I read this every year at Christmas, and I always will do. Simply because of the atmosphere it evokes. This story is Christmas as far as I’m concerned. It wouldn’t be the same without it. It is perfectly festive and is also appropriately didactic. It is an allegory for what happens to those that are unnecessarily bitter and twisted, refusing to take part in a joyful occasion. It is a glimpse at what could happen to someone who rejects their family upon trivial grounds, and let’s themselves be set apart. It is also a suggestion that one shouldn’t be so concerned with money. Money isn’t everything; it certainly didn’t buy ol’ Scrooge happiness. But, Christmas did and will do so again.



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im usually not a seasonal reader, but this year i tried to make an effort to read a couple of holiday themed books and im so glad i saved this for last!

i grew up very familiar with the story of ‘a christmas carol’ via multiple adaptations (shoutout to the flintstones version from my childhood!), but i cant believe i never read the actual book itself. dickens is such a well known author, so its difficult to not critique this as i normally would with a book. but i think the message of this story is so important and should be the focus of this review.

i personally know how easy it is to get caught up in the hustle and bustle and materialism and stress that can surround the holiday season. we fixate so much on sales and good deals and buying things to make us happy, that we can forget a loving word or spending quality time with those we care about are really what should be a priority. we should remember that kindness is the best gift we can give.

so let us follow scrooges (eventual) example, when he says ‘i will honour christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year,' and allow the christmas spirit be something we not only feel this time of year, but always.

happy holidays and best wishes to all my fellow bookworms. <3

↠ 4 stars

"You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"--one of my favorite lines said by Scrooge to his old and dead friend Marley, who visits him as a ghost. Scrooge, a rationalist who does believe in love, marriage, caring for other humans, and so on, surely would not believe in ghosts! Bah, humbug, as he says. That is, until he actually does believe that Marley and the other Ghosts are actually visiting him.

Yesterday I listened once again to Dickens' novel, written in less than six weeks time in 1843, and then yesterday evening introduced three teenagers who live in this house for the FIRST TIME (I confess!! I'm ashamed) to a faithful film adaptation of the story (the Patrick Stewart version, which I am happy to say they loved!). (These kids knew the cultural reference to what a "Scrooge" might mean, and they knew [mainly from a meme, I am guessing] of the image of Scrooge McDuck but have not yet seen a stage version. That's on me).

The novel is sentimental (that "crippled" Tiny Tim repeating "God bless us everyone") and as the morality parable intends to be, is preachy, but I say it still works. It's Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate during this break, and as it is 2021, we have had yet another year when we could drink a cup of just a little more kindness. Scrooge is your very definition of the kind of cruel capitalist with whom we are still familiar--I bite my tongue as it is Christmas-time and so will not mention any names we can easily associate with Scrooge; I won't say these names! I won't!! This is a feel good review of a feel good book!--who says that those who are poor should be imprisoned or put in workhouses; and actually says that those who are suicidally depressed about their poverty should actually go right ahead and kill themselves to reduce the population!

So this is a redemption tale specifically for Christmas, that thief-on-the cross point that even the worst humans can be saved from eternal damnation by admitting they have been bad and by committing to doing good.

This is also a ghost story, which was once a popular Christmas tradition, to read them at this time of year, so that's interesting. So this is a weird time (and space) travel part of the story, for Scrooge to go back to his childhood, to visit the Cratchit house in some dream state, to see himself as an unloved cadaver in a casket. Preachy, sure, but I still like it, it's fun and you know, you need reminders/stories that can help you become a better self. Well. . . . will this story really make you a better self? Doubt it, but hey, it's fun.

But this is mostly a book that is consistent with the social commitments in almost all Dickens' work: He is on a global mission to eradicate poverty, to create economic equality. This is the center of Dickens's work (from the nineteenth century, completely unheeded), that we cannot sustain a wider and wider gap between rich and poor, because the rich cannot be counted on for kindness or charity (except in this moral tale) for their survival. At the very least Dickens makes a case for charity here, for giving, for sharing the wealth in the name of community. And love, which Scrooge finally agrees he believes in, finally.

Heart-warming: that is my one word review for this book.

