"Awakening in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore....."

A Christmas Carol, is the Xmas classic that everyone knows, regardless of whether they have actually read it or not. This is quite a short read, and on many levels, considering it's Dickens, it's rather an easy read too.
What I can appreciate with Dickens, is the depth of his writing. It's remarkable. I love the detail of the world building, and the lavish descriptions.
I should add, the "Bah Humbug!" makes me titter to myself. I have seen the films related to this, and that's the line I remember when thinking about this book.
Oh, and this hardback edition of the book, has a gorgeous cover. I would have bought it just to look at the cover!
What I like the most about this story is that it has messages for the reader, to go off, think about, and do what they will with them. I think that is also what makes this such a popular classic.

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

Heartwarming, atmospheric and sweet
Best and happiest of all, the time before him was his own, to make amends in!
‘I will live in the past, present and future!’

I don't have much to say about A Christmas Carol that has not been said a thousand times before. I found it a lovely, atmospheric read, with a satisfying turn around of Scrooge from his initial chagrin. Maybe in a modern book such a full reversal would be deemed saccharine and for naive children but I feel Charles Dickens did an excellent job of offering hope of redemption and betterment in this novella.
What could be more Christmas like?
And besides, he is genuinely funny, making Scrooge for instance almost say the following to a supernatural apparition:
He then made bold to inquire what business brought him here.
‘Your welfare’ said the ghost.
Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been more conducive to that end.

What a fantastic story! How terrible it was to be poor in the Victorian Era. Dickens was a humanitarian and saw first hand the poverty in the streets of London. The starving urchins trying to steal an apple or a handkerchief. The void between the rich and the poor. This story, like Oliver Twist in my opinion is a masterpiece.

The musicals are just, brilliant.

Bah! Humbug!

Ebenezer Scrooge is a bitter old man, working day after day in his office, mistreating everyone around him, caring only about making riches and little else. Christmas Eve is no exception, as he dismisses it as utter humbug. But that might change when a fatidic night, he is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future; and shown the error in his ways.

I must admit I found this a very complicated reading, to the point I dragged this book for more than a month when it can be finished in a couple of days, or even hours. I could never grasp Dickens style of writing; excessively flowery, and overly convoluted. I skimmed quite a lot, and had difficulty understanding whatever else remained. Gave me quite a slump, for which in a way I’m grateful since it allowed me to review many past readings. Sadly I already knew much of the plot because I watched 'Scrooged' several decades ago. Maybe it also didn’t help that I’m kind of a Grinch regarding Christmas.

Still, an immortal Christmas classic that requires no introduction. Recommendable, for the right audience.

It’s public domain, you can find it HERE.

*** A Christmas Carol (1984). Definitely the most faithful movie by far. Several quotations can be found through the whole film, which deviates little from the original script. George C. Scott plays a highly convincing Ebenezer. And also notable Warner, Rees and Tiny Tim. Aged well all things considered. Most recommendable for adults who want to enjoy a serious faithful adaptation.

*** A Christmas Carol (2009). An animated film made by Disney. A reasonably faithful adaptation, with many direct quotations and stars like Carrey, Oldman and Firth performing voice acting. Remarkable special effects and action scenes that not necessarily go well with the book. Recommendable mostly for children, and adults with a child at heart that don’t mind going a bit off script.

*** Scrooged (1988). A comedy retelling and the most unfaithful adaptation by far, and still my personal favorite! Bill Murray is magnificently hilarious from start to finish. Karen Allen also plays a completely adorable Claire (a crush for a time). Exceedingly easy to watch, funny, romantic, and very uplifting. Powerfully transmits that sickly sweet Christmas feeling, even to a Grinch like me. Highly recommendable for any audience.

And as Tiny Tim would say


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n  PERSONAL NOTEn:
[1843] [104p] [Classics] [Conditional Recommendable]
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¡Bah! ¡Paparruchas!

Ebenezer Scrooge es un viejo amargado, trabajando día tras día en su oficina, maltratando a todos a su alrededor, importándole sólo ganar riquezas y nada más. La Navidad no es una excepción, a la que descarta como completas paparruchas. Pero eso podría cambiar cuando una fatídica noche es visitado por los Fantasmas de la Navidad Pasada, Presente y Futura; y comprender el error de sus maneras.

Debo admitir que hallé esto una lectura bastante complicada, hasta el punto de que arrastré este libro por más de un mes cuando puede terminarse en un par de días, o incluso horas. Nunca pude ajustarme al estilo de escritura de Dickens; excesivamente florido, y demasiado enrevesado. Salteé algo bastante, y tuve dificultad para entender lo que sea que quedaba. Me dio un bloqueo importante, por el que estoy agradecido en cierta forma porque me dio la oportunidad de reseñar muchas lecturas pasadas. Lamentablemente ya sabía bastante de la trama porque vi 'Scrooged' varias décadas atrás. Tal vez tampoco ayudó que soy medio Grinch con respecto a la Navidad.

