book review a christmas carol

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A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - review

"Foggier yet, and colder! Piercing, searching, biting cold." In A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens the weather is so cold and foggy that the water freezes in the pipes and the young boys slide down roads of snow and frozen ice.

A Christmas Carol is about a grumpy, selfish, melancholy old man called Scrooge who believes homeless people should go to prison or into workhouses. He hates Christmas and is not generous to anyone, even himself. One freezing cold night he is haunted by three Christmas ghosts. Will they change his life forever? The book was written such a long time ago that Dickens' writing looks and sounds funny, and some words mum couldn't even read, but I could still understand most of it and I enjoyed it. The moral of this book is to be generous at Christmas and enjoy what you have – and also spend time with friends and family. I rate this book 8⅔ out of 10 and recommend it to people who like to read classics. Want to tell the world about a book you've read? Join the site and send us your review!

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A Christmas Carol

By charles dickens.

Given its age, it is fair to say that for many readers, 'A Christmas Carol' is not just a pick-up and read affair. The language can be challenging.

Article written by Lee-James Bovey

P.G.C.E degree.

Added to this linguistic challenge is the fact that Charles Dickens frequently uses lengthy, flowing sentences which can make his writing hard to follow.

Echoes of the Gothic

Despite not being a classic gothic novel (it lacks the brooding, tragic hero), ‘ A Christmas Carol ‘ has many of the features that make that genre so compelling and actually breaks with the conventions in the way that this novel does helps to make it an interesting read, even though for many of us the story is so familiar that little of the content of the book comes as any sort of surprise.

However, the ghosts are described so vividly that it really brings them to life (excuse the pun). There is no surprise that Dickens is renowned for his characterization as every character seems to jump out off the page and are wonderfully distinct from each other.

The writing style gives a light-hearted edge to proceedings, from the opening rant about whether doornails are the most appropriate piece of ironmongery to represent death through to the scene at Fred’s house where some thinly veiled form of sexual assault is going on. There is some humor throughout this book. It’s just not the brash, in-your-face humor that a modern audience looks for.

It is not just the characters that make ‘ A Christmas Carol ‘ shine. Critics might point to a rather basic story arc, and yes you could claim that it is predictable or formulaic. But is the reason it appears so because we have become so familiar with the plot over time? Either way, the classic redemption tale has spawned countless adaptations as well as being the base for countless awful pantomimes. Love it or hate it, I feel that the story itself is timeless. There are enough subplots to keep things interesting, and they all tie neatly into the main story arc.

The Bad and the Ugly

While the story lends itself to use as a classic bedtime story (especially around Christmas), unless you are a talented orator, I’d consider reaching for an adapted or abridged version. While literary purists relish Dickens’s long flowing sentences with complex grammatical structure, reading them aloud in a way that makes sense can be a challenge. However, it is a great novel for students. Dickens uses literary devices like they are going out of fashion – and if you have read anything by EL James, there is a chance that they might be. It’s perhaps for this reason that ‘ A Christmas Carol ‘ is studied as part of the GCSE syllabus in the UK.

Also, some of the descriptions seem a little superfluous. I instantly think of the section where the feast is described. Yes, it is an impressive list and works as a device to portray the enormity of the feast, but if a modern-day writer chose to do this, they would be berated for it. The long descriptions work well when bringing a character to life, but they are overused here.

In summary, I would say that this book deserves its reputation as a classic. The wonderful story combined with the vivid characterizations and the Dickensian humour makes it a charming and short read. Dickens’s detractors will point to the length of some of his works, and thankfully that is not a trap that ‘ A Christmas Carol ‘ walks into, making it the perfect way to spend a snow day.

A Christmas Carol Review: Dicken's Provides the Spirit of Christmas

Book Title: A Christmas Carol

Book Description: 'A Christmas Carol,' Charles Dicken's endearing novella has withstood the test of time beautifully.

Book Author: Charles Dickens

Book Edition: Penguin Classics Edition

Book Format: Paperback

Publisher - Organization: Penguin Classics

Date published: March 20, 2003

ISBN: 978-0-14-139054-7

Number Of Pages: 224

• Writing style
• Lasting effect on reader

A Christmas Carol Review

Charles Dicken’s endearing novella has withstood the test of time beautifully. Partially due to its timeless story and its theme that still ring true today.

• Charming story
• Compelling main character
• Timeless themes
• Long lists!
• Dated humour
• Sometimes hard to read

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About Lee-James Bovey

Lee-James, a.k.a. LJ, has been a Book Analysis team member since it was first created. During the day, he's an English Teacher. During the night, he provides in-depth analysis and summary of books.

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‘A Christmas Carol’ Turns 175

On the anniversary of the beloved holiday classic, we look back at some of The Times’s coverage of the book and its author, Charles Dickens.

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By Tina Jordan

“A Christmas Carol” came out on Dec. 19, 1843, well before The New York Times began publishing in 1851. The novel — with beautiful illustrations by John Leech — was a best-seller in both England and the United States. Because there were no international copyright laws, Dickens didn’t make a cent from American editions.

In December 1855 , the paper quoted “A Christmas Carol” in a front-page Christmas Day piece about holiday traditions around the world: “Let us raise our voice with Dickens … ‘Give three cheers for the Christmas old. …’”

Dickens arrived in New York City in December 1867 and was, as The Times put it, “permitted to go quietly to his hotel. No attempt was made to inflict upon him the annoyance of a formal reception, or to intrude upon his privacy.” At a public reading on Dec. 9, 1867 — which was sold out — he read “A Christmas Carol” to a rapt crowd at Steinway Hall, which was then on 14th Street: “Mr. Dickens makes free use of gesticulation. … He stirs the gravy, when telling how Mrs. Cratchit made it; mashes the potatoes with something of Master Peter’s ‘incredible vigor,’ dusts the hot plates as Martha did, and makes a face of infinite wonderment and exultation when shouting, in the piping tones of the two youngest Cratchits, ‘There’s such a goose, Martha!’”

Dickens died on June 9, 1870 , and when the news reached the United States two days later, his obituary took up most of the paper’s front page and described his famous New York readings of “A Christmas Carol.”

On Christmas Day 1876 , a lovely front-page essay in The Times referenced the novel in its opening line.

October 18, 1890 : Scandal! Did a copy of “A Christmas Carol” belonging to Queen Victoria go missing? “The Royal Librarian knows nothing about it,” sniffed The Times.

On May 4, 1901 , The Times printed a charming reminiscence from a woman who had sent a boutonniere to Dickens for one of his 1868 readings of “A Christmas Carol” in Philadelphia.

On Dec. 8, 1912 , The Times featured photos of the original manuscript of “A Christmas Carol,” purchased by American financier J.P. Morgan and displayed at New York’s Morgan Library. “It is written in a well-known, scratchy hand on sheets of yellowing paper,” The Times reported, adding, “It is, of course, a well-nigh priceless treasure. And it is so less because it is the writing of a great work by a great novelist than because it is, in its genuineness and its intimacy, something that for nearly three-quarters of a century has been part of the thought of Christmas cheer.”

On Jan. 28, 1923 , the paper announced the publication of an edition of the novel illustrated by F.D. Bedford, which would go on to become a staple in many American homes.

On the novel’s 80th anniversary in 1923 , The Times called it “the greatest little book in the world .”

In an essay for The New York Times on Dec. 24, 1933 , Dickens’s son Henry discussed what Christmas meant to his father and described how the family celebrated the holiday: “There was usually a long walk with the dogs on the afternoon of Christmas Day; and the festivities in the evening, varied as they were, were typical of the time; that is to say, they were all brightened by good humor and high spirits. Sometimes there would be a charade; sometimes games, of which he was particularly fond; sometimes a country dance with the servants brought in to take their part. All this time Charles Dickens was the life and soul of the party. As he did in everything else, he threw his heart into it. His merriment was no mere pretense; his laughter bubbled over and was contagious; his buoyancy was immense; and there was not a soul present who did not become infected with the same feeling of genuine happiness.”

On Dec. 24, 1937 , in a White House decked with holly, mistletoe and a white-trimmed spruce, President Franklin D. Roosevelt — as was his custom — read “A Christmas Carol” aloud to his family . He was so famous for this rendition that The Times once suggested it should become a radio broadcast.

In 1943 , the paper celebrated the centennial of the novel with an affectionate full-page tribute: “After a century the earth is still afflicted, indeed, with misery, famine, revolution and war. But there is also such an awakening of the humane spirit of brotherhood throughout the world as has never been seen before.”

In a December 1963 piece called “ Dining with the Cratchits ,” Craig Claiborne recreated some of the dishes served at the Cratchits’ holiday feast.

These are just a fraction of the pieces in the archives about “A Christmas Carol.” As an essay in The Book Review’s pages on Dec. 14, 1901, said so well, “The story of Tiny Tim has made many a Scrooge better, kinder, more sociable.”

