Charles Dickens

The Signal-Man Illustrated Charles Dickens

The Signal-Man is a first-person horror/mystery story by Charles Dickens, first published as part of the Muggy Junction collection in the 1866 Christmas edition of All the Year Round. The story begins with the narrator calling "Halloo! Below there!" into a railway cutting. The narrator calls down again and asks permission to descend. The signalman seems reluctant. The railway hole is a cold, gloomy, and lonely place. The signalman still seems to be in fear of the narrator, who tries to put him at ease. His labor consists of a dull monotonous routine, but the signalman feels he deserves nothing better, as he wasted his academic opportunities when he was young, although he has been spending his time during his shifts teaching himself mathematics and learning a foreign language.