The Battle of Life: A Love Story is an 1846 novel by Charles Dickens. Two sisters, Grace and Marion, live happily in an English village with their two servants, Clemency Newcome and Ben Britain, and their good-natured widower father Dr. Jeddler. Dr. Jeddler is a man whose philosophy is to treat life as a farce. Excerpt: "Once upon a time, it matters little when, and in stalwart England, it matters little where, a fierce battle was fought. It was fought upon a long summer day when the waving grass was green. Many a wild flower formed by the Almighty Hand to be a perfumed goblet for the dew, felt its enameled cup fill high with blood that day, and shrinking dropped."