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A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Book Review

A christmas carol (puffin classics) have you read a christmas carol by charles dickens it's a timeless classic that i first read in 2013. i also attended a dramatic reading of the book, which brought the story to life. delving deeper, you cannot help but wonder if there are times you show up as ebenezer scrooge at work and in life., a christmas carol by charles dickens is a novella that was first published in 1843. it is a book that you can read in under two hours, which is unlike many books written by charles dickens. he used his books as social criticisms for what was going on in his world., reading a book summary is an excellent way to get the key concepts from business books. it’s also a great way to decide which books to buy to explore more deeply. click the readitforme link to join. think of this subscription as your speed-reading superpower. you read the summary therefore, you can digest and process the book faster. additionally, read a summary a day to develop your idea muscles., a christmas carol summary: what is the book about.

A Christmas Carol tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a tightfisted, mean-spirited, man. He is the kind of person who rains on your parade with his sour disposition, always complaining and finding fault with everyone. The story starts on Christmas Eve, and we learn from the narrator that Scrooge’s partner, Jacob Marley, is dead as a doornail – he died seven years ago.

Content of A Christmas Carol

His clerk, Bob Cratchit, is copying letters in another room, and Scrooge has the door open so that he can make sure that his employee is not using logs to warm up his room. His nephew, Fred, visits to wish him a Merry Christmas, and to invite him over for Christmas dinner. As usual, Scrooge declines the invitation because he is a grouch who wants no part of Christmas. What could possibly happen in someone's life why they would become like Scrooge?

Ebenezer Scrooge is so tightfisted that he resents having to pay Bob for not working on Christmas day. Before he departs for the day, two men who are described as portly are fundraising to feed the hungry and poor. Scrooge has some very harsh and cruel words for them, and they leave his office without a donation.

When he is about to open the door to his home, the door knocker is transformed momentarily into the ghostly face of his dead business partner, Marley. Before he can make too much of what he is seeing, the apparition disappears and he sees the door knocker again. The reader knows what is going to come next.

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When he enters his room, to be on the safe side, he double locks himself in. Scrooge hears a bell ringing, which stops, but is replaced by a clanking sound – dragging chains, which is associated with ghosts. The cellar door bursts open, up the stairs, and through the closed door comes the ghost of Jacob Marley.

Scrooge asks his dead partner what he wants. The ghost has come to warn him to change his errant ways. If Scrooge continues the way he's going, he'll end up like Marley, who has been wandering around, unable to rest in peace. Marley was not charitable when he was alive. Scrooge learns that he will be visited by three ghosts.

A Christmas Carol Story: An Exhibition at The Toronto Reference Library

The first ghost is the Ghost of Christmas Past, and the reader learns that Ebenezer Scrooge was not always a mean person, he used to enjoy Christmas, and liked and respected others. He had a very difficult childhood and was often alone. He had a friend who he was close to, and they vowed to marry each other. Scrooge changed his priorities, and the more money he acquired, the more he wanted. So, the woman walked away from him, and he let her go.

When the first ghost takes him back to his past, Scrooge sees his once betrothed, and how happy she is surrounded by a loving husband and children. The transformation begins for him – he hasn’t lost his humanity, it was only buried deep inside. He is reminded that he was once poor.

The next ghost that visits Scrooge is the Ghost of Christmas Present who he follows willingly. And although the ghost takes Scrooge all over, a lot of time is spent seeing how happy his nephew is with his wife and friends. Despite being poor, there is a lot of laughter in their lives. He also spends a lot of time seeing Bob Cratchit, and his family.

They appreciate each other and are grateful for the little that they have, because having each other is enough for them. His family doesn’t like Scrooge, but Cratchit toasts his employer because he is happy to be employed.

The third and final ghost, is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, and at that point in time, Scrooge has just died and no one is mourning him. They care about getting some of his possessions. With each ghostly encounter, he is further transformed into a more charitable, merciful, and humane person. So by the third encounter, Scrooge is repenting and begging for a second chance, which he is given.

Ebenezer Scrooge makes use of his second chance and changes his ways. He buys a turkey for the Cratchit family, and he goes to Fred for Christmas dinner. He also encounters one of the portly men, and promises to make a donation.

Final Thoughts on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol is still relevant today. Many people are inhospitable and thinking just about themselves. No one ever succeed alone. Think about how you can be more helpful at work and in life. How can you help a:

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About the Author  Avil Beckford

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A Summary and Analysis of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol  in six weeks during October and November 1843, and the novella (technically, it is not counted among his novels) appeared just in time for Christmas, on 19 December. The book’s effect was immediate.

The Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle went straight out and bought himself a turkey after reading  A Christmas Carol, and the novelist Margaret Oliphant said that it ‘moved us all in those days as if it had been a new gospel’. Even Dickens’s rival, William Makepeace Thackeray, called the book ‘a national benefit’.

Both ‘Scrooge’ and ‘Bah! Humbug’ are known to people who have never read Dickens’s book, or even seen one of the countless film, TV, and theatre adaptations. But what is A Christmas Carol really about, and is there more to this tale of charity and goodwill than meets the eye? Before we offer an analysis of A Christmas Carol , it might be worth briefly summarising the plot of the novella.

The novella is divided into five chapters or ‘staves’. In the first stave, the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge rejects his nephew Fred’s invitation to dine with him and his family for Christmas. He reluctantly allows his clerk, Bob Cratchit, to have Christmas Day off work. On Christmas night, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley.

Marley, bound in chains, warns Scrooge that a similar fate awaits him when he dies unless he mends his ways; he also tells Scrooge that he will be visited by three spirits.

The second, third, and fourth staves of A Christmas Carol are devoted to each of the three spirits of Christmas. First, the Ghost of Christmas Past visits Scrooge and reminds him of his lonely childhood at boarding school, and the kindness shown to the young Scrooge by his first employer, Mr Fezziwig (whom we see at a Christmas ball).

Scrooge is also shown a vision recalling his relationship with Belle, a young woman who broke off their engagement because of the young Scrooge’s love of money. The Ghost of Christmas Past then shows Scrooge that Belle subsequently married another man and raised a family with him.

The third stave details the visit from the second spirit: the Ghost of Christmas Present. This spirit shows Scrooge his nephew Fred’s Christmas party as well as Christmas Day at the Cratchits. Bob Cratchit’s youngest son, Tiny Tim, is severely ill, and the Ghost tells Scrooge that the boy will die if things don’t change. He then shows Scrooge two poor, starving children, named Ignorance and Want.

The fourth stave features the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who shows Scrooge his own funeral taking place in the future. It is sparsely attended by a few of Scrooge’s fellow businessmen only. The only two people who express any emotion over Scrooge’s passing are a young couple who owed him money, and who are happy that he’s dead.

Scrooge is then shown a very different scene: Bob Cratchit and his family mourning Tiny Tim’s death. Scrooge is shown his own neglected gravestone, and vows to mend his ways.

The fifth and final stave sees Scrooge waking on Christmas morning a changed man. He sends Bob Cratchit a large turkey for Christmas dinner, and goes to his nephew’s house that afternoon to spend Christmas with Fred’s family. The next day he gives Bob Cratchit a pay rise, and generally treats everyone with kindness and generosity.

A Christmas Carol wasn’t the first Christmas ghost story Dickens wrote. He’d already written ‘ The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton ’, featuring the miserly Gabriel Grub. This was featured as an inset tale in Dickens’s first ever published novel,  The Pickwick Papers (1836-7).

The tale shares many of the narrative features which would turn up a few years later in  A Christmas Carol : the misanthropic villain, the Christmas Eve setting, the presence of the supernatural (goblins/ghosts), the use of visions which the main character is forced to witness, the focus on poverty and family, and, most importantly, the reforming of the villain into a better person at the close of the story.

But the fact that Dickens had already developed the loose ‘formula’ for the story that would become, in many ways, his best-known work does nothing to detract from its power as a piece of storytelling.

Like a handful of other books of the nineteenth century – Frankenstein and Jekyll and Hyde spring to mind – A Christmas Carol has attained the force of a modern myth, an archetypal tale about the value of helping those in need, in the name of Christian charity and general human altruism. Oliphant’s description of the novella as like a new gospel neatly captures both its Christian flavour (though its message is far broader in its applications than this) and its mythic qualities.

But there is also something of the fairy tale – another form that was attaining new-found popularity in 1840s Britain thanks to the vogue for pantomimes based upon old French tales and the appearance of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales in English – in the story’s patterning of three (three spirits visiting Scrooges), its supernatural elements, and the (spiritual or moral) transformation of its central character.

Indeed, it has almost become something of an origin-myth for many Christmas traditions and associations, and was published at a time when many things now considered typically Christmassy were coming into vogue: Prince Albert’s championing of Christmas trees at the royal court, for instance, and even the practice of sending Christmas cards (the first one was sent in 1843, the same year that A Christmas Carol was published). No wonder many people, when they hear talk of ‘the spirit of Christmas’, tend to think of goodwill to all men, charity, and benevolence.