This has to be one of the most read and loved stories of all time. It works, whether one views it as a Christian allegory or a simple fantasy. I studied it in middle school and loved it: I was laughing along with Scrooge in the last chapter. I was wondering whether the magic would still work with a moderately cynical middle-aged man. It did.

The story could have been maudlin, sentimental, didactic and moralising. That it is none of this is due to Dickens' mastery of the medium. From the beginning to end, there is hardly a word out of place: and the narrative is structured so meticulously that one simply floats through the story, along with Scrooge and the ghosts.

Take the first paragraph:

n  Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.n

This sets the whole tone of the novel. The conversational style with its mock serious tone of voice; Dickens is sitting near to you, with a tankard of ale in front of him, on a cold December day in the neighbourhood pub. He is entertaining you with a Christmas tale. It is not to be taken very seriously, but the teller's heart is in it-if you listen to it carefully, it may work wonders for you.

The handful of characters are finely etched: true to its fairytale nature, the "good" and "bad" are strongly bifurcated without any shades of grey, yet we find ourselves loving even the bad characters. Scrooge, for all his miserly and cantankerous nature, can never be taken seriously: his "bah!" and "humbug!", we feel, are most applicable to the persona he presents to the world. And as we visit the lonely boy in the classroom, we get an idea how Scrooge turned out to be the man he is: the colossal insecurity of the impoverished child, developing into the worship of money for its own sake, and building a barrier of hatred against society so that it can never hurt him.

Like a five-act play, time and space are compressed into an evening, night and the next day. As we sweep through the narrative at breakneck speed, Scrooge's character undergoes a tremendous transformation which is possible only in fables and fairy tales: however, the author has already set the stage for it in the opening chapter itself by showing us the chinks in his armour. The development of the miser of the first chapter into the loving philanthropist of the last chapter seems not only possible, but natural.

A perfect Christmas fable for everybody. Recommended for young and old alike.

I decided it was time I should read this. It’s actually the first book by Dickens that I’ve read since I was in school. I was one of those youngsters who was put off the author by being forced to read his books at that age.

The merits of the story can be seen in the hold it has over people’s imagination even after more than 170 years. The name of its central character has passed into the English language and it has been the subject of I don’t know how many film adaptations. Some are very good, but my favourite was always the 1951 version with Alastair Sim, which I now know follows the book very closely. There are parts of the book that are a little mawkish for my tastes, but then again, it is a Christmas story. Objectively the story is worth 5 stars, but my ratings reflect my personal enjoyment.

With a book as famous as this, my feeble observations won’t provide anyone with new insight, so I’ll just mention one or two themes that jumped out at me. For all that this book is about the traditional Christmas messages of kindness and giving, it struck me that the three ghosts hark back to the older, pre-Christian traditions of what was once a mid-winter festival. This was especially the case with the Ghost of Christmas Present, when Scrooge first sees him.

“The walls and ceiling were so hung with living green, that it looked a perfect grove, from every part of which, bright gleaming berries glistened. The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe and ivy reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney, as that dull petrification of a hearth had never known in Scrooge’s time…In easy state upon this couch, there sat a jolly Giant; glorious to see; who bore a glowing torch, in shape not unlike Plenty’s horn, and held it up, high up, to shed its light on Scrooge…”

The Penguin edition that I read contains an afterword by G.K. Chesterton, in which he observes that Scrooge’s conversion is “as sudden as the conversion of a man at a Salvation Army meeting.” He continues by observing though that “the man at the Salvation Army meeting would probably be converted from the punch bowl; whereas Scrooge was converted to it.”

Therein perhaps, lies much of the story’s abiding appeal.

We all know more or less the story of Scrooge, an embittered old stingy who receives a visit on Christmas Eve from specters who show him his past, present, and possible future to help him improve.
The (short) novel delights us with its details, showing us Scrooge's sad life and London's detours by making us cross its inhabitants, happy to celebrate Christmas despite the misery.
This work is a lovely tale to discover. It shows that Christmas is celebrated with the heart, even without money, and must remain a moment of sharing and generosity with family and friends.

Die Verfilmung habe ich unzählige Male gesehen - jedes Jahr wieder zur Weihnachtszeit. Das Buch hatte ich tatsächlich bis jetzt aber noch nicht gelesen. Anfangs habe ich ein bisschen gebraucht, um mich an den Schreibstil zu gewöhnen. Aber schnell hatte mich die Geschichte dann wieder gepackt. Ich mag diese Geschichte einfach und die Botschaft, die sie vermitteln will.
Ein zeitloser Klassiker - jedes Jahr wieder gerne! :)

"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens is Beautifully Written Prose!

