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

How many times have I seen a version of A Christmas Carol? Probably too many times to count, but I can try:

- A stage version at least half a dozen times
- The Disney version with Scrooge McDuck
- The Disney version with Jim Carrey
- A Muppet Christmas Carol
- Scrooged with Bill Murray
- Probably more that I am forgetting

Finally, I have taken it upon myself to read the source material! Did I like it? Two words: BAH, HUMBUG!

In Dickens-ese that means I did. I have enjoyed pretty much every adaptation I have seen and, in general, they seem very close to the original story. So, I have no complaints!

One thing you will find with the book is that each ghost has one or two more scenes that they show Scrooge. It seems like adapters of the book have generally agreed on which stories to leave out as I don't think I was familiar with any of the "new" tales.

Do you love Christmas stories? Classics? Adaptations of this story? I am not saying you should read this, I am saying you pretty much have to!

“Bah, humbug!”

Many of us have grown up and / or lived our whole lives with the legend of Ebenezer Scrooge, there have been scores of adaptations in several media.

Dickens’ language is vibrant and his storytelling is spot on in this epochal tale of redemption.

“Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!”

Scrooge was a fitting personification of Victorian fastidiousness and avarice but is also a timeless character: “A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of December!”

The idea for the three ghosts (four if you count Marley) was inspired and no doubt was the greatest portion of the timeless success of this story.

“You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”

Ultimately, Dickens’ description of Scrooge’s epiphany and restoration is the prize, but his road there is still a delight to read and enjoy.

“What! Would you so soon put out, with worldly hands, the light I give?”

Highly recommended.

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.”

Ebenezer Scrooge, the very definition of grumpy miserliness, gets a second chance at figuring out what's really important in life, with the help of some ghosts who give him an unforgettable version of "This is Your Life."

This may not be a perfect piece of literature - there are a few places where Dickens goes off on tangential lines of thought that I thought would have been better left out - but you know, it's actually amazing and really touching, the influence this classic novella has had on our culture. I have to give it props for that, and that's what bumps my rating from 4 stars to 5.

If you're interested in a brief glossary of some of the Victorian terms that aren't familiar to us nowadays, I found a very useful set of annotations online at http://drbacchus.com/files/christmas_..., along with some brief commentary from someone who clearly loves this story. I found this when I went on a search to figure out what Treadmills had to do with England's treatment of the poor. It was very instructive!

God bless us every one!

This short parable or morality tale is probably one of the most read novellas within Charles Dickens’ vast body of work, and one that truly embodies the spirit of Christmas. A short book we could all do with on these cold winter nights (on this side of the world, they are, at least)!

I guess everyone knows the story in broad strokes: Ebenezer Scrooge, a disgusting narrow-shouldered old misanthrope and life-denying penny-pincher (the avatar of Shylock, Volpone, Harpagon and many more literary misers) is about to spend Christmas Eve alone in his cold house, after having dismissed his nephew, his underpaid clerk, everyone. During the night, he meets the ghost of Jacob Marley, his late business partner, then three successive spirits, like the three Biblical Magi, each with a terrible vision of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come. At the end of this long nightmare, where Scrooge travels in space and time, he sees the error of his ways, repents, promises to amend his behaviour and abandon his avarice.

The story is, of course, if not familiar, entirely predictable, but the genius of Dickens lies in his ability to breathe life into his characters and settings. In particular, the description of Victorian Camden market in Stave four, with the seasonal food and drink and preparations for Christmas Eve dinner is mouthwatering. The chapter titled “The end of it”, when Scrooge wakes up to a bright golden Christmas morning, filled with bells ringing at full peal, is probably one of the most elating pieces of literature I have ever read. In the edition I own, Arthur Rackham’s illustrations, have, as always, the quaint charm of bygone days.

The film industry has plundered Dickens shamelessly on this one. Robert Zemeckis’ version, with Jim Carrey, is probably the most respectful of the text, although the CGI is frankly horrendous. I much prefer Frank Capra and James Stewart’s inverted variation in It’s a Wonderful Life.