Dickens invented none of these associations, but his novella helped to cement them in the popular consciousness for good. Even the association of Christmas with snowy weather may have partly been down to Dickens: there are a dozen references to snow in A Christmas Carol , and it’s been argued that Dickens associated snow with Christmas time because of a series of white Christmases in the 1810s, when he was a small child: memories which stayed with him into adulthood.

As with his previous novels, especially Oliver Twist , one of Dickens’s chief aims in A Christmas Carol , along with entertaining his readers, is to highlight to his predominantly middle-class readers the state of poverty and ‘want’ that afflicted millions of their fellow Britons. One of the most telling details in the novella is the revelation, following Scrooge’s conversion, that he will take on the role of father figure to Tiny Tim.

Since Tiny Tim already has a father, the point is perhaps not as clear to modern readers as it would have been to Dickens’s contemporaries: namely that the children of the poor were the responsibility of all of Britain, and if their own parents could not provide for them, then charity and generosity from the well-off was required.

Scrooge ensures this not only by improving Bob Cratchit’s financial situation (giving him a pay rise) but by becoming a friend to the family: money is needed to help fix the problem, Dickens argues, but it’s more valuable if accompanied by genuine companionship and communion between rich and poor, haves and have-nots, and if society works together to help each other.

On a stylistic note, the remarkable thing about A Christmas Carol is that it is entirely representative of Dickens’s work, even while it lacks many of the qualities that make him so popular.

In reflecting Dickens’s strong social conscience and his exposure of the plight of the poor and the callousness of those who refuse to play their part in making things better, it is emblematic of Dickens’s work as a champion of the poor. Its focus on money – and the dangers to those who place too much faith in money and not enough in their fellow human beings – it is also a wholly representative work.

But there are none of the wonderfully drawn comic characters at which he excelled and which, arguably, make his work so distinctively ‘Dickensian’. As a rule, the shorter the Dickens book, the less Dickensian it is, at least in this sense: Hard Times , A Tale of Two Cities , and the five Christmas books all lack those supporting comic characters which make his large, sprawling novels, whatever their shortcomings in plot structure, his most successful books.

But what it lacks in Fat Boys, Sam Wellers, Major Bagstocks, or Mr Micawbers, it more than makes up for in its concentrated plot structure and heart-warming portrayal of a man who learns to use his wealth, but also his sense of social duty, to help those who need it most.

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A life in books and tea, book review: a christmas carol by charles dickens.

Since this is the advent season, I thought it would be timely to read this beautiful manuscript edition of A Christmas Carol. To my surprise, I realised that I don’t remember the last time I read the original. I’ve definitely got some impression of Scrooge McDuck as Scrooge and I remember the Phua Chu Kang (aka the Singaporean) version, but of the original, nothing.

Which is a real pity because this was a great story. You should know it by now – Marley is dead, Scrooge is a miser, and for some reason, Marley’s ghost and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future decide that Scrooge deserves to be rehabilitated.

What surprised me in this reading was the fact that Scrooge was pretty receptive to the lesson. While the Ghost of Christmas Past was showing him around, Scrooge was showing signs of regret. In a sense, I guess it shows that Scrooge was a good candidate for the visits, since he was receptive to hearing pretty harsh criticism about himself.

Another thing that surprised me was the fact that I teared up reading the book. The language is Victorian and while the book is easy to read, I didn’t expect it to be so moving. I really did feel Scrooge’s regret and I definitely wanted him to have the chance to make things right.

As for the book I got, it’s a transcription of the original manuscript, which means that it comes with a very interesting forward on how Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol and how this edition was created (If you’re interested in reading more, Mr Dickens and His Carol has more information on the origin of the story). Each page of the manuscript is accompanied by the transcription, but to be honest I could not read Dicken’s handwriting. But it was nice looking at the pages and seeing how he crossed out the lines as he formed the story.

This was a great Christmas read. I’ve heard it said that A Christmas Carol was responsible for shaping a lot of Victorian (and from there, modern) notions of Christmas, so this hit all the Christmas notes for me.

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16 thoughts on “ Book Review: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens ”

I’m going to read A Christmas Carol and then I’m watching the Muppets Christmas Carol afterwards. I’ve never read the whole book, only parts of it.

Oooh, I’ve not watched the Muppets one! That should be fun!

I love Dickens, and “A Christmas Carol” is him at his finest (none of the bloat that you get in some of the books where he was paid by the installment).

And I think the fact he was writing to a deadline also helped!

It’s fantastic, and closer to the book than most other adaptations. The only other one that comes close in my opinion is the vastly under-appreciated version starring Patrick Stewart (some of the costuming is so-so, but Sir Patrick is phenomenal)

I’ve only read this once, so I think my opinions of the story are also colored by various film adaptations. On the other hand, I’ve never cared enough for the story to have any real burning desire to reread it….

Haha I also have a greater impression of the story via films/tv shows!

I love A Christmas Carol. It’s such a timeless story and so beautifully written. I wonder if I can talk my daughter into reading it with me this year . . .

I hope you suceed!

I agree, this story is very moving with a deep sense of the human experience. The most moving scene, to me, is when Scrooge can no longer stand to view scenes from his past, so he takes the ghost’s conical hat and presses it down over the ghost, but the light keeps shining out from underneath.

I found Scrooge to be a lot more realistic (in terms of how he was affected) than I had remembered from the adaptations!

Amazing to think that some contemporary critics panned it as a “potboiler”!

I simply have to drop a shameless plug for my favourite adaption, the one starring George C. Scott – the whole movie’s on YouTube…

On Youtube? Sounds like I’ll be playing the movie tonight!

This is the one…

Yes!!! I read this book on Christmas Day in 2018 and I loved it so much!! There’s a Jim Carrey adaptation that I really enjoyed too (although it creeped me the hell out when I was younger haha)

There are so many adaptations!! It’s pretty amazing how this story has resonated so well that people keep filming it!

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A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

“That such a book should find an enduring place in the affectionate admiration of mankind is an inevitable result of the highest moral and mental excellence.”

There is not, in all literature, a book more thoroughly saturated with the spirit of its subject than Dickens’s “Christmas Carol,” and there is no book about Christmas that can be counted its peer. To follow old Scrooge through the ordeal of loving discipline whereby the ghosts arouse his heart is to be warmed in every fibre of mind and body with the gentle, bountiful, ardent, affectionate Christmas glow. Read at any season of the year, this genial story never fails to quicken the impulses of tender and thoughtful charity. Read at the season of the Christian festival, its pure, ennobling influence is felt to be stronger and sweeter than ever. As you turn its magical pages, you hear the midnight moaning of the winter wind, the soft rustel of the falling snow, the rattle of the hail on naked branch and window-pane and the far-off tumult of tempest-smitten seas; but also there comes a vision of snug and cosey rooms, close-curtained from night and storm, wherein the lights burn brightly, and the sound of merry music mingles with the sound of merrier laughter, and all is warmth and kindness and happy content, and, looking on these pictures, you feel the full reality of cold and want and sorrow as contrasted with warmth and comfort, and recognize anew the sacred duty of striving, by all possible means, to give to every human being a cheerful home and a happy fireside. The sanctity of that duty is the moral of Christmas, and of the “Christmas Carol.” That such a book should find an enduring place in the affectionate admiration of mankind is an inevitable result of the highest moral and mental excellence. Conceived in a mood of large human sympathy, and expressed in a delicately fanciful yet admirably simple form of art, it addresses alike the unlettered and the cultivated, it touches the humblest as well as the highest order of mind, and it satisfies every rational standard of taste. So truly is this work an inspiration, that the thought about its art is always an afterthought. So faithfully and entirely does it give voice to the universal Christmas sentiment, that it seems the perfect reflex of every reader’s ideas and feelings thereupon. There are a few other books of this kind in the world, — in which Genius does, at once and forever, what ambling Talent had always been vainly trying to do, — and these make up the small body of literature which is “for all time.”

