...
Show More
I loved it and will read it again in future. I love the way Charles Dickens takes an entire paragraph to tell us one small thing and does it using the most amazing descriptive language.
There were so many quotes I loved, but I'm going to narrow it down to just a few:
From a happy family story, Christmas Festivities:
I love this quote as it brings my mind to our family Christmas festivities. We drench our Christmas pudding with brandy and light it on fire each Christmas Day, and it never ceases to bring gasps of wonder and smiles of joy.
"and when at last a stout servant staggers in with a gigantic pudding with a sprig of holly in the top, there is such a laughing, and shouting, and clapping of chubby little hands, and kicking up of dumpy legs, as can only be equalled by the applause with which the astonishing feat of pouring lighted brandy into mince pies is received by the younger visitors."
From a delightfully creepy short story, The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton:
Gabriel Grub, a sexton and grave-digger is visited by a goblin in the graveyard and experiences a life changing event. At the beginning of the story Grub is wonderfully described as "an ill-conditioned, cross-grained, surly fellow - a morose and lonely man, who consorted with nobody but himself, and an old wicker bottle which fitted into his large deep waistcoat pocket; who eyed each merry face as it passed him by, with such a deep scowl of malice and ill-humour, as it was difficult to meet without feeling something the worse for."
During Grub's interlude with the goblin he comes to several conclusions including:
that women "were the oftenest superior to sorrow, adversity, and distress; and he saw that it was because they bore in their own hearts an inexhaustible well-spring of affection and devotedness. Above all, he saw the men like himself, who snarled at the mirth and cheerfulness of others, were the foulest weeds on the fair surface of the earth; and setting all the good of the world against the evil, he came to the conclusion that it was a very decent and respectable world after all."
From A Christmas Carol - Stave One - Marley's Ghost
About Scrooge, Charles Dickens writes: "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."
There were so many quotes I loved, but I'm going to narrow it down to just a few:
From a happy family story, Christmas Festivities:
I love this quote as it brings my mind to our family Christmas festivities. We drench our Christmas pudding with brandy and light it on fire each Christmas Day, and it never ceases to bring gasps of wonder and smiles of joy.
"and when at last a stout servant staggers in with a gigantic pudding with a sprig of holly in the top, there is such a laughing, and shouting, and clapping of chubby little hands, and kicking up of dumpy legs, as can only be equalled by the applause with which the astonishing feat of pouring lighted brandy into mince pies is received by the younger visitors."
From a delightfully creepy short story, The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton:
Gabriel Grub, a sexton and grave-digger is visited by a goblin in the graveyard and experiences a life changing event. At the beginning of the story Grub is wonderfully described as "an ill-conditioned, cross-grained, surly fellow - a morose and lonely man, who consorted with nobody but himself, and an old wicker bottle which fitted into his large deep waistcoat pocket; who eyed each merry face as it passed him by, with such a deep scowl of malice and ill-humour, as it was difficult to meet without feeling something the worse for."
During Grub's interlude with the goblin he comes to several conclusions including:
that women "were the oftenest superior to sorrow, adversity, and distress; and he saw that it was because they bore in their own hearts an inexhaustible well-spring of affection and devotedness. Above all, he saw the men like himself, who snarled at the mirth and cheerfulness of others, were the foulest weeds on the fair surface of the earth; and setting all the good of the world against the evil, he came to the conclusion that it was a very decent and respectable world after all."
From A Christmas Carol - Stave One - Marley's Ghost
About Scrooge, Charles Dickens writes: "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."
