Second Review on Dec 12, 2020

In the Preface written in December 1843, Dickens expressed his wish for readers of this ghost story: “May it haunt their houses pleasantly...”

The phrase to ‘haunt pleasantly’ is an oxymoron, but Dickens achieved his purpose successfully in this classic Christmas carol. I read this for the second time as part of a group read with the Dickensians and was struck by the freshness of Dickens’ story.

Ebenezer Scrooge, the key character in this story, is a tight-fisted miser, an avaricious businessman obsessed only with making money and wringing every ounce of labor from his lowly clerk and business associates. You would not want him for a friend. After the death of his business partner and sole friend, Old Marley, Scrooge lives alone and seems content to be a grouchy solitary oyster. But things start to change on Christmas Eve when Old Marley’s ghost comes visiting, wearing the chains he had forged in life, with a warning for Scrooge.

Dickens is a true master at evoking the atmosphere of a bitter cold winter that mirrored Scrooge’s seeming impenetrable hardness of character. ‘Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so... The water-plug being left in solitude, its overflowings sullenly congealed, and turned to misanthropic ice.’ Expect no hospitality from Scrooge who will not even consider giving his clerk an additional piece of coal to kindle his small fire at work.

Scrooge is visited not just by Marley’s ghost but also the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. These visitations remind Scrooge of his own humble childhood, avarice as an adult, his estrangement from loved ones, his deepening isolation. More importantly, they awaken in him gradually a sense of his own failings, and resolution to be a better person. One has to marvel at Dickens’ skill at dramatizing the presentation of each Spirit. It would be quite terrifying if we were lying in Scrooge’s bed that Christmas Eve.

I thought it remarkable that the last Spirit, the Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come, said not a word to Scrooge. That made it even more chilling for him. This is rightly so, as the Spirit does not have the last word about the future. Scrooge does.

A Christmas Carol is a story that is barely religious in tone. Nothing is said about the baby in the manger, the shepherds or the wise men. It is a story about us being our best possible selves all year round.

Five stars for this second encounter with Ebenezer Scrooge.

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First Review on Dec 24, 2016.

‘Twas the night before Christmas and a perfect time to read “A Christmas Carol”. Charles Dickens is the first Victorian novelist I read in school and my earliest introduction to good classical literature. I have forgotten how elegant and regal Dickens’ prose is until I picked up this timeless Christmas classic. Oh, the sheer delight of reveling in his beautiful writing!
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It is Christmas Eve and Ebenezer Scrooge is grouchily content to be the most miserly and uncharitable person in town. Dickens painted him thus: “Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.” But God is not done with this “old sinner”. And his ways are unfathomable.

Scrooge has an encounter with the ghost of his 7-year deceased business partner, Jacob Marley, whose restless spirit is doomed to wander the earth on account of the good he has not done while living. "No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of remorse." Marley's ghost gives him a chance of escaping a similar fate. Hence, Scrooge is visited by The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present, The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. They help to open his eyes and heart to the poverty and hardship of his relatives, his lowly clerk, and his neighbors. They offer him a glimpse of his own death and lonely grave. Scrooge remembers his own humble beginnings and is duly chastised and remorseful. These ghostly encounters are wonderfully captured in all their spooky splendor and I enjoyed them greatly.

Dickens' telling of Scrooge's story is one that haunts us pleasantly. I believe he succeeds in striking some fear into callous hearts. More importantly, this 173-year-old novella continues to uphold the spirit of Christmas – peace on earth, goodwill to men. It is embodied in Scrooge’s change of heart and a worthy reminder of the reason for the season: “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”

n  The Christmas reading par excellence!n


n  A CLASSIC RE-IMAGINED ONCE AND AGAINn

I can't tell how many times I have watched some adaptation or another of this classic story...

...Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Kermit the Frog, the Real Ghostbusters, live action films, animated TV specials, etc...

...since this is one of the most adapted stories of all time.

A truly Christmas classic.

And this one of the few books that I think one hardly can deny that it's the novel that defines a genre, in this case:

n  Christmasn.

In popular genres like Science-Fiction and Horror, there are several books competing for the title of the lead book in the genre.

While in other genres like mafia, we have The Godfather; and in epic fantasy we have The Lord of the Rings, that there is a more common acceptance that those books are the lead ones on each genre.

And certainly, in books about Christmas, the impact and relevance of A Christmas Carol, not only put the season back in the conscience of people but define the very spirit and message of the holidays.


n  CHARACTER REDEMPTIONn

Ebenezer Scrooge got into the fields of the most popular book characters ever.