In the embellishment of these literary treasures, therefore, there is a wise economy and an obvious beneficence; and the publishers of this edition have made a most sagacious and kindly choice of their principal Christmas book for the present season. Their “Illustrated Edition of Dickens’s Christmas Carol” comes betimes with the first snow; and its beautiful pages will assuredly, and very speedily, be lit up by a ruddy glow from many a Christmas hearth throughout the land. The book is a royal octavo, containing one hundred and twelve pages, printed form large, neat, clear-faced type, on satin-surfaced paper, delicately tinted with the color of cream. It was printed at the University Press by Messrs. Welch, Bigelow, & Co., and is an enduring emblem of their skill and taste, affording as it does the best of proof that they have done their work with heart as well as hand. Its illustrations—thirty-six in number—are from the poetic pencil of Eytinge; and the engraving has been done by Anthony. These pictures, of course, constitute the novel feature of the book. A few of them are little head and tail pieces, which may briefly be dismissed as simple, neat, and appropriate. Twenty of them, however, are full-page drawings, while five smaller ones are captions for the five chapters of the story. Viewed altogether, they form the best effort and fullest expression that the public has yet seen of Eytinge’s genius. They show the heartiest possible sympathy with the spirit of the “Christmas Carol,” and a comprehensive and acute perception as well of its scenic ideals as of its character portraits. They have not only the merit of being true to the book, but the merit of representing the artist’s individual thought and feeling in respect to its momentous themes, — love, happiness, charity, sorrow, bereavement, the shocking aspects of vice and squalor, the bitterness of death, and the solemn consolations of religion. He has put his nature into his work, and it therefore has an independent and abiding life. How deep and delicate are his perceptions of the melancholy side of things may be seen in such drawings as that which depicts the miserable Scrooge, crouching on his own grave, at the feet of the Spirit, and that which shows poor Bob Cratchit kneeling at the bedside, and mourning over Tiny Tim. The pictures of Scrooge, gazing with faltering terror on the covered corpse upon the despoiled bed, and of Want and Ignorance, typified by the wretched children that are seen to wallow in a city gutter, have a kindred significance. In striking contrast with these, and expressive of as quick a sympathy with common joys as with common sorrows, are the sketches of domestic scenes, as the humble home of Bob Cratchit, — a character, by the way, that the artist has intuitively realized and reproduced from a mere hint in the story. The sentiment, the family characteristics, and the minute elaboration of accurate detail, in these Cratchit pictures, are conspicuous and admirable. No intelligent observer can miss or fail to like them. The life of the drawings, too, is abundant. In looking on Bob’s face you may hear his question, “Why, where’s our Martha?” as clearly as if his living voice sounded in your ears. This quality is evident again in the character-portrait entitled “On ‘Change,’” wherein three representative moneyed men are commenting, in a repulsive vein of hard, gross selfishness, on the death of their fellow money-grubber. This is one of the boldest and best of the illustrations. Kindred with it in force of character are the sketches of the philanthropists soliciting Scrooge’s charity, and the foul old thieves haggling over their plunder from the miser’s bed of death. Loathsome depravity of body and mind has seldom been so well denoted as in the faces in this latter drawing. Here, again, the artist has built upon a mere hint, except in the reproduction of the accessories of the dismal scene. The habit of close and constant observation of actual life, as well as of human nature, is evinced in such work as this, — a habit clearly natural to this artis, and as clearly strengthened by long, careful, and cherished communion with the works of Dickens. Perfect distinctness is one of the great virtues of those works, and that virtue reappears in these pictures. Every individual has been clearly conceived by the artist. There is but one Scrooge, even in the sketches which so hilariously illustrate his wonderful transformation. There is but one Bob Cratchit, whether carrying his little child along the wintry street, or sitting at his Christmas dinner, or bending beside the bare, cold, lonely bed of death, or staggering backward form the frisky presence of his regenerated employer. This vivid clearness of execution shows the essential control of intellect over fancy, — always a characteristic of the true artist. Fancy has none the less its full play in these drawings, and a genial heart beats under them, prompt alike to pity and to enjoy. The appreciative observer will also perceive, with cordial relish, their frequent poetic mood. One of them illustrates the single phrase, “They stood beside the helmsman at the wheel,” and is a very vivid reproduction of the mystical, awesome presence of darkness on the waters. The moon looks dimly through the clouds. The light-house lamp is shining over the dark line of distant coast. On speeds the vessel, guided by the firm hand of the resolute helmsman, with whom, as you gaze, you seem to feel the rush of the night-wind and hear the sob and plash of the wintry waves. The artist who labors thus does not labor in vain. Mr. Eytinge is the best of the illustrators of Dickens, and it is his right that this fact should be distinctly stated. His work in this instance has received the heartiest co-operation of the best of American engravers; for Mr. Anthony is not a mere copyist of lines, but an engraver who, in a kindred mood with the artist, preserves the spirit no less than the form, and who has won his highest and amplest success in this beautiful Christmas book.

Book Review: A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens

Christmas is the perfect time to open up a classic holiday story that you’ve been meaning to read for what seems like centuries. Recently, I picked up Charles Dickens classic story, A Christmas Carol .

Boy, oh boy was this one a challenge for me.

First off, I want to say that, overall, I enjoyed the moral aspects of what is perhaps Dickens’ most well-known story. Most people may be familiar with the concept of this tale, though in case you’re not, here’s a quick synopsis: Ebenezer Scrooge is a mean old man who has a crazy amount of wealth (which he doesn’t deserve in the slightest). Due to his continuous wickedness, Scrooge is visited in the night by three spirits: The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present, and The Ghost of Christmas Future.

Each ghost aims to change the hollow blackness of Scrooge’s cruel and selfish spirit by showing him what will become of him, his riches, and ultimately his life if he continues to treat people horribly.

Source: Amazon

I think the main issue I had with this story was that I felt like it could’ve easily been told (and had the same positive emotional effect) in a much smaller amount of pages. (Around 50-60 would have sufficed.) Instead, A Christmas Carol drags on and on….and on, spending pages focused on minute details that, in my humble opinion, weren’t needed as much.

Another unfortunate con for me was the language. No, there’s no profanity or the like, though since this book was originally published in December of 1843, it’s understandable that those of us alive nearly 173 years later would stumble upon some trouble with the diction. I found myself rereading passages over several times just to gain a better understanding of what specifically was happening, though honestly sometimes I just gave up and read it through as best I could.

Nonetheless, this holiday classic still brings to mind feelings of happiness and joy for me as I do love its strong presence of a moral compass and because it takes place during Christmas time!

Next time when I’m in the mood for Scrooge, I’ll just pop in the Jim Carrey movie version or  Mickey’s Christmas Carol .

Other Christmas Classics:

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss
• The Polar Express  by Chris Van Allsburg
• The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus  by L. Frank Baum
• A Child’s Christmas in Wales  by Dylan Thomas
• A Christmas Memory  by Truman Capote

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

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Featured image via The Hymns And Carols Of Christmas

About The Author

Cierra Loften

I'm just a simple Southern girl who loves all things book related and pink! I'm currently studying for my Bachelor's in Mental Health Counseling at Post University and in between that and life, I read anytime I can! I hope you love and enjoy #AmReading as much as I do!

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Book Review: Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

Since 1843, Charles Dickens’ special Christmas gift to the whole world, A Christmas Carol, has been delighting readers, young and old alike. Right from the start, editions of the work contained illustrations, some of which have become as instantly recognizable and well-loved as the story itself. Other engravings, however, were forgotten almost as quickly as they were created.

Among this second group are 45 illustrations by Gustave Dor? that appear in print for the first time in more than a century in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Dan Malan, an authority on literary art, prepared this edition of the timeless story after discovering the lost art while researching Dor?’s work. Dor?, a contemporary of Dickens, was a prolific illustrator whose work is familiar to art historians. When Malan came across a 1931 French bibliography that listed some Dor? engravings he had never seen, he knew that he had stumbled onto a major find. Malan finally located the sketches in a rare French magazine published in 1861.

Now, the illustrations again accompany the complete text of Dickens’ novella, along with other examples of Dor?’s art, and 130 more illustrations of A Christmas Carol by artists such as Frederick Barnard, John Leech, and E. A. Abbey. Introductory essays of the lives and works of both the author and the illustrator make this edition the ideal volume for anyone wanting to own a copy of the classic tale. In fact, it is worth owning this edition just for a look at my favourite Dor? illustration—the figure of Marley’s ghost, both gruesome and comic, rising rigidly from the floor of Scrooge’s bedchamber and tilting over sideways so as to exit head first through a window. Echoing Tiny Tim, we should say, ‘God bless Gustave Dor? forgiving form to Dickens’ beloved characters, and God bless Dan Malan for bringing to light these images, which will surely delight us for many Christmases yet to come.’

Dickens’ Christmas Carol, published by MCE Publishing. Available through the Publishers Distribution Service, 800-345-0096. $19.95 hardcover.

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Book Review: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Other than the Biblical Christmas story, A Christmas Carol is my next favorite story for the holidays. Even though it is not a Christian story in the sense of talking about Christ or theology, it is still a story about redemption. I would argue that mercy, undeserved love, and redemption is the true meaning of Christmas… not the presents and decorating.

In A Christmas Carol, we follow a very rich and cruel character named Ebenezer Scrooge as he is visited by four ghosts on Christmas eve. During the course of these visits, we see the cause and effects of Scrooge’s life choices. The author intends, in this revelation, for us to understand the meaning of Christmas.

A Christmas Carol is not easy reading for elementary students, I think the story has something for all ages. I expecially like the Muppet’s Christmas Carol as my favorite movie version and accessable for the youngest audiences (though the ghost of Christmas past might be a likle scary for some kids).

Even though I like the movoe version, I think the book as written is ver valuable to read for middle schoolers and up. Charles Dickens not only has a mastery of emotive language, but he also adds so much in the internal and emotional development of Scrooge that is hatd for any movie or play to fully capture.

