Purchased this leather bound B&N Collectible Edition this December as this is one of my favorite all-time stories and I wanted to have a lovely little collectible copy.

As perfect as ever. Just a joy to read.

A holiday classic and an absolute delight. I really don't like Dickens anywhere else, but this story is timeless with a powerful message of compassion's great worth. I really look forward to a family tradition of an annual re-read.

5 stars out of 5.

I’ve written a review on this book before. You know, back when I wrote mostly proper reviews!? It was a good one for once, but it’s disappeared, so there! 5 Stars ⭐️



Mel

I’ve seen countless film, TV and stage adaptations of A Christmas Carol, but it wasn’t until this week that I read the actual text. Which is strange. I adore Dickens. If pressed, I’d call him one of my all-time favourite authors. But it’s a busy time of year, and when I watch the films it’s usually in a social situation.

This week I found myself with a few extra hours and finally read the novella. Wow. I’m very glad I did. Here are some thoughts:

• I can see why it’s so frequently adapted and has stood the test of time

The structure is brilliant. Think of all the characters Scrooge interacts with in the opening section (Cratchit, his nephew, the people from the charity). Notice how he encounters them all in the final section, too! The dialogue is so clear and sharp screenwriters don’t have to change much. And that dialogue has to be memorable (“Are there no prisons?” “Decrease the surplus population”) in order to register when the lines are thrown back at him later.

• Dickens’ description of Scrooge is amazing:

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.

Look at that series of words (“squeezing, wrenching, grasping…”). They tell you everything you need to know about the man. I'm not sure I like “secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster” – we already get that. But what colourful, character-rich description. I LOVE the flint that doesn’t give generous fire! And that then leads to the passage about how the coldness WITHIN HIM affects his features. Brilliant.

• I love the humour

Scrooge (say the name and your face scrunches up in a snarl) walks in the street and here's Dickens explaining how people avoid him:

No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. 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; and then would wag their tails as though they said, “No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!”

That “what it was o’clock” and “such and such a place” are classic and timeless. I love that bit about the dogs. It’s visual and funny.

When the ghost of Marley visits Scrooge (speaking of which: that chain of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, etc. is a brilliant, brilliant image and metaphor!), I always, ALWAYS laugh at Scrooge's explanation: "a little thing affects [the senses]. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. 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!"

The smug pun on "gravy" and "grave" is amusing, and there's a poetry of sorts in that "fragment of an underdone potato."

• The story moves at a clip!

After Scrooge leaves his office, there’s this: “Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening with his banker’s-book, went home to bed.” I figured there’d be a whole couple of paragraphs at the restaurant. Nope!

What’s amazing about the text is that after his transformation (I’m assuming this isn’t a spoiler), there are only some 6 pages left for him to realize it’s still Christmas Day, order the turkey (I love the exchange with the boy on the street) for Cratchit and his family, walk the streets as with renewed vigour, go to his nephew’s for Christmas dinner and then surprise Cratchit the next day. That’s a LOT to fit in.

Here’s the exchange at his nephew Fred’s home:

“Why bless my soul!” cried Fred, “who’s that?”
“It’s I. Your uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner. Will you let me in, Fred?”
Let him in! It is a mercy he didn’t shake his arm off. He was at home in five minutes. Nothing could be heartier. His niece looked just the same. So did Topper when he came. So did the plump sister when she came. So did every one when they came. Wonderful party, wonderful games, wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness!
But he was early at the office next morning…”

Most adaptations understandably have Scrooge asking Fred for some sort of forgiveness, to add an emotional beat that recalls Scrooge's dead sister. But Dickens, who’s often accused of writing too much, goes right to the next scene!

• The name of Scrooge’s kindly old boss, Mr. Fezziwig (see above illustration)

His name always makes me laugh. But to READ the name in print is almost more fizzy fun than to merely hear it said.

• Social conscience

Dickens knew poverty and his books shed light on the social inequities of the Victorian era: the workhouses, debtors’ prisons, etc. His sensitivity comes through even in this short book, not just in that classic sequence about Ignorance and Want, but also in the scene in which the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to the miners’ village and then to spy on a couple of sailors (“the elder… with his face all damaged and scarred with hard weather, as the figure-head of an old ship might be: struck up a sturdy song that was like a Gale in itself”). After the great scene at nephew Fred’s place, where they play the game that involves Scrooge, comes this passage:

The Spirit stood beside sick beds, and they were cheerful; on foreign lands, and they were close at home; by struggling men, and they were patient in their greater hope; by poverty, and it was rich. In almshouse, hospital, and jail, in misery’s every refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority had not made fast the door, and barred the Spirit out, he left his blessing, and taught Scrooge his precepts.