And indeed, a key factor for a book character to become effective with the readers is change, since any character that ends quite in the same state that he/she started on the beginning of the story, hardly can be named as a good book character. And Scrooge changes a lot in this story, so he didn't only became a popular character but the embodiment of a type of human personality.

Humbug!

I was so familiar with the story that I could "tell" it to anyone by memory, however I never actually read the original book.

I knew the story only from the several adaptations in media.

So, I thought that it was a very good moment to read the classic novel.

I loved it.

First, I didn't know that the chapters weren't named like that but instead, Dickens opted to named them "staves" since it was a "carol" (xmas song) what he was writing.

Moreover, the division of the story is just perfect since Dickens used the right number of "staves" to tell the story, denoting the perfect structure of the storytelling.

Great details that you only get on the reading experience of the story.

Also, not only I re-experienced yet again the immortal story but I met some details that I didn't recall to be mentioned in the adaptations that I have watched.

One of the spookiest details that I met on the reading was the mention that Marley's Ghost had been present in the company of Scrooge basically every night since his death, but only until that moment he was able to be visible in front of him. The very notion of living in a mansion where a ghost acompanies you every night without your knowledge is way scary! Also, I found quite interesting and impacting the part of the "children" named "Ignorance" and "Want". I don't remember to know about those details in the media adaptations. So, it was priceless to know "new" facts about a story that I have met so many times in my life.

So, even if you have watched so different versions of the classic tale as me, if you have the chance of actually reading the book, please, give it a chance, you won't regret it!

God bless us, everyone!

And Merry Christmas!

5 stars for the audiobook. Hugh Grant is brilliant as the narrator.

I've watched several adaptations of the book, but this was my first time reading it. It's a classic and I'm glad I finally read it, or rather listened to it, but I have no idea how to rate it, to be honest. Hugh Grant made it a wonderful listening experience, though.

One of the most influential and anti grinchy works of all time.

It might be hard to impossible to find someone who hasn´t at least heard about this classic example of Christmas ethic seminar, something close to impossible to achieve and to thank Dickens for as a paladin of humanism. The story is well known, close to an epigenetic factor because of its prominence, so let´s drivel around the core element.

I don´t know where this kind of moral storytelling originated, probably tens of thousands of years ago when the first shaman or chief thought it would be cool to use vision, prophecy, the power of dreams, imagination and a grain of indoctrination to communicate the right behavior to her/his people. Ethics and moral are important, omnipresent, and timeless topics that shouldn´t be reduced to the few holidays of different religions to give people, working against the interests of humankind to enrich themselves the whole year, a bad conscience (as if this would be possible, as if they would even realize what monsters they are as they don´t directly kill, but just indirectly support the misery by playing key roles of a dysfunctional system), but used in everyday life, politics, and every single decision. Ok, before it gets completely unrealistic, I´ll better end this review.

Just one more if you have time? Great. A bit too much fourth wall breaking here today, sorry for that.

The bigotry and mendacity of society and the middle and upper classes have grown since Dickens times, as they were at least confronted with the poor and their suffering, directly starving on the streets next to the degenerated elite, while noblemen and ladies were worried there shoes or clothes could get stained if a dying person collapses in their direction as blood was so difficult to get out those days without fancy detergent tech.

Today, the hardship and slums are kept far away from the modern, beautiful, important parts of cities, recreational and cultural centers, etc. so that nobody has to burden her/himself with thinking or even worrying about the majority of people living in precarious conditions to serve the upper class to enable their useless, earth shattering consumption and snobbish spare time activities they need wage slaves for to really enjoy, as they can´t even get their lazy buttocks moving to make themselves a coffee or meal or find hobbies not involving dozens of minimum wage paid people needed to support their entertainment.

Not even to mention the Southern hemisphere and the immense, unnecessary, by a fair economic system easily preventable, suffering of billions and dying of tens of millions of people directly caused by this system.

But hey, merry Christmas everyone.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

One should never judge a book by its cover, but this edition surely deserves an award for ugliest and laziest book cover ever made (should we start a contest?), which is a shame since a theme like Christmas is quite easy to illustrate and has a lot of recognizable symbols and its own emblems that could've been used to enhance this poorly conceived design. However, if all the budget available went to the translator, it was a good decision as it was beautifully done and, in the end, it's all that really matters.