This is the first time I've read this book rather than choosing to watch one of the numerous movie versions of this holiday tale.

We are all familiar with this classic story about the elderly miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, visited by the ghost of his business partner, Jacob Marley, and the three spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, and how it changed his life overnight.

Reading or listening to the written word of this novella is a wonderful experience and will never get old to me. The writing of Charles Dickens is unbelievably beautifully written prose that gives the feel and sound of a Shakespearean play. It's dramatic, formal, and true to the era it was written in. It has a traditional Christmas feel that's both comforting and familiar.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Simon Prebble who has an incredible range of voicing. His abilities as a narrator is truly amazing.

The first edition of "A Christmas Carol" was published in London on December 19, 1843 and was sold out by Christmas Eve. Remarkably, this book has never been out of print.

I highly recommend the audiobook and plan to make listening to this an annual Christmas tradition! 5 stars!

I have to admit that, at the ripe old age of 66, I finally listened to the full text as Dickens wrote it.

It definitely deserves all the accolades it has ever deserved. I recommend it not just for graceful language, but for continued relevance to our day and age.

A Christmas Carol is a very short book, easily read or listened to in just a few hours. Even if you've experienced the story via a dozen different movie versions and spin offs, I think getting back to the original is well worth your time.

Possibly the best Christmas book EVER. Not only the greatest story since the original (you know, the one in the New Testament), but combined with P.J. Lynch's magnificent illustrations, this book is a gift you can open year after year!

Reread 2012: I had a sudden revelation this morning as I finished this book. It's not just the greatest Christmas book ever, but I have realized that it is probably in my Top Ten of All Time. Such a beautiful work! If anything can be a favorite part, it's the Fezziwig Christmas party, and the description of the dancing.

Reread 2013: Had a revelation just anticipating reading this this year: This is one of my all-time favorite books. I could read this any time of year.

Reread 2014: So much love for this story. So much love.

Reread 2015: I always try to make it through without crying, especially when Tiny Tim dies, and then the ending, when he did NOT die, but I failed again. And then I realized: If I don't tear up at that, I'm probably dead or a sociopath.

Reread 2016: Was able to hand off the book to my daughter to read the parts when Tiny Tim does/doesn't die. The benefit of having kids!

Reread 2017: Woohoo! Managed to make it through the ending without becoming an incoherent mess!

Reread 2018: Finished in the car on the way to the Hogle Zoo for Zoolights. Had to hand it behind me to my 10yo daughter to read the last page. Just the best book ever.

Reread 2019: Just so damn good.

Reread 2020: Clutches book to chest. Gazes mistily into the distance.

Reread 2021: Didn't finish until January, as we got a late start. Still glorious. This year I didn't even make it to Nephew Fred's house, and had to have my daughter take over!

Reread 2022: Made it through Nephew Fred's house, but had son take over for the scenes at the Cratchit's house in both the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come and the Epilogue!

Reread 2023: Choked up several times over different things this year, also we all like to yell out Rizzo's lines from The Muppet Christmas Carol, when appropriate.

Reread 2024: Just the best.

“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. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas…”
-tCharles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is probably the most perfect story I have ever read. Not the best, mind you, and not even my favorite. But in its sublime unity of theme and execution, its graceful symmetries and memorable moments, it is tough to beat. It has been said that A Christmas Carol is the most adapted written work in the English language, and it seems a likely claim, having inspired countless movies, television specials, musicals, and theatrical productions. It is a testament to the essential worthiness of the source material that Dickens’s classic is so readily adaptable in so many mediums, and works just as well when interpreted by Mr. Magoo or Muppets or George C. Scott.

A Christmas Carol has long since transcended its status as a mere novella, and has become symbolic of Christmas itself. More than most books you come across, it is a mood as much as anything. In approximately one-hundred pages – depending on which of the nine-thousand editions you choose – you are confronted with a chilling protagonist who, over the course of five compact acts, will have his certainties challenged, his illusions shattered, and his heart changed.

