3 h 30 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 3 h 30 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when the bells that comfort a lonely messenger begin to challenge everything he believes about the poor?
In Charles Dickens’s The Chimes, Toby Veck, known as Trotty, carries messages through London, often cold and hungry. The nearby church bells offer companionship. But Alderman Cute and other powerful men keep telling him that poor people cause their own suffering, and his faith in ordinary people begins to falter.
Trotty’s daughter Meg and her sweetheart Richard want a modest life together. Poverty and harsh judgments press against that hope. As the old year gives way to the new, the bells draw Trotty toward their tower, where familiar sounds take on a supernatural life and his doubts become the stuff of troubled visions.
What you’ll discover
- Bells with a purpose Follow Trotty toward the tower as his familiar companions become unsettling supernatural guides.
- Ordinary hopes under pressure Meet Meg and Richard, whose wish for a shared life gives poverty a human face.
- Comedy with sharp edges Watch Dickens expose powerful men who turn hunger and hardship into accusations against the hungry.
- Judgment put to question Will Fern’s treatment asks you to look at circumstances before condemning a struggling person.
- A challenge to despair Enter New Year visions that test Trotty’s doubts and place small hopes at the story’s heart.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy winter ghost tales, warm humor, and fiction with a conscience will love this story, along with its bighearted characters and sharp jokes at pompous men.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A ticket porter trots through winter cold
- Meg brings tripe and a wedding plan
- Rich men decide what the poor deserve
- Sir Joseph offers fatherly care and a letter
- Will Fern and Lilian find a loft
- The Bells call Toby up the tower
- The goblins accuse him and show a vision
- Poverty, justice, and hope are the real subjects
Who’s who
- Toby VeckCalled Trotty, he is a poor, kind ticket porter who loves the church Bells and wants to know whether the poor have a right to hope.
- MegToby's twenty-year-old daughter, cheerful and loving, who plans to marry Richard on New Year's Day.
- RichardA strong young blacksmith who loves Meg and wants to marry her without waiting for better times.
- Alderman CuteA smiling magistrate who boasts that he will put down everything he dislikes among the poor.
- Mr. FilerA gloomy man who believes the poor can be understood and judged by sums and tables.
- Sir Joseph BowleyA parliamentarian who presents himself as the poor man's friend and father and expects obedience in return.
- Will FernA weathered countryman who wants honest work and carries his orphaned niece Lilian through London.
- LilianWill Fern's nine-year-old niece, tired and trusting, who finds a welcome in Meg's home.
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Die Silvesterglocken
by Charles Dickens · 1844
A poor ticket porter hears his church bells call his name and climbs the dark tower to meet them.
Medium level2–5 hours to readDeutsch
Excellent
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In short
What would you do if the bells above your workplace began to speak your name? That is the question facing Toby Veck, a poor ticket porter who waits for errands outside an old church on the last day of the year.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A ticket porter trots through winter cold
The night wind circles the old church, moaning through the aisles and shaking the steeple. High in the belfry hang the Chimes, bells so old that no one remembers who named them. Their voices can beat a gale to reach a sick child or a worried wife.
Below them, outside the church door, stands Toby Veck. He is a ticket porter, which means he waits in the street to carry letters and parcels for a few pennies. Everyone calls him Trotty because of his quick trot. He is over sixty, thin, and poor. His shoes leak and his nose is red with cold.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1844
- Language
- Deutsch
- Reading time
- 2 h 15 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Dickens, Charles. The Chimes. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-chimes.
Dickens, C. (2026). The chimes. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-chimes (Original work published 1844)
Dickens, Charles. The Chimes. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-chimes.
@book{dickens2026chimes,
author = {Dickens, Charles},
title = {The Chimes},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-chimes},
note = {First published 1844}
}
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What is The Chimes by Charles Dickens about?
It follows Toby Veck, a poor ticket porter who hears his church bells speak. After rich men's harsh judgments make him think the poor are born bad, the bells draw him into a goblin vision that tests his hope.
Who is Trotty Veck?
Trotty is the nickname of Toby Veck, an elderly ticket porter who waits outside a church for errands. He is called Trotty because of his quick trot, and he is warm, loyal, and loves his daughter Meg.
What do the Chimes stand for in the story?
The Chimes stand for the voice of Time and of the town. Toby hears whatever his mood makes of them, first kind words of comfort, later the cold chants of the men who judge the poor.
The author
Charles Dickens
1812–1870 · English novelist
Charles Dickens was an English novelist born in Portsmouth in 1812. He lived in London and later at Gad’s Hill Place in Kent, where he died in 1870. His books include The Pickwick Papers (1836–1837), A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1849–1850), and Great Expectations (1860–1861).
More by Charles Dickens
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