It's curious how I managed to completely ignore this story: never read the book, never saw any film adaptation, neither went to watch a play in the theater or an opera or even a television special for kids. It simply wasn't a big deal here in Brazil and my family hasn't been too fond of Christmas so I never looked for the theme - how Scrooge of us! Those of you who love Christmas by now are probably feeling sad for me, but I can be optimistic and see it through a good perspective: I approached A Christmas Carol innocently, as one might put it, and enjoyed this magical experience once and for all, while being able to extract some lessons I probably would have passed by without noticing or looking back as a child.

Although Charles Dickens wrote here a nice but simple story of redemption, at first glance one might not capture some of the deeper self-analysis it might awake in more attentive readers - or simply in those who are in need of such a message as time and life itself seem to toughen our feelings and our reaction's to people's actions. While I would consider myself nothing alike Scrooge, I guess I am to blame for overlooking the basics of life, and that is something that I love about reading and one of its many beneficial sides: being able to absorb lessons, even on matters that we seemingly can't relate to and that seem so simple but have great effects upon ourselves. Isn't happiness completely based on simplicity? More and more - as I live and read - I tend to think it seems to be, otherwise why would we be so emotional revisiting simpler, uncomplicated times?

One story to illustrate my point is how I travel to my parent's town every year for Christmas. It's a 12 hours trip in a suffocating and uncomfortable bus - there are no other transportation options - that I dread to make, arriving there and welcoming ungratefully my mother's dear smile and warm embrace with my monosyllabic answers and my grumpy face because of how exhausting the trip is. Now, reading A Christmas Carol was in no way life-changing - although there could be a point in assuming that life-changing experiences need not to be grand ones, like epiphanies, as simple changes ('simple' seems to be what I got from this reading) still can be beneficial and make a big difference -, but I did take a pledge to myself that I would approach my tiresome travel with better winds.

What would you know? Just for focusing on what I would get from this trip - to spend quality time with my family, my dog, extended family, the airs of my hometown - instead of the dislocation part of it already made it a nicer time. I wish we would learn things rapidly but unfortunately I can't promise to myself that it will always go as smoothly as it was this time, for the person I am now will no longer exist and will consist of added experiences and newer feelings, but I guess it was a nice start to change something that bothered me for over ten years. Perhaps all I need is to make reading of Dickens's tale a Christmas tradition of my own and turn this time into a period of self analysis.

It's been repeated time and again how you don't know what you've got till it's gone. Had we the opportunity, the privilege, to look into the future and learn that the things we normally take for granted now will by then be gone, perhaps we would value them better. This is what Dickens proposed to his old Scrooge, through my own words: you don't appreciate your life, your things, your acquaintances? Well, this is the alternative, the result you'll have once things are all done and gone. Does it seem a better situation to you in any way?

Although such a device of looking into the future and far back into the past doesn't exist, Dickens gave us the inspiration to look upon our actions - past, present and planned - and reevaluate how we want the outcome to be. In a way, literature can help you travel through time.

Rating: for this nice, full of hope story that aims to show how everything is still inside of us and how we must simply learn how to look for it, teaching us that all it takes is a deep dive within oneself to collect the needed goods, where as deeper one goes, the further in time one will be - kind of like the farthest light in the observable universe we see from a telescope represents the past -, among the most precious memories and feelings, in places we should revisit more often: 4 5 stars. (re-rated in 2015.)

Just lovely. Something I never really thought about before that appears so striking and obvious here now is how much this seems to owe to Dante’s Comedy. Scrooge’s redemption is brought about by giving him a kind of otherworldly guided tour, of course, but one that’s also structured something like Dante’s great terza-rima three-fest. Each of the three temporal phases Scrooge passes through is subdivided again into three main vignettes: Christmas Past consists of a scene from Scrooge’s childhood, Fezziwig’s party, and the vision of Belle; Christmas Present consists of the market, the scene at Bob Cratchit’s, and Scrooge’s nephew’s home; and Christmas Yet to Come consists of the funeral episode, the mourning montage, and the vision of Scrooge’s grave. These come together to provide moral instruction like in Dante’s Purgatorio, where each of the sins is divided into three, with the penance itself framed by the demonstrative whip and bridle so that the penitent learns not just from the punishment itself but from specific examples of the vice and its complementary virtue. And because it’s the story of Scrooge’s redemption, this is all purgatorial rather than infernal for him in the end. (Of course this is Dickens, so surely there’s a Master’s thesis or two on exactly this. Or maybe three.)

