The Christmas Banquet (Illustrated Edition)

This is a VERY funny short story; every year the ten most miserable people in town are invited to a Christmas banquet. Their misery is shared alongside the holiday feast, and every year, an increasingly wretched Gervayse Hastings makes his appearance. Over time, all the other guests seem to have grown in character and risen above their sad condition, except of course, Mr. Hastings.

Hawthorne devotes much of the text to the three lengthy descriptions of the various party guests and their maladies; these sections are sharp and hilarious. The driving force throughout the story is the mystery surrounding Gervayse Hastings' gloom. He seems to all other invitees to be a happy, well-adjusted, successful man of the world. So why does he keep getting invited to the doom room? The unanswered question keeps the reader reading.

Author Nathaniel Hawthorne originally subtitled this anti-Christmas tale "An Allegory of the Human Heart." "A Christmas Banquet" might sit in stark contrast to other classics like Dickens' A Christmas Carol, but it serves as a reminder that the holidays can be a time of human suffering and loneliness as well as joy and good tidings.

This edition of the book contains 10 Christmas illustrations that are unique to this edition of the book.