Aun así, un clásico inmortal de Navidad que no requiere introducción. Recomendable, para la audiencia correcta.

Es dominio público, lo pueden encontrar ACA.

*** Canción de Navidad (1984). Definitivamente la película más fiel por lejos. Varias citas pueden ser encontradas a lo largo de todo el film, que se desvía poco del guion original. George C. Scott hace un muy convincente Ebenezer. También notables Warner, Rees y el pequeño Tim. Añeja bien considerando todo. Más recomendable para adultos que disfrutan una seria y fiel adaptación.

*** Canción de Navidad (2009). Un lindo film animado hecho por Disney. Una razonablemente fiel adaptación, con varias citas directas y estrellas como Carrey, Oldman y Firth actuando las voces. Destacan efectos especiales y escenas de acción que no necesariamente van bien con el libro. Recomendable mayormente para pequeños, y adultos con corazón de niño que no resientan desviarse un poco del texto.

*** Scrooged (1988). Una versión comedia y la adaptación menos fiel por lejos, y aun así ¡mi favorita personal! Murray es magníficamente hilarante de principio a fin. Karen Allen también actúa una completamente adorable Claire (un flechazo por un tiempo). Excesivamente fácil de ver, graciosa, romántica, y muy inspiradora. Poderosamente transmite ese asquerosamente dulce sentimiento de Navidad, incluso para un Grinch como yo. Altamente recomendable para cualquier audiencia.



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n  NOTA PERSONALn:
[1843] [104p] [Clásico] [Recomendable Condicional]
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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.

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.!

2017 review:

Reading this classic novella is a Christmas tradition for me, one that I’ve adhered faithfully to for the past seven years. And it seems as if, with each passing year, this little book resonates more and more deeply with me. I believe that Dickens was divinely inspired in the writing of this story. It has inspired so many people and so many retellings. Like the best of classic literature, it endures. And like the best stories, whatever form they take, it has a meaningful message, one that has done nothing but deepen with age like a fine wine.

We as a modern society have largely lost the meaning of Christmas. Thankfully, we don’t have to look any further than the most popular and retold Christmas tales (outside of the Story that Christmas celebrates) to be reminded of what Christmas truly represents. Christmas is a time to remember the greatest Gift we were ever given, in the form of the birth of Christ. It is a time to give to others, to pull up those beaten down by society, to let the embers of what is best and brightest within us be fanned back into the flames that the trials of life have dampened. It is a time to put our fellow man’s needs above our own, to reach out to those less fortunate than ourselves and help them to feel loved and appreciated. It’s a time to do everything in our power to foster smiles and laughter and a sense of magic within the heart of children, no matter their age. It’s a time to spread the amazing love we’ve been given, and to proclaim the message of the One who loves us so lavishly. But so often, we are instead consumed by business and commercialism and our own menial problems to remember the reason for the season and to look outside of ourselves at the needs of others.

This is a lesson Ebenezer Scrooge learns one Christmas night, and it’s one he takes to heart. I absolutely love the manner in which that lesson is conveyed here. The meaning of Christmas doesn’t come across as trite, but is instead deep and rich and something that should live in our hearts every day of the year, not just on December 25th. And that message, and the beautiful way it’s expressed, is why rereading this story will remain a Christmas tradition for me for as many Christmases as I live.
Merry Christmas, y’all. And may God bless us, every one.

2016 review:

Is there any story in literary history that has been adapted more often than A Christmas Carol? If you can think of one, please let me know. Between plays, movies, television episodes, books, and radio, Dickens’ short Christmas morality tale has been adapted literally hundreds of times. Something about the story has resonated with audiences for over 170 years, and shows no sign of growing irrelevant any time soon. I think Dickens managed to say well something that all of us feel deep inside ourselves; Christmas is about giving with an open heart.

The name Ebenezer Scrooge has become synonymous with being miserly, tight-fisted, greedy, callous, uncaring, and perhaps most of all, being resentful of the Christmas season. How often have you heard the term “Don’t be a Scrooge” during the month of December, sometimes aimed at others undeservedly? That being said, Scrooge deserved that application of his name, undoubtedly. At the beginning of Dickens’ tale, he’s one of the most unlikeable central characters in literature. But Christmas is a season of second chances, and one such change to change is granted to Scrooge. He’s taken on a wild ride on Christmas Eve, a ride I’m sure most of you are familiar with. Through the aid of three Spirits, he is shown Christmases from his past, the Christmas of the present, and the Christmas he will earn in the future if he doesn’t mend his ways.