Wow. I love this passage. It’s expansive, encompassing many people and lives.

• Sentimentality

Okay, there’s the matter of Tiny Tim: “and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father.” So Tim NEVER dies?

• Let’s instead concentrate on Dickens’s insights into human behaviour:

If you look at the Cratchit’s dinner during the Ghost Of Christmas Present scene, I love how Dickens shows how the family’s in denial about the size of the meal: “There never was such a goose…. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole famly; indeed, as Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small atom of a bone upon the dish), they hadn’t ate it all at last! Yet every one had had enough…”

Dickens makes even the most minor character memorable. Consider all the fuss about Master Peter Cratchit’s collars, something that’s classic if you substitute those collars for the latest teen fashion. And Dickens even gives us this little bit near the end of that scene: “… and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the inside of a pawnbroker’s.”

This is Dickens acknowledging human truths. He’s not judging, simply observing. Yes, the book is a ghost story and a tad sentimental. But what makes it a classic are details like this that show how flawed, limited people can be redeemed by the thought and spirit of something larger than themselves.

To quote from near the story's end: "May that be truly said of us, and all of us!"

It has been a decade since I last read this classic, so I decided to look at it again, taking note of what I have forgotten or imperfectly remembered and also garnering any new insights my older (and I hope wiser) self could now find within it.

But first, I decided to do a little research, and discovered the great irony underlying the book’s creation: how this tale that warns against miserliness was born because of Dickens' acute need for money, and how its publication resulted in a dispute about the distribution of profits.

Dickens was already famous in 1843, but the sales of the recent installments of Martin Chuzzlewit were less than half of what he had received for the individual numbers of his previous novels. His publishers Chapman and Hall were so alarmed that they invoked a clause in Dickens' contract which demanded that they be reimbursed for the printing cost of the Chuzzlewit installments. Dickens was alarmed too, but also hurt, offended...and worried. A large mortgage payment would soon be due, and his wife had just given birth to their fifth child. Still, he was convinced that his idea for a yuletide novella would yield an ample return and make up for the Chuzzlewit deficit.

He financed the sumptuous edition of A Christmas Carol himself—colored plates, colored title page, gilt embossed front cover, gilt-edged pages, etc.—and insisted that the price not exceed the sum of 5 shillings (still expensive: one third of Cratchit’s weekly salary). Dickens waited eagerly for the money to roll in, but, although the sales were indeed phenomenal, Dickens gained little money from them. Although the cost of producing the elegant volume must have cut deeply into the profits, Dickens was convinced Chapman and Hall were cheating him and he refused to do business with them for the next fifteen years.

But enough of money matters, for now! What follows are a few random observations on this, the latest of my many readings.

1) How thoroughly Marley’s Ghost is surrounded by iron objects: doorknocker (large Victorian doorknockers were typically iron), iron door nails, iron coffin nails, iron chain and iron metal strong box. Helps us see what hard, unrelenting old sinners Marley and his partner really are.

2) In addition to being hard of heart, Scrooge is a man with a deliberate philosophy of self-exoneration. It consists of two principles: 1) taxpayers fund the poor houses and prisons, thereby discharging in full their obligation to all of their fellow human beings, and 2) death by starvation, although it may seem regrettable, is actually a positive good as proven by science (because Malthus!), and relieves the rest of us of the burden of a surplus population. This philosophy is the shield that protects Scrooge from feeling the pains of sympathy and compassion.

3) The first emotion produced in Scrooge by the Ghost of Christmas Past is sadness at this own boyhood loneliness, but the second emotion is his joy in the books that consoled him and helped him empathize with others: The Arabian Nights, the old romances (Valentine and Orson), and realistic fiction (Robinson Crusoe). In Ebenezer’s coming transformation, the sadness and its memory are of course necessary, but no more necessary than this joy.

4) At Fezziwig’s Christmas party, the guest list is inclusive: the family and the clerks of course, but also the housemaid, the baker, the cook, the milkman, and a boy and a girl from down the street whom the Fezziwigs fear are mistreated by their masters and mistresses. Scrooge’s defense of his employer Fezziwig's little party which may only have cost “a few pounds” is even more eloquent than I remembered:

n  He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count them up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune."n

If I were dictator, I would compel our 21st century employers to listen to the above words at least four times a year. (Exception: employers who, in order to increase the volume of key strokes, forbid all family photographs and personal items in their data entry cubicles. No, those guys should have to listen to the above passage on a loop, eight hours a day, for the rest of their lives.)