So what is this internal/ emotional development? How does rhos teally hsve anything to do with Christmas? Couldn’t these visions have happened at any time of year?

Sort of…

In today’s world, we have lost a lot of our Christmas tradition for a variety of reasons- materialism, lack of family, lack of time, religous diversity, bad memories, and more. For many, Christmas is a fun game of make-believe, family time, and presents. In this context, is the meaning of A Christmas Carol then that Scrooge needs to spend more time with family and friends and give more presents?

Those morals are not bad, but I doubt such a lesson would completely transform Scrooge from being cruel and heartless to the generous benefactor he becomes. Scrooge learns something much deeper. He see how the raw selfish obsessions in his life was destroy himself more than the people he hurt. He saw how his riches failed to make him happy, long lived, respected, or safe. All of which he had long thought his riches would accomplish. He saw instead the love and joy in homes of those who were poorer, weaker, and even disabled. Scrooge saw he needed something internal different. He needed something the author calls the “Christmas in his heart.”

This something, the Christmas in one’s heart, is left undefined and we only see the results of it in the actions of Scrooge. How can a person suddenly love his fellow man unless they have seen and felt that love for themselves? How can someone show joy or mercy with it follow. From within? Where did this river of generous inclinations derive?

We are shown Scrooge’s gratitude to the ghost of Jacob Marley and the other spirits. I would argue that there is an implied gratude to the divinity that sent them.

Oh, if only this divinity would show such supernatural mercy to others decieved by their own destructive paths. Perhaps even sendong a messanger from another world…

Perhaps even a savior or a divine spirit?

Perhaps He already has…

The traditional Biblical Christmas story is the stpry of just that…except us Christians believe it is both real and true.

We believe that the divine creator of the universe looked down at this mortal person (each one of us individually and all of corporately at the same time) and thought, “I want you to have a second chance. I want you to see how you are destroying yourself and I want you to see there is another …better way.” So instead of sending spirits, his servants, he sent his son.

You might ask, “Why in such a werid way? What has a stable/barn have to do with anything? Why make him a baby and put his parents through such trauma?”

I would respond, “Why sent Scrooge to Bob Cratchet’s house and show him tiny Tim? Why dors tiny Tim’s death effect us, the readers, more powerfully than Scrooge’s own death?”

The reason is that Scrooge deserved to die. His actions and choices lead him to the descruction of his own making. Tiny Tim, though, was innocent. His death was ungair and cruel. When we look at the story of Jesus… when we see him as a baby in the nativity, we should think of tiny Tim… just as tiny Tim says in the novel. Though, not just as the healer of the blind and lame as tiny Tim says, but as the innocent death for our salvation.

If this distresses you, I will let you know in both stories, tiny Tim and Jesus Christ do not stay dead. Even so, we are the ones who pave the way to pur own destruction. We are the ones who are messing up the world one choice at a time. We are the ones who march down the path of death.

We are Scrooge.

We also have a second chance.

This is the story of Christmas. This is the Christmas spirit. This is what A Christmas Carol is about. I encourage you to find a pastor or a Christian friend and make the most out of your second chance. My prayers go with you.

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A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Ghosts and Goodwill in the ultimate Christmas story. It is Christmas Eve in Victorian London, and all around the snow-covered city people are rushing home to be with their families. All except one man, that is: Ebenezer Scrooge. A wealthy old miser whose only joy in life is money, Scrooge decides to spend the evening counting his cash, rejecting seasonal goodwill with well-practiced cries of ‘Bah! Humbug!’

But this Christmas Eve there are some surprises in store for old Scrooge. While his poor and put-upon employee Bob Cratchit prepares the finest family feast his paltry wages can buy, Scrooge’s sleep is disturbed by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. In one short night they reveal more to him about his true character than he has ever realised himself. As Christmas Day dawns, Scrooge is forced to confront the spectre of his own mean existence.

A Christmas Carol was published in December 1843, at a time when medieval Christmas traditions were in steady decline. Indeed, Dickens’s heart-warming tale has been seen as a major turning point; the popularity of its lamp-lit setting and its diverse characters – from the wonderfully wicked Scrooge to the crippled but optimistic Tiny Tim – helped ensure that family unity and ‘goodwill to all men’ once more became the appropriate sentiments of the Christmas season. At the same time, Dickens used the poverty-stricken Cratchit family’s dependence on hard-hearted Scrooge to highlight the Victorian working class’s daily struggle against the indifference of the greedy.

The book’s importance was cemented at Christmas 1852, when Dickens undertook public readings of it before both educated and working-class audiences. The success of these events led to public readings becoming a major part of his later career, usually featuring A Christmas Carol. The novella’s short length and strong moral message have ensured that it has become one of Dickens’s most well-known classics.

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1812, the second of eight children. His father, John Dickens, struggled financially and as a result the Dickens family found themselves almost constantly on the move. The dire situation culminated in John being sent to a debtors’ prison and twelve-year-old Charles being sent to work at a London blacking factory, sticking labels onto jars of boot polish. Dickens’s difficult childhood had an enormous influence on the subjects he later tackled and his experience of both poverty and prison would reappear throughout his novels, particularly in David Copperfield (1850) and Great Expectations (1861).

After eventually returning to his education, Dickens became a newspaper reporter. He indulged his passion for writing humorous sketches under the nickname ‘Boz’, and his first publication, Sketches by Boz, appeared in 1836. Its serialisation earned him acclaim and popularity, and led to further publishing commissions. Dickens’ best loved books include Oliver Twist (1839), A Christmas Carol (1843) and A Tale of Two Cities (1859). Acutely observed characters and a witty but brutally satirical depiction of Victorian society remain his trademarks.

Dickens and his wife Catherine had ten children but their unfulfilling marriage ended in separation. He travelled widely and eventually moved to Kent, England, where he died in 1870, leaving his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, incomplete. He is buried in London’s Westminster Abbey.

10/10 The novella's strong moral message have ensured it has become one of Dickens most well-know classics

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Review by Floresiensis

51 positive reader review(s) for A Christmas Carol

Haider from Pakistan

Wonderful book. I think everyone should read it. The point of the story is good as well, that everyone can change for the better. A must have read. Awesome!

Sevara from Uzbekistan

I love its meaning. I really recommend you to read or watch its movie version.

Krishna from India

It is one of my favorite book that I have ever read , but it is quite difficult to read🥰🥰🥰🥰

Amra from South Korea

I love this book...reading cause it was my holiday homework

Emelia from India

Great book ..... I LOVE IT

Sudha from Australia

I absolutely loved the book. It is wonderfully structured, and the character development is just fabulous. Although I found comprehending the book quite difficult, it is definitely a must-read. It is quite tiring to read and understand the book (at the beginning) especially with its outdated vocabulary but a few group discussions certainly help out!

Blen from London

This book lightened up my Christmas day. It was so surprising to see that Scrooge had to be persuaded three times. Other than that I loved the book. Peace.

Nawshin from Bangladesh

Awesome. People of all ages will definitely like it.

Marie from Ireland

Loved a Christmas Carol. Loved the language and the imagery - took me straight into a poor, impoverished London. The moral of the story was fantastically portrayed by the visions that the ghosts showed to Scrooge. Loved every page.

Elize from Canada

it has a great moral for aged people to avoid greed, selfishness, for a bright future for themselves. After reading this book some people might really change their greed or selfishness or even both :)

Bjorn from Ireland

It can sometimes be a bit boring but it is overall a good book. I would definitely give it a read.

Adam from England

Can be a bit of a drag at times but in general it is a very interesting book and I really recommend it to ambitious young readers and teens and well everyone really. This is the book everyone should read it is a great book and this is a fantastic read to anyone who wishes to work with it all through the twisting story.

Keisha from Africa

Studying it in school and got a grade A*, WELL AND TRULY one of my favourites to read!

Jerry from London

I really enjoy this disgustingly nice �"�

Ahaan from USA

I loved the story but did not like some parts. It had a great message. THANK YOU CHARLES DICKENS!!!

Ali from India

Its just a great book with a great message!

Jack from England

Pretty boring, but when you spend a cumulative fifty hours or so over the course of the GCSEs, you realise the ingenuity of Charles in the meticulous and possibly coincidental links across the story. Heartwarming, clever, but not entertaining.

Aadya from India

This story is amazing. I love it. I appreciate the creative mind of Charles Dickens.

Riman from India

Good book as it displayed a universal message

Bev from United Kingdom

I read this book as an 8 year old child, in 1962 and struggled with the tiny print and no pictures but I battled on and loved it. It's a story I have never grown tired of. I loved Dickens' beautiful, descriptive text and remember being a bit scared but too fascinated to stop reading. It's a wonderful story and I'm sure it helped me appreciate Dickens from a very young age.

Will from United States

Great story, short but sweet!

Arnav from India

Lovely book ..... A must read and my favourite book.

Bhupal from India

This book is very nice.

Jas from UK

Love this book!!!!!!!!

I love it! So exciting.

Akshi from India

It's a nice book for children and adults. People from any age group can read it.

