Evidently, Dickens spent many years trying to recreate the success of A Christmas Carol, including this story, but with little success. This was a mixed-up tale of a poor man having a nightmare vision provided courtesy of the bells of the local church - showing how he has long died and how his pretty daughter has ended up in destitution, only for him to wake up and find it's been a fantasy. Unlike Scrooge's visions which lead him from selfishness to altruism, this vision serves no purpose at all given that Trotty Veck is an impoverished honest soul to start with. There is a large slice of Dickens' familiar sentimentality: decent young men, virtuous sweet girls and black hearted scoundrels which cloys.