One of my favourite books of all time. It's a beautiful reminder of the spirit of Christmas, what the holiday represents and how we can be more kind and mindful of our actions.

5★
“‘God bless us every one!”

I thought it would be nice to start a new year’s (2017) reading with the 174-year-old story of a selfish man who reinvented himself (after some heavy haunting).

Not only wasn’t I disappointed when re-reading, I was surprised how much detail I’d forgotten, in spite of having seen movies, cartoons, comics, and seemingly countless interpretations of Ebenezer Scrooge.

When I was a child, more Americans were probably familiar with Scrooge McDuck than the original, but we sure got the idea. Christmas? Bah, humbug! Then came the Mickey Mouse version that kids love.

I don’t consider a discussion of the ‘plot’ points to be spoilers, since the story so well known, and the beauty of the work is the language – Dickens is such fun.

What stood out to me was the selfish attitude that still prevails in some quarters today. Dickens paints a terrible, clear picture of the poverty and despair of the times. When wealthy businessman Scrooge is asked to donate to help the poor, his response is simply:

n  “‘Are there no prisons? . . . and the Union workhouses?’ Are they still in operation?’

‘They are. Still,’ returned the gentleman, ‘I wish I could say they were not.’

‘The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?’ said Scrooge.

‘Both very busy, sir.’

‘Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,’ said Scrooge. I’m very glad to hear it.’ ”n

When told that many would rather die than go there, he says

n  “They had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”n

[Sound like any politicians you’ve heard railing about welfare cheats?]

But nobody liked him.

n  “Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; . . . ” n

Scrooge begrudges his poor clerk, Bob Cratchit, a holiday with pay. But his nephew is a good-hearted chap, determined to win over his miserly uncle, protesting that Christmas is not humbug. It’s a time

n  “to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”n

[We might say the same today about all those camped in temporary shelter as their homes are being obliterated by wars and politics.]

The ghost of his dead partner, Marley, clanks horrifyingly into his home, seeking to warn him of his fate. Scrooge pooh-poohs it and says perhaps he’s just imagined him due to an n  “an undigested bit of beef”. n

As Marley disappears, Scrooge sees the air full of moaning phantoms. Dickens gets a bit political here:

n  “Every one of them wore chains like Marley’s Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; none were free.”n

He goes to sleep and is awakened by The Ghost of Christmas Past who sweeps him away through the skies to revisit the open country of his youth and sad, lonely childhood. He has an uncharacteristic twinge of regret about having spoken sharply to a little boy that morning. But he brushes it aside.

Back to bed and awakened suddenly again by The Ghost of Christmas Present who takes him through festive markets of plenty and thence to Bob Cratchit’s house, where they are making merry with a pot of potatoes. He spots the wee withered child with crutches, Tiny Tim, who sits on a stool by his adoring father, surrounded by his loving family.

When Tiny Tim proclaims, n  “God bless us every one!”n, Scrooge begs the ghost to foretell the future – will Tiny Tim live – might he be spared?

The Ghost asks if Scrooge will decide who the “surplus” is and suggests that heaven might decide Scrooge is less fit to survive than the millions of children of the poor.

I love this analogy of how the privileged decide the fate of the poor:

n  “Oh God! to hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust.”n

His third visitor, The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, is clothed in black and doesn’t speak for a long time. Scrooge sees an unmourned body on a bed (his?), and then, from under the Spirit’s robes peep a couple of small n  “claws”.

“. . . two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. . . a boy and a girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too in their humility. . .

‘They are Man’s,’ said the Spirit, looking down upon them. ‘And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. The boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.’ ”n

When Scrooge cries n  “Have they no refuge or resource?”n the Spirit answers n  “Are there no prisons . . . Are there no workhouses?”n

He awakens suddenly from a sleep on Christmas morning, a changed man, bound to mend his ways, and what fun to watch him do it!

I commend this to anyone who needs a refresher course in how to treat our fellow-passengers and to beware of the threats of Ignorance and Want.

You can read this online with illustrations at Project Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46...

or download it for free in many formats https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46

What a delightful story to reread at Christmas. Written in 1843, the novella is as fresh, timely, enlightening and as clear and easy to read as if written yesterday. Make it and one or more of the movie versions a family tradition

n

We can look at this one of two ways, either I'm a bit late to do a Christmas Book Haul video or I'm hella early for next year.

(Click the link to see what other books arrived via the polar express).

The audio for this one is amazing. Jim Dale is the perfect narrator. This is definitely a keeper!

Complete let down. The muppets were never even mentioned in the book.