Aarohi from India

Amaaazing book loved it the writers have put a lot of effort and it can be seen . Recommend for all of you must read it

Katie from England

Jason from US

It shows me the reason of why I'm nice during Christmas.

Otabek from Uzbekistan

This book is fantastic. I did not once read such a book. And very well written. I loved this book. Thanks to people who wrote this book.

Lana from England

Read this book at school and fell in love with it.

Ethan from US

Awesome book. It tells the meaning of christmas, and christmas spirit

Emery from United States

I really love this book, it’s AMAZING!!

Ahana from India

Awesome novel. A must read for all. Good moral and a captivating book. Liked by all age groups. So, no matter you are old or young its the best book.

Rajshri from India

Enjoyed reading this book... Of course, Dickens never fails to capture our hearts...

Nyasa from India

Too good! I really enjoyed reading it.

Suhana from India

I like it very much I read it 3 times

Manya from India

I love this book this is best book in the world!!!!!!

Apoorva from India

I LOVE THIS BOOK I READ IT 2 TIMES AND I LOVE IT A LOT....

Sahana from India

This is a great book. There is lots of fun reading this book.

Farray from England

Great book!

Shreeya from India

Great book, I loved it.

Krish from India

Excellent book... completely telling the meaning of Christmas... must read it or at least see it... but the fun is only when u read it.

Swati from India

Awesome ...... I have enjoyed reading the book a lot.. Love it...

Damean from United States

I really love this book. It has become almost canon for the Christmas season for me. I have always adored the story itself and fell even more in love with it a number of years ago when I was old enough to appreciate the book. Scrooge's evolution throughout the story is something that I think the reader can be shocked by at times. Particularly the first time we see this harsh miser shed a tear for the boy he used to be. I could go on about this for days. I recently reviewed the book for my online book club, where I discuss the possibility that this is a gothic novel. Here is the link for anyone who may be interested. https://dameanmathews.com/2016/12/31/a-christmas-carol-by-charles-dickens/

Astik from Indirapuram

Best book I have ever read.

Vansh from India

Great book. I think this is the best book to make people know how to celebrate Christmas.

Ayushi from India

Amazing book 1 of the best books tht I have ever read.

Madhav Katyal from India

I love it, very nice.

Anonymous from UK

A wonderful book I think everyone should read. The point of the story is good as well that everyone can change for the better. A must have read. AWESOME!

Dalin from India

Thamanna from UK

Superb. I love it.

Farmaan from India

Charles dickens has something new in the book and the poor family he describes still live happily. Despite the man of the family lives under the fear of Ebenzer Scrooge. Another thing that surprises me is that in the story the main charecter is a rich man.

Neully from US

Shanaya from India

I had read The Christmas Carol when I was in the fifth standard. I have enjoyed reading the book a lot and would advise everybody to read it as it is a fantastic story book. It was my favourite book during my childhood and now even my children love reading it.

9.5 /10 from 56 reviews

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Book review: “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens

Over the years, I’ve written about Scrooge and Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol several times.

In 2014, I published an op-ed piece for the Chicago Tribune , titled “Was he Scrooge or St. Scrooge? You decide.”  A year later, I had an essay in National Catholic Reporter , headlined “The conversion of St. Scrooge.”

I’ve always been struck at how the word “Scrooge” is used in everyday language.  It has to do with a miser, a skinflint or, as Dickens described the character at the start of his novella:

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, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.

Ah, yes, that Scrooge. 

I guess the bad Scrooge, that “covetous old sinner,” is a lot more engaging than the good Scrooge — or, as I’ve described him, St. Scrooge — after he’s undergone his conversion experience.  A happy man is simply happy, a tortured soul can be tortured in myriad ways, and perhaps that’s the attraction.

Meeting good friends

I mention that here in passing because, after re-reading A Christmas Carol , I want to focus on Dicken’s art and language.

I suspect that I’m not the only one loves to come across again favorite lines from the book, whether while reading or watching a performance of the story.  It is as if meeting a good friend, a fine and interesting companion.

Such as the opening words:

“Marley was dead: to begin with.”

That’s get your attention.  So, too, will the conversation that Scrooge has with his nephew Fred:

“Bah!” said Scrooge, “Humbug!” He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge’s, that he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again. “Christmas a humbug, uncle!” said Scrooge’s nephew. “You don’t mean that, I am sure.” “I do,” said Scrooge. “Merry Christmas! what right have you to be merry? what reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.” “Come, then,” returned the nephew gaily. “What right have you to be dismal? what reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.”

And then there’s the exchange Scrooge has with Marley’s ghost and his attempt to persuade the ghost (and himself) that the ghost does not exist:

“Why do you doubt your senses?” “Because,” said Scrooge, “a little thing affects them. 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!”

And, from the second to the last paragraph:

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. 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.

Good friends, all, and many more.

“Forgotten the way out”

But, this time, when I was re-reading A Christmas Carol , I found myself particularly enjoying less famous, less familiar turns of phrases, descriptions and observations from the great storyteller. 

Consider, for instance, the author’s description of the newly jovial Scrooge’s laugh:

Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years, it was a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh. The father of a long, long, line of brilliant laughs!

Dickens is an intrusive writer, in the best of ways. 

What I mean is that he’s not averse to stepping into his storytelling and expressing his own feelings (or, at least, an authorial version of his feelings), such as what he says here about Scrooge’s laughter.  He shows an almost giddy delight, a surprised delight, at what his “covetous old sinner” has turned into.

Another example has to do with the building where Scrooge lived in a chamber that had once been occupied by Jacob Marley:

They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so little business to be, that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and have forgotten the way out again. It was old enough now, and dreary enough, for nobody lived in it but Scrooge, the other rooms being all let out as offices.

Dickens is obviously having fun playing with his metaphors here, seeing the structure as a young house getting lost and forgotten and now dreary and dark and empty but for Scrooge.

In both of these, it is Dickens as narrator who is speaking to the reader. 

That narrator’s voice, though, is lost when the story is performed on stage or on screen.  In some cases, a few of the narrator’s lines can be put into the mouths of the story’s characters, but there’s not a lot of room for that.

“Apostles putting off to sea in butter-boats”

It’s Dickens’s own fault.  His story is so sharply delineated, and his dialogue is so sparkling, that it carries itself without the literary grace notes of his descriptions and authorial comments.

All the more reason to relish them in this latest re-reading, such as when Scrooge climbs his wide stairway after having a disturbing vision of his door knocker:

Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that: darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.

How miserly is Scrooge?  So miserly that he likes darkness because “darkness is cheap.”  It’s a line that adds to the story, but it’s followed a few sentences later by a description of Scrooge’s fireplace that, I am certain, Dickens included simply because he enjoyed so much detailing its oddities and sheer inappropriateness for the miser:

The fire-place was an old one, built by some Dutch merchant long ago, and paved all round with quaint Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the Scriptures. There were Cains and Abels; Pharaoh’s daughters, Queens of Sheba, Angelic messengers descending through the air on clouds like feather-beds, Abrahams, Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in butter-boats, hundreds of figures, to attract his thoughts; and yet that face of Marley, seven years dead, came like the ancient Prophet’s rod, and swallowed up the whole.

I love the line of the butter-boats and angels like feather-beds. 

And, later, I love the references to the Ghost of Christmas Present sprinkling Christmas cheer on anyone who is open to feeling the spirit of the season, such as a lamplighter, all alone as he does his work:

The very lamplighter, who ran on before dotting the dusky street with specks of light, and who was dressed to spend the evening somewhere, laughed out loudly as the Spirit passed: though little kenned the lamplighter that he had any company but Christmas!

And such as the crew on a ship on “the black and heaving sea”:

They stood beside the helmsman at the wheel, the look-out in the bow, the officers who had the watch; dark, ghostly figures in their several stations; but every man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or had a Christmas thought, or spoke below his breath to his companion of some bygone Christmas Day, with homeward hopes belonging to it.

I found the reference to having “a Christmas thought” particularly touching since it suggests that there is a certain kind of thought that one should have at the holiday, one that is more generous and kindly than perhaps at other times of the year.

“Shining fatness”

Finally, let me end with another example of what I suspect is Dickens writing as much for his own enjoyment as for the pleasure of the reader.  It has to do with the scene that Scrooge sees along the London streets with the Ghost of Christmas Present.

People are shoveling off their house tops and calling to each other and laughing, and the world seemed filled with joy and good-feeling. 

Indeed, even the fruits and vegetables at the fruiterers’ was “radiant in their glory.”  Chestnuts and pears and apples and bunches of grapes.  And, for me, the hero of the extravagantly opulent display of abundance is….

There were ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed Spanish Onions, shining in the fatness of their growth like Spanish Friars; and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up mistletoe.

The shining fatness of Spanish Friars and winking at girls passing by.  Dickens could tell quite a story.  And he could enjoy doing so.