5) In my favorite movie version, the Alastair Sim Scrooge (1951), Ebenezer sees his former fiance as an old woman (still beautiful of course) nursing the sick and dying in the shadowy corners of the poorhouse. It is moving, certainly, but how much more effective—and crueler—is the Dicken’s original! There, Scrooge sees his former love happy in the recent past, a contented wife and mother surrounded by a whirlwind of children.

6) In the past I have viewed the temporal structure of the tale (ghost past, ghost present, ghost future) as an effective but obvious device. But the more I think about it, the more profound it seems, psychologically and spiritually. This, after all, is the pattern of every true conversion, the manner in which we grow in sympathy toward our fellow human beings: we reflect upon the emotionally charged sense impressions of the past, observe their consequences for good or ill manifested in the present, and then—on the basis of these observations—we make a decision to act in a new way, a way which draws us closer to love. Certainly St. Augustine would have understood, for it was how he envisioned the Trinity, as a model of love in action: memory, understanding, and will.

Oh, speaking of how painful memories can inspire a person to action, I forgot to tell you the rest of the story about A Christmas Carol and money. Another factor that reduced Dickens' yuletide revenue stream was a cut-rate bit of plagiarism issued two weeks after Carol by Parley’s Illustrated Library called A Christmas Ghost Story. Parley's claimed they owed Dickens nothing because what they had published was not a piracy, but an "analytical condensation" of the tale, and, in addition, they had improved upon the original. (For example, in their version, Tiny Tim sings a song about a little child freezing in the snow.) Dickens sued and won, but Parley’s went bankrupt, and instead of gaining any money from his legal ordeal, Dickens was forced to pay 700 pounds in court costs.

Now, here comes the good news: This painful experience so disillusioned Dickens with English civil law that he used it as his inspiration ten years later for what is arguably his finest, most mature creation, the masterpiece Bleak House. So I guess Dickens gained something from the experience after all.

On that high note, I will leave you. And God bless us, everyone!

I’m truly shocked to be saying that I actually enjoyed a classic. Charles Dickens’ writing style is surprsingly easy to understand for a classic author and the story had such a great message. I was even tearing up at some parts of the story because of Tiny Tim. I honestly don’t remember a lot about the movie adaptations of A Christmas Carol, so Tiny Tim was basically a whole new character to me and his story was heartbreaking yet inspiring at the same time.

If you want to read A Christmas Carol, I highly recommend listening to the Audible version with the full cast. There’s fun music and sound effects that make the story even more interesting. The cast also includes Miriam Margolyes (Professor Sprout) and Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) so of course it was a delight to listen to.

In this little known novella a miser sees the evil ways his life has become and with the help of some horrific spirits turns around the direction of his walk on Earth. But seriously folks this moving classic has heart. Ebenezer Scrooge is wealthy yet a lonely , bitter man living in a vast mansion by himself . During Christmas while others are celebrating the joyous occasion Scrooge the tightwad tells all who have the effrontery to say Merry Christmas and retorts the legendary bah humbug. Turning down two gentlemen with those remarks after they request help for the destitute with the statement are there no prisons, are there no workhouses ? Bob Cratchit the clerk in the skinflint's employment, a poor man his low salary the cause, and the large family suffers greatly. As he the friendless, travels back from the office to his home in the cold night the prosperous loan business is the only thing he loves. However the door's knocker transforms into the eerie image of his late partner Jacob Marley a person who was as money hungry as Mr. Scrooge in fact today the seventh anniversary of his not grieved demise. No surprise Ebenezer quickly eats and jumps in bed the simmering blaze in the fireplace slowly disintegrates into ash. Safe he's not, the ghost of Marley once more appears dragging a long , long chain a consequence of the man's crimes perpetuates against his fellow beings. Warning him this will be the same fate if he doesn't change his ways. Three spirits the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future will arrive to show Scrooge's life good or bad, naturally the future petrifies the old man most, his tomorrows . Not uneasy the outcome to figure out for any that indulge in reading or seeing the many film versions, sad shadows bring flashes to the remembrances even he is not made of stone, seeing the woman Ebenezer loved nevertheless gold he liked more. The story will always perpetuate how a person's choices can make living happy or otherwise. Still it gives clarity to some especially those unsure of what they think is inappropriate decisions that caused pain, suffering and certainly uneasiness. Mr. Charles Dickens again and again gains much esteem as the people change the pages very quickly and view them with ultimate respect, reading all of these superb unparalleled parables,
his elegant stories. As long as Christmas is celebrated this magnificent account takes a trip to the imagination and makes a second chance possible.

What a way to continue my annual Christmas reading...

