The Battle of Life: A Love Story is a romantic novella by Charles Dickens that was first published in 1846. It is the fourth of Dickens' five "Christmas Books", the first and best known of which is A Christmas Carol. It is the only one of Dickens' "Christmas Books" that does not feature any ghosts or supernatural beings. The action takes place in an English village which had been the site of a battle many years earlier, giving the novella its name. In common with Dickens' previous "Christmas Book", The Cricket on the Hearth, the story ends with a romantic twist.