But mend his ways he does! I can’t recall any other character in literature who turned his life around so completely as did Ebenezer Scrooge when he woke on Christmas day. And he maintained the true Spirit of Christmas until the end of his days, we’re told. He didn’t need to be reminded again of what was truly important. The Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Future did their jobs well. But we as the audience tend to forget the true meaning of Christmas, letting it get lost in the shuffle and commercialism that accompany that most wonderful time of the year. Maybe that’s why people keep coming back to Dickens’ story and retelling it in so many different ways. Scrooge no longer needs reminding, but we do. And so his story will always be relatable, whether we prefer our Scrooge in the form of Patrick Stewart or Bill Murray or Scrooge McDuck. Dickens reminds us that Christmas is a time of giving and miracles and appreciating those around us, and that message will always resonate.

I enjoyed this reading very much. This is my favorite Christmas story. It is a story of a very greedy bitter selfish man who gets visited by three ghosts on Christmas eve.
The ghost of Christmas present, The ghost of Christmas past, and the ghost of Christmas past.
His heart is touched and opened to the spirit of Christmas and generousity.

A must-read allegorical Christmas classic with more clanking chains than you'd find in a dominatrix's sex dungeon.

A Christmas Carol is, and probably always will be, my favorite Dickens book; it's spooky and charming and pulls at your heartstrings. It was just as magical this time around as in all my previous readings and viewings of the story (I kept remembering the Disney movie with Donald's uncle as Scrooge, which is probably the most nostalgic version for me).

[Reread, December 2024]

The Second Most Famous Christmas Story

Even if you are unlucky enough never to have read anything by Mr. Charles Dickens, you will still know the story of the Three Ghosts – the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come – that haunt the miserly and continuously ill-humoured businessman Ebenezer Scrooge and make him aware of how he has been excluding himself from all human fellowship when actually no man should consider himself an island. You may not have read this little Christmas novella, but you will have seen one or another screen adaptation for sure, and there might even be a considerable number of people who make a point of enjoying this story whenever Christmas is near.

So maybe in the light of all this, it is not an exaggeration to say that Dickens probably wrote the most famous Christmas Story in the world if you leave aside the original Nativity Story that is re-told or enacted in churches all over the world every year. Being the next in line to the story that started it all is quite some achievement, I should think.

However, when you take a closer look at the novella itself, you will notice that Dickens’s achievement not only lies in the popularity his 1843 tale would immediately gain – he could not have known that it would become such a success when he was writing it –, but more so in the richness of the tale itself. Do not make the mistake and assume that A Christmas Carol will give you the story of an old geezer who is visited by a bunch of spectres that make him afraid of dying a lonely and unlamented death and who therefore completely and miraculously changes his ways for in that case you would hardly do justice to Dickens’s deftness at drawing his characters. On the contrary, when you read the book carefully you will notice how skilfully Dickens invites the reader to draw his own conclusions as to why Scrooge has become the flinty recluse as who he appears in the first chapter of the book, and to follow his gradual reform. Just compare the hints Dickens offers with the development of Scrooge’s character as it is intimated in the enjoyable Muppets version of the story, and you will see that by 1843 Dickens was no longer prone to using the one-sided characters you know from his earlier works such as Oliver Twist or The Old Curiosity Shop.

What is more, the book also shows Dickens as somebody deeply concerned with social and political questions: Whereas the Christmas scenes in Pickwick Papers are exclusively characterized by cheerful and buoyant conviviality, in A Christmas Carol Dickens also pursued some social motive, namely that of raising the public’s awareness of the harrowing needs of the poor, whose numbers had increased in the wake of industrialization. Some might criticize Dickens for advocating the idea of better-to-do people’s responsibility for the indigent classes and urging them to donate money as a rather paternalistic approach of alms-giving that denies the socially deprived their right to have their basic needs satisfied – but what these critics actually fail to see is that Dickens criticized the Poor Law and its affiliated measures as utterly counterproductive and inhumane and that this was the reason why he underlined the necessity of private people’s feeling responsible to give their share for the common good. You may remember that Scrooge rebuked the portly gentleman’s request for a donation by referring to the Treadmill, the Prisons and the money he paid so that these institutions could be run. It is this attitude of transferring one’s duty towards other people to official institutions – that may fulfil this duty well or poorly – that is becoming increasingly typical of modern societies, and in that respect I would say that Dickens’s approach was anything but old-fashioned.

Nevertheless the question whether Dickens’s appeal to private charity is “enlightened” or not may be a matter of little concern given the depth and power of this little book, and as far as I am concerned Christmas would hardly be Christmas without Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, the genial Mr. Fezziwig and last not least without Tiny Tim.