The Battle of Life: A Love Story is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in 1846. It is the fourth of his five “Christmas Books”; However, this novel was less known than his other novels. The setting is an English village that stands on the site of an historic battle. Some characters refer to the battle as a metaphor for the struggles of life, hence the title. Unlike his other stories, this does not make any reference to the supernatural. The story is basically divided into three parts and has a happy ending.