY/ref=sr_1_1...

Features: #WashingtonIrving #CharlesDickens #MarkLemon #ElizabethGaskell #ENesbit #FitzJamesOBrien #EFBenson #SabineBaringGould #MaryElizabethBraddon, #CharlotteRiddell #RobertLouisStevenson #algernonblackwood & many more

#Christmas #ghost #ghoststories #horror #shortstory #ghoststoriesforchristmas #andibrooks #fiction #anthology