If there is one story that is synonymous with Christmas, it would be Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. How I have gone so long in my life never having read this story, I do not know. I quite liked the movie from the early 1950s and always used that as my benchmark for what the story is all about, but chose to take the plunge and read Dickens’ actual words, yet another tradition that comes from the Victorian era.

As miserly Ebenezer Scrooge heads home late one Christmas Eve night, he is visited by the apparition of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, dead seven years. Marley’s apparition tells that Scrooge will be visited by three ghosts who will show him essential things that he needs to know.

While Scrooge scoffs at the entire process, he is startled when the first ghost appears to take him into the past. This experience shows Scrooge some of the events from his past and how he became the man he is today. A second ghost explores current decisions Scrooge has been making, including some of the most miserly choices he could have made. Quite startled by this point, Scrooge does not want the third visit, but must see life as it would be after his passing and how others will speak of him. This is enough to help bring about an epiphany for the elderly Ebenezer, who sees the world for what it could be. A Christmas classic that I will definitely add to my annual read list, this one is recommended for anyone eager to explore Christmas and its true meaning.

Many of my friends on Goodreads have read this book and are as astounded as me that I had never done so myself. I found myself enthralled from the opening sentences and remained captivated throughout. I will admit that I chose to let the stellar voice of Tim Curry guide me through the Audible version of this tale, which brought the experience to life for me and will be used each December, of that I can be sure. Dickens is a master storyteller and many renditions of this story have emerged over the years, all of which have their own spin on the story. The themes that come up as Scrooge explores his life are sensational and there is little about which any reader could complain. Divided into five distinct staves, Dickens pulls the reader in and keeps their attention until the final sentence, never letting things lose momentum. I can only hope to find more exciting tales in the years to come, to add to my December collection.

Kudos, Mr. Dickens, for a stunning story that touches the heart of each reader in its own way.

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

What a delightful read! "The Christmas Carol" is so embedded in our literature and entertainment, and so much has probably been written on it that there's really nothing I can add that someone likely hasn't already said about it already. Almost everyone knows the general plot and the basic moral of the story.

Having said that, I must say I find it a remarkable work. Many contemporary writers of Dickens' time tend to be verbose or overly descriptive or go into long paragraphs taking up a page and a half --- there's probably some academic term for that distinctive writing style of early 19th Century writers, but I know it when I see it. One of the things about Dickens' writing style is that he packs impact, emotion, and meaning into short paragraphs that make the book an easy for read in only a fraction of page numbers that most other writers would takes hundreds of pages to do. As such, it is enjoyable and meaningful for people from a wide variety of educational and class levels, and I think that is part of which makes this book timeless. It's a writing style that obviously appealed to readers in Dickens' time, appeals to readers today -- and I think will continue to make it a beloved work of literature for centuries to come.

While this is the first time I've actually read the book itself, I was curious to the extent that the many films based on it stay true to the book versus taking poetic license with it. Perhaps also a tribute to Dickens' writing, most of the Christmas Carol movies do follow the book in my opinion often even right down to the characters' dialogue. That many film directors implicitly realize that the book cannot be improved upon further by their innovations seems to me additional evidence of the brilliance of Dickens' storytelling.

In conclusion, a wonderful book --- great for everyone of all ages, backgrounds, etc, etc.!

With a multitude of fabulous reviews already written, plays acted out and movie adaptations made from this marvelous tale, I’ll keep my review short.

It is Dickens. His writing is silky smooth and the characters, of course, lived brightly in my mind. He’s universally considered a master of the written word for good reason.

n  "I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it."n

These lines created a poignant visual, which led me to reflect on the chains I forge in my own life.

n  "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!"n

What a wonderful world it would be if we held the spirit of Christmas in our hearts the whole year through.

Mr. Dickens has given me food for thought with this petite, magical story. I turned the last page with Tiny Tim’s encouraging words warming my spirit. "God Bless us, every one!"
Indeed!

It's a family tradition to read A Christmas Carol (original, unabridged) aloud each Christmas season and then to watch at least one film version on Christmas Eve (this year it was the Muppets' Christmas Carol - very authentic - with Michael Caine).

Over the years, we have discussed the 19th century slang and customs enough so that the reading is becoming smoother and smoother without much need for editorial asides. This year we focused on favorite phrases "Marley was dead, to begin with." "the misanthropic ice", "solitary as an oyster", "Come in and know me better, man!" and we talked about Charles Dickens as the rock star of the mid-1800's. It is such a wonderful, timeless story and by re-reading it every year we become better and better acquainted with the characters. We continue to marvel at Dickens' powers of description and treasure the multitude of secondary characters like Topper, the plump sister, Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig, the little Cratchits and more. I can't wait to read it again!