And with this, dear Goodreads people and friends, have a holly jolly Christmas, read on, and may Santa Claus bring you three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree!

Un classico che da troppo tempo mancava alla mia libreria.
Con libri così non valgono i normali metri di giudizio: la trama è scontata quel che basta, i personaggi mancano della minima psicologia, e la conversione di Scrooge appare repentina e pressoché ingiustificata.
Eppure, è uno di quei classici che fa sognare i bambini, che continua a far sospirare gli adulti, e che fa brillare gli occhi dei non-più-adolescenti-ma-da-poco, come me, al ricordo di vecchi natali trascorsi sul tappeto davanti l’usurata VHS del Canto di Natale Disney.

C’è magia in questo libro, come c’è magia nel Natale.
Chiunque sia rimasto un po’ bambino dentro non può fare a meno di amarlo.

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.

Yet another re-read:
As amazing as ever! One of Dickens’ very best, I think! ❤️

Re-read:
Still my favorite Christmas story! Charles Dickens never ceases to make me smile and feel a multitude of emotions!

Reread 2024: I love this addition, with the red and gold foiling. The illustrations are not really to my taste (a bit scratchy) but the story as ever is just as good.

Reread 2020: Due to a migraine, this year I turned to an audio version for the first time. It was a different experience, not entirely unenjoyable, but I think I'd try a different narrator if I went down this route again.

I like to reread A Christmas Carol every couple of years on Christmas Eve to get me into the Christmas spirit. All I could think about this year was A Muppet Christmas Carol. Not necessarily a bad thing, as I love that film.

I do find Dickens writing a little over descriptive at times, but I liked the little quips and puns that are scattered throughout, and I had a few little chuckle to myself (again, possibly also linked to The Muppets). I think the ghost of Christmas present is my favourite. He’s just everything that I think of when I imagine Christmas.

A festive classic.

Brilliant, strange and treacly. But no, you’re not going to get me criticising Charles Dickens, that would be absurd. I know a cat can look at a king, but if the cat starts asking the courtiers if they think the king is piling on the pounds or glugging more bubbly than might be strictly healthy the cat will be taken to the nearest parapet and booted out of the palace. So wild horses wouldn’t get me to say that in this famous but really pretty weird short novel Dickens rams each point home with the brute force of a sledgehammer wielded by the mighty Thor himself. And you would have to waterboard me for hours before I would confess that the patented Tiny Tim treacle is ladled all over the reader until every orifice is sealed shut and no normal emotions can enter or leave, the only thing left is infinite compassion for every living thing, especially little children with bad legs. Anyway, infinite compassion is a good thing, although it might prove tiring in the long run. I wouldn’t know, I haven’t tried it yet.

It’s often true that when you get round to finally reading a famous book that you thought you already knew from a jillion adaptations to the point where for your entire life you thought you didn’t need to read it you find it’s quite different to what you thought it was, and that is the case here. A Christmas Carol is ten times trippier than I was expecting, and hardly anything actually happens. Scrooge really does say Bah Humbug! – that delighted me – and TT really does say God Bless us all, every one – but Scrooge and TT never meet and to prove he’s a changed man Scrooge simply buys a huge turkey (the shops were open on Christmas Day then) and sends it to the Cratchitts’ (it’ll take hours to cook but that is not our concern) and turns up for dinner unannounced at his nephew’s house, and they’re all “hey, uncle Scrooge, great to see you, have a leg” – it seems all he has to do is say “hey, I’m a changed man – no more bah humbug!” and everyone immediately bellows a song about comfort and joy and rolls out the red carpet. It’s a good thing the National Probation Service doesn’t run on those principles.

And I say trippier because most of the story is of Scrooge whizzing through time and space attached to the hem of the garment of his latest spirit guide, aka ghost. He had clearly been partaking of some Christmas mushrooms. Really, A Christmas Carol is all about the Scrooge. The other characters are hasty scribbles.

This was book 4 in my GR summer reading challenge – a book you can read in a day.

"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!