Patrick T. Reardon

Written by : Patrick T. Reardon

For more than three decades Patrick T. Reardon was an urban affairs writer, a feature writer, a columnist, and an editor for the Chicago Tribune. In 2000 he was one of a team of 50 staff members who won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. Now a freelance writer and poet, he has contributed chapters to several books and is the author of Faith Stripped to Its Essence. His website is https://patricktreardon.com/.

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A CHRISTMAS CAROL

by Charles Dickens & adapted by Josh Greenhut & illustrated by Brett Helquist ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2009

The beloved Christmas classic is skillfully adapted for this simplified introduction to the tale, amplified by large-format art from the illustrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events. Helquist’s artistic style is an excellent match for the Dickensian world of mysterious spirits and spooky graveyards, and the illustrations are full of authentic Victorian details in costumes and settings. The extra-large trim size gives him plenty of room to depict the complex scenes of Scrooge’s travels through time and space, and the artist succeeds in making him a believable character who transitions from a grouchy, gray grump to a jovial fellow ready to enjoy life. This abridgement makes the original story accessible to a wide age range and would be a fine preparation for families preparing to attend a theatrical production of A Christmas Carol . (Picture book. 7-12)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-06-165099-4

Page Count: 40

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009

CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

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More by Charles Dickens

BOOK REVIEW

by Charles Dickens ; adapted by Brooke Jorden ; illustrated by David Miles

by Charles Dickens & illustrated by Brett Wright

by Charles Dickens ; adapted by Adam McKeown ; illustrated by Gerald Kelley

HOW WINSTON DELIVERED CHRISTMAS

by Alex T. Smith ; illustrated by Alex T. Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 17, 2019

A Christmas cozy, read straight or bit by bit through the season.

Neither snow nor rain nor mountains of yummy cheese stay the carrier of a letter to Santa.

So carelessly does 8-year-old Oliver stuff his very late letter to Santa into the mailbox that it falls out behind his back—leaving Winston, a “small, grubby white mouse” with an outsized heart, determined to deliver it personally though he has no idea where to go. Smith presents Winston’s Christmas Eve trek in 24 minichapters, each assigned a December “day” and all closing with both twists or cliffhangers and instructions (mostly verbal, unfortunately) for one or more holiday-themed recipes or craft projects. Though he veers occasionally into preciosity (Winston “tried to ignore the grumbling, rumbling noises coming from his tummy”), he also infuses his holiday tale with worthy values. Occasional snowy scenes have an Edwardian look appropriate to the general tone, with a white default in place but a few dark-skinned figures in view. Less-crafty children will struggle with the scantly illustrated projects, which run from paper snowflakes to clothespin dolls and Christmas crackers with or without “snaps,” but lyrics to chestnuts like “The 12 Days of Christmas” (and “Jingle Bells,” which is not a Christmas song, but never mind) at the end invite everyone to sing along.

Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-68412-983-6

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Silver Dolphin

Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

More by Alex T. Smith

by Alex T. Smith ; illustrated by Alex T. Smith

IF YOU LIVED DURING THE PLIMOTH THANKSGIVING

by Chris Newell ; illustrated by Winona Nelson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 2, 2021

A measured corrective to pervasive myths about what is often referred to as the “first Thanksgiving.”

Contextualizing them within a Native perspective, Newell (Passamaquoddy) touches on the all-too-familiar elements of the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving and its origins and the history of English colonization in the territory now known as New England. In addition to the voyage and landfall of the Mayflower , readers learn about the Doctrine of Discovery that arrogated the lands of non-Christian peoples to European settlers; earlier encounters between the Indigenous peoples of the region and Europeans; and the Great Dying of 1616-1619, which emptied the village of Patuxet by 1620. Short, two- to six-page chapters alternate between the story of the English settlers and exploring the complex political makeup of the region and the culture, agriculture, and technology of the Wampanoag—all before covering the evolution of the holiday. Refreshingly, the lens Newell offers is a Native one, describing how the Wampanoag and other Native peoples received the English rather than the other way around. Key words ranging from estuary  to discover  are printed in boldface in the narrative and defined in a closing glossary. Nelson (a member of the Leech Lake Band of Minnesota Chippewa) contributes soft line-and-color illustrations of the proceedings. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-338-72637-4

Page Count: 96

Publisher: Scholastic Nonfiction

Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021

CHILDREN'S HISTORY | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

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Review of A Christmas Carol

*Our site contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases....hey, we had to upgrade our hosting due to our amazing number of readers...we're just trying to pay for it! ;)*

No spoilers in this review of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens .

Special thanks to Sarina Byron, a BSR contributor who wrote this great review! Sarina is a British Author and Contributing Writer living in California. Sarina enjoys bringing forth a different perspective and encouraging a different way of thinking through her writing. Visit her blog to read her reviews, and check the end of the review for a link to her Instagram.

Christmas is a funny time of the year. As cheerful as it is, there is a lot to do, what with gifts to send, cards to write, and the house to decorate, all of which can turn us into the Grinch very fast. Thank heaven that we have stories like A Christmas Carol to keep the Christmas spirit alive within us.

I first read A Christmas Carol when I was under ten years old, and it explained life in a way that no one else could. You see, A Christmas Carol uses fear in an interesting manner to show us how to create a life with no regrets. It might fascinate you to know Dickens himself was going through a fearful phase in regard to his finances and popularity when he wrote this story.

Perhaps it was the fear of what his life may turn into if he gave up or grew bitter that made him think of the three ghosts. It wouldn’t be the first time the fear of becoming irrelevant drove someone on. After all, isn’t that what happened to Scrooge? He finds out through the spirits that, despite all his money, people care very little for him, and whist it does not matter to him as long as he keeps bringing in the money, it did matter to him when no one cared that he had departed.

Scrooge measured everything in terms of money, and that is how he lost the value of relationships. As the book famously said about him ”Darkness is cheap and Scrooge liked it ”. Darkness is cheap, and so is not eating out, not going out, not buying anyone gifts, not buying oneself gifts, and so on. There are a number of things which lose their value when we compare them to money, but that is the point of this story.

At a time of the year when a lot of us are trying to pick gifts for those dear to us, A Christmas Carol reminds us Christmas is about more than merrymaking and the cost of things. It is about charity, giving, and spreading joy. Whether that appears in the form buying an extravagant gift for someone dear to show them you care or whether that manifests as you donating money to a cause that matters to you, what is important is that you evaluate and act. Scrooge never evaluated and, therefore, never considered acting on any charity that occurred to him. His tale serves as a cautionary one.

Of life, Scrooge interestingly says:

“ There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth. ”

I was particularly hit by this sentence, not because the emotion is new but because it is familiar. This statement makes me wonder what Dickens had experienced that led to his understanding of this complex matter. As we know, he was deeply moved by the social injustices of his time, and perhaps it was these issues that made him realize life is extremely tough on the poor. But perhaps he also surmised those who seek to leave life behind and pursue wealth face almost as much contempt as the poor.

Perhaps when Dickens wrote Oliver Twist , he realized in the creation of characters such as Fagin, Sikes, and the Artful Dodger that all they wanted was to be financially comfortable. Perhaps whilst observing the motivations of people that inspired these characters, Dickens realized the pursuit and process of building wealth can cause one to be rejected by one’s own loved ones and society both.

This story is full of lessons, but it’s the ones that stay with us that matter. Apart from the lesson above about the quest for wealth, the other one that struck a chord with me was this one imparted by the Ghost of Christmas Present:

“ There are some on this earth of yours… who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us. ”

In saying this, he has reminded us that often the ones pretending to be the most pious and condemning others are, more often than not, completely unaware of the nature of the divine. Apart from the obvious lesson that one ought to be careful of the trappings of passing judgement, we need to appreciate the delicate position of taking responsibility. When we hold ourselves (and not others) responsible for our actions and reactions, the quality of both improves. Sometimes I am amazed at how much insight into the human mind Dickens’ books carry. There is so much wisdom interwoven into the stories that it makes one wonder whether he thought of it before he wrote the books or whether he thought of those as he went along. Either way, it is undeniable that he was an extremely wise man whose books are rightly considered edifying as well as entertaining.

It is hard for me to sum up A Christmas Carol in a few themes that do justice to what this story means. When this book first hit the shelves in 1843, it apparently made Christmas the phenomenon it is today . In those times, people were suffering through a phase of not having enough resources to make a big production of Christmas. As such, a reminder that Christmas was about the spirit of giving and of cherishing one’s near and dear ones brought Christmas back in fashion. How can one even begin to summarize something as phenomenal as that? A Christmas Carol literally made Christmas and the story is as relevant today as it was then.

Every year, it reminds us the season is about keeping our Christmas cheer. It is about what we can give and not about what we have accumulated. It is about accepting our past being a part of us but not letting it define us. If we can keep the Christmas spirit in our heart through the year, our lives will be so much easier and better. So, this Christmas season, give this book a read, and if you lack the time, give our recap a read . Let yourself be reminded that no matter what is going on and no matter who you are, if you but take the time to be present and enjoy Christmas, all will be well in the New Year.