All of this seems trite and melodramatic in summary; in practice, it is pure magic, a precious gem that waits to be reread each year, and each year just as good as the last.

***

You probably already know this, but A Christmas Carol tells the tale of an aging miser named Ebenezer Scrooge. He works in a counting-house with his poor, put-upon clerk Bob Cratchit. Once upon a time, Scrooge had a partner, Jacob Marley, but when the novella opens, Marley has been dead seven years, though Scrooge seems barely to notice.

Until, that is, Marley appears to him as a ghost, bearing a warning.

“It is required of every man,” the Ghost returned, “that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world…and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!”

Marley himself is one of the condemned, as greedy and avaricious as his old partner, and now bearing a “ponderous chain” corresponding to his selfish life. He informs Scrooge that his own chain is even larger, yet there is the possibility of escape. This lifeline is comprised of three separate ghosts – Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come – who will visit him on three separate nights.

Though Scrooge is a bit hesitant of this deal, he is ultimately given little choice on the matter, and those three visits comprise the unforgettable spine of this book.

***

Dickens wrote some doorstoppers in his life. Big, shaggy, serialized novels like Bleak House and David Copperfield, filled with digression and convoluted plot-twists. A Christmas Carol is exceptionally different. It is lean and clean and fast. Dickens may have struggled during the writing, but the finished product bears no sign of it. A Christmas Carol hits every mark with assuredness. To read it is to feel like Dickens knew exactly what he was doing with every sentence, even if that was not actually how it happened.

No matter what else you think about Dickens – and I find him to be strikingly hit-or-miss – the man knew how to create an indelible character. There isn’t much of a roster in A Christmas Carol, but everyone makes the best of their moment on stage. For the most part, this is Scrooge’s show, as he is the only one given even a hint of psychological depth or shading. But that’s okay, because Scrooge has become one of the most recognized figures in literature, if not in all of western pop culture.

The supporting cast, including Cratchit, nephew Fred, and the ghosts themselves, are mostly foils for Scrooge. Still, Dickens presents them flawlessly, using them both to define Scrooge’s contours, and to land emotional blows. We may not know what makes Tiny Tim tick, but we sure aren’t going to forget him.

***

The writing in A Christmas Carol just sparkles. At certain times, Dickens leans hard into the spooky, gothic-horror aspects. At others, he is playful and wry, with conversational exchanges that crackle and pop. Indeed, these two approaches are often combined to wonderful effect, as in Scrooge’s first meeting with Marley, which is both ominous and funny. One of the telling indicators of the prose – especially the dialogue – is that most adaptations simply transfer Dickens’s words wholesale, without making a change.

Dickens always had a finely honed social conscience, and that is on display here. Mostly, though, he keeps his touch light, without losing any impact. Only the Ghost of Christmas Present tends towards pedantry, and that’s only towards the end of his tour. Mostly, Dickens makes his points through highly-polished vignettes, such as Scrooge’s observations of the Cratchit family.

***

The Christmas cynic says that the season is hypocritical, and that even those people who volunteer, give money, and donate food and gifts only do so once a year.

The optimist says that maybe the Christmas spirit can be contagious, like a benign virus, and that the goodness of the season, or even just the day, can spread.

The realist understands that most people – myself included – need a kick in the butt to give more, and to help more, and to be kinder. Even if that only happens for the roughly thirty-day period between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, it’s at least something. It’s a start.

That’s the lesson of A Christmas Carol. The Ghosts don’t change Scrooge; he changes himself. And as Dickens famously writes, he kept that going the rest of his days: “He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old City knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough in the good old world.”

Maybe we won’t undergo a late-December miracle, but maybe we can all be a little bit better, at least until March.

***

“Timeless” is probably an overused adjective, yet A Christmas Carol has earned that sobriquet. It spoke to audiences in 1843, and continues to speak to us, almost one-hundred-and-eighty years later. Of course, it is not entirely unique or original. Dickens was obviously influenced by writers such as Washington Irving, whose own holiday stories he read, and by the emerging Christmas zeitgeist. Beyond that, I’m sure most cultures have a similar archetypal account of a rich man forced to transform his ways.

Dickens’s accomplishment is in taking existing elements and fitting them into a seamless, endlessly satisfying structure, putting Scrooge through his paces so that his eventual redemption is earned, rather than forced.

Also, he totally crushes the names.

***

It is our reality as humans that most of our lives exist in what we can remember. After all, we have control only of the instant second, and already, that second is passing.

For me, Christmas is a marker of time. I have forgotten the vast majority of my days on earth, but can recall most of my Christmases. They are these brilliant nodes of recollection, as real now as they ever were: the Christmas I – like Ralphie Parker – got my first BB gun; the last Christmas I had with my grandparents, and the first one without; the Christmas after my parents divorced; the first Christmas I spent with my wife; the Christmas that occurred ten days after the birth of my first child. Most are sweet, some bittersweet, and all of them locked behind a door in my mind, waiting for the right key.

That key comes in many forms: an ornament on my mom’s tree that has been reflecting light since the Great Depression; the smell of pine; the first few chords of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.

A Christmas Carol is part of that. It is a vessel, a vein to be tapped. Once opened, it unleashes a flood of visitors: not three spirits, but ten-thousand memories and one.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is the current runaway leader for a reread in the group Catching up on Classics for December. As I gear up for what looks to be some intense reading during the last two months of the year, I decided to pre read this short classic this week. Being that I do not observe the Christmas holiday and can sometimes feel overwhelmed by its presence during the last six weeks of the year, I felt that it was better for me to read Dickens' classic early so I could keep an open mind. Other than references to this story on television, I had never read A Christmas Carol until now, so I was eager to participate in the upcoming group read.

Dickens tale has become almost symbiotic with the holiday season. What may be unknown to some is Dickens' background in that during his lifetime it was common for entire families to join their relatives in debtors prison or to work off their debt. Dickens' father fell upon hard times, so his son went to work in an attempt to bail his father from jail. While this episode did not last for longer than a few months, it stayed with Dickens for his entire life, and is reflected upon in his characters and work. Perhaps Ebenezer Scrooge is as obsessed with money as he is because the Dickens family did not come from wealth and always desired just a little more so that they would not be wondering where their next meal came from. Charles Dickens himself does not seem like the happiest person in the world, a decent father to his children but not the ideal husband. Maybe, just maybe, he contained a kernel of Scrooge's personality within himself.

The tale of a miserly, wealthy man being visited by three spirits; past, present, and future; contains universal themes that pertain to all people. These spirits are sent to Scrooge so that he reform himself before he dies a miserable, lonely man. While the purpose here is that Scrooge uses his wealth to become a giving person at the holiday season, I was touched by the theme of redemption. Judaism also speaks of one's potential to repent for one's bad deeds either through prayer or charity so I used this as a basis for the redemption of Scrooge on his journey with the spirits. Most world religions have a supernatural element, and I believe that the spiritual aspect of A Christmas Carol has allowed this tale to remain on the forefront of society's collective pathos. That the story takes place during the holiday season only increases the likelihood of one's exposure to Scrooge and his path toward redemption.

Dickens' story is short enough that children can read it either alone or with a parent. The version I read was actually shelved at my library as juvenile fiction and contained a forward by Newberry winning author Nancy Farmer. Farmer writes in her message to young readers that she read A Christmas Carol for the first time in one evening when she was a child. She enjoyed the spookiness of the ghosts while also being moved by Scrooge's ability to reform and give assistance to those in need. The reading guide at the end of the book also encourages people to donate either their time or money to charity during the holiday season. While not everyone is able to give at Scrooge's level, Dickens does encourage those who can to assist those who may be lacking. Thus, A Christmas Carol speaks to another universal theme, one that is timely in light of the many natural disasters that have occurred recently, that of charity.

While I am not likely to reread A Christmas Carol each year at the fireside, I did enjoy the universal message of a person having the ability to reform oneself before it is too late. Scrooge has become such a part of vernacular that no person wants to be referred to as a Scrooge or coldhearted person. Yet, that misses the essence of this tale because Scrooge did indeed see the light and become kind at the close of the story. I do love the timelessness of Dickens tale and that his work is accessible to all. As I am always looking for hidden classics by authors the world over, I sometimes neglect in reading the masters of western cannon, Dickens included. Perhaps, this is a wake up call to me to read more Dickens in the years to come because I did enjoy A Christmas Carol immensely.

4+ stars