Let us know what you think about this review of A Christmas Carol and Sarina’s great review in the comments! No spoilers on this page, please!

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Don’t forget to check out Sarina’s blog , and you can follow her on Instagram ! Follow Book Series Recaps on Instagram , Pinterest , and Twitter . Friend us on Goodreads: Sara and Stacy .

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A Christmas Carol

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Reviewed by Jane Finch for Readers' Favorite

A Christmas Carol by Norman Whaler is a different approach to the classic tale by Charles Dickens, and is cleverly illustrated by Bianca Milacic. Told in rhyme, the story unfolds on every page and the colourful illustrations give this well-known tale a touch of magic. The classic tale sees Scrooge meet the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future, and results in Scrooge re-evaluating his life and the way he has lived it, and his attitude to others. Although the original story is familiar to everyone, this version is fresh and gives it sparkle whilst having that message of love and consideration for one another. The author has done a great job of putting this story into rhymes which are succinct and don’t leave any of the main story out, yet are captivating and enjoyable at the same time. The illustrations by Bianca Milacic are colourful and appropriate, and this would be a perfect book for parents to read to a child, or even for an adult to enjoy as the illustrations are pitched at any age. There is an unexpected and welcome addition at the end with traditional Christmas carols with music and lyrics. This really makes the book ideal to give as a seasonal gift to anyone. The cover, too, is stunning and attracts the reader to pick up the book and delve into its pages. I am sure that Charles Dickens himself would love this version, and it’s sure to appeal to everyone.

Jack Magnus

A Christmas Carol is a classic holiday-themed story retold by Norman Whaler and illustrated by Bianca Milacic. Charles Dickens’ classic novella about a stingy man who is visited by three ghosts - who show him the error of his ways - is retold here in verse that works for readers of all ages. Whaler’s retelling shows the grim and self-absorbed man rejecting Christmas until his old partner, Jacob Marley, now long deceased, pays him a visit hoping to spare his old friend the fate that his own behavior earned for himself. Young readers get to experience the classic story in full, seeing Scrooge as a small and lonely boy in boarding school and then revisiting his happier days as a young man. A chastened and infinitely wiser Scrooge survives each spirit’s visit, even the last and most terrifying one, and his renewed sense of joy, generosity and spirit is the high point of this inspiring tale. Whaler also includes the musical scores and lyrics for eight classic Christmas carols. Norman Whaler’s retelling of A Christmas Carol distills the essence of the original into a form that will capture the imaginations and hearts of young listeners. Dickens’ messages of generosity, charity, gratitude and giving glory to God are timeless ones, and Whaler’s verses convey them perfectly. Bianca Milacic’s illustrations are dramatic and most impressive. Her use of bold colors and stark imagery works so well with the story. You can feel the loneliness and solitude of the young Scrooge as he looks out at the winter wonderland from his classroom window, and her panel showing Scrooge’s journey with the third ghost is powerful indeed. This is a grand selection for reading around the Christmas tree though the message contained is relevant all year long as well. A Christmas Carol is most highly recommended.

Rich Follett

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, retold by Norman Whaler and illustrated by Bianca Milacic, enchants like a Victorian Christmas card newly brought to light after years in a dusty old trunk. At each turn of the page, new delights await, the heart gladdens, and Christmas returns to even the weariest spirit. Charles Dickens' beloved Christmas classic is refreshed by inventive rhyme, making the story accessible for young readers in new ways and inviting new generations to enjoy and learn from this timeless tale of blessed redemption. Norman Whaler gently infuses contemporary Christian values and imagery into the familiar tale, updating it perfectly for use in children’s services, Sunday school story hours, and family reading at any time of the year. A Christmas Carol, as retold by Norman Whaler, is no longer just holiday fare. This is a splendidly illustrated and lovingly told rhymed rendition akin to Clement C. Moore’s “The Night Before Christmas” and destined to become a classic. Bianca Milacic’s illustrations are a perfect mix of haunting and jolly – never so threatening that children will be frightened but always jolly enough to be reassuring and hopeful. They are rendered in a style that honors classic children’s book traditions but breaks new ground in their translucent vibrancy. The overall effect is much like the old hand-colored animation cells from 1960s animated classics, but with lines and angles more in line with modern tastes – truly, the best of both worlds. Perhaps the nicest feature of this little gem is the mini Christmas songbook at the end. It features several original tunes by Norman Whaler and a few traditional carols and just begs for a family singalong. One can well imagine this book being read nightly to a child or as a family sharing time for several evenings in a row, with a different song selected each night to celebrate Scrooge’s transformation. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, retold by Norman Whaler and illustrated by Bianca Milacic, is such a rare Christmas treat that I want to start making a list of children I can read to this holiday season. This is a volume you will want to hold close and experience again and again.

Barbara Fanson

A classic tale retold! A Christmas Carol retold by Norman Whaler and illustrated by Bianca Milacic is a wonderful edition of the classic Dickens' story, A Christmas Carol, and may even be better than the original. With colorful full-page images and rhyming text, this version of the story is very well done. Author Norman Whaler has provided his adaptation of the Christmas classic with rhyming words and an easier to understand story for children. And parents will enjoy reading the tale with them at Christmas or any time of the year. This version of the greedy miser's story features Scrooge who would rather work on Christmas than visit with his nephew. The story and the illustrations are wonderful. Artist Bianca Milacic has masterfully illustrated beautiful, full-color pictures for this version of A Christmas Carol. Since the story takes place during the night, the artist uses different shades of purple. It is a rather dark story, but the illustrations are well drawn. The people and their expressions are executed very well. Even the font appears handwritten and cursive just like the original version. I believe this tale—as retold by Norman Whaler—deserves a spot on your shelf at home, as well as in libraries and school classrooms. This version of A Christmas Carol is bound to be a classic just like the original by Charles Dickens.

Marta Tandori

Norman Whaler has taken the perennial favorite, A Christmas Carol, and made the old classic fresh again – but for a much younger audience. Miserly Ebenezer Scrooge lives only to make money. On Christmas Eve, his nephew invites him for Christmas dinner the next day but Scrooge summarily refuses the invitation, intending to work instead. He goes to bed but is visited by the spirit of his dead partner, Jacob Marley, who informs him that he’ll be visited by three ghosts who will try to teach him not to be selfish and greedy before vanishing. True to Jacob Marley’s word, Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past soon after he falls asleep, transporting Scrooge to his past when he used to be happy. As they return to his bedroom, Scrooge is surprised to find the Ghost of Christmas Present waiting for him who takes him to his clerk, Bob Cratchit’s house, where Scrooge sees his employee’s gravely ill little boy, Tiny Tim. The ghost counsels Scrooge, telling him that to those who have been blessed, much is required… Christmas is a magical time for most children, especially in this part of the world where gifts and food are plentiful and it’s sometimes difficult for parents to teach children the true meaning of Christmas when it comes to giving, sharing and showing charity to others less fortunate. Whaler has simplified the narrative, presenting the story in rhyming verses that a younger child can understand. The subject of ghosts and spirits can evoke fright in most children but Whaler has managed to convey the message in such a way that will not frighten or intimidate small children. The Christmas carols at the end of the story, some more well-known than others, present the ideal opportunity to expose young children to classic carols. However, a picture book is only as good as the illustrations that accompany it. Thanks to the ministrations of talented illustrator, Bianca Milacic, hers are simple, yet vibrant and tell the story on their own. It’s the faces of the characters and the richness of emotion they convey that add life and expression, making the illustrations come to life. The image of the single crutch shown leaning against the wall is particularly poignant but it’s not entirely clear whether the stark message it conveys will resonate with children as much as it will with adults. All in all, A Christmas Carol is a wonderful take on an old classic.

Emily-Jane Hills Orford

Charles Dickens’s classic story, A Christmas Carol, is as popular today as it has been for almost two centuries. There have been movie adaptations and numerous retellings of this story about greed and the true meaning of Christmas. Scrooge, visited by the three ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, must have a complete change of heart to make this story complete, to repeat within our hearts what we should already know about love and kindness and all the good things we love about Christmas. Norman Whaler’s children’s book, A Christmas Carol (With Audio Christmas Carols and Print Music), is a classic in itself. A wonderful, clever retelling of Dicken’s tale, the author weaves his own spell around this touching story. Told in rhyming verse and beautifully illustrated, the lyricism of the author/poet’s words will sing as movingly as the classic Christmas carols included in this book and accompanying audio recording. Christmas carol sheet music fills the final pages so young readers can learn to play the Christmas music and/or sing along with the audio recording. “Don’t you understand?” the ghost now enquired,/ “To those who’ve been blessed, much is required!/ Each day we can choose to remember the needs of others/ and know that in God’s eyes, we’re all sisters and brothers.” And the heartfelt words of Tiny Tim, whose love reached out to each and everyone in spite of his own handicaps and pain: “God bless us, everyone!” A fascinating way to introduce Dickens’s classic to young readers.

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