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    A Christmas Carol
    A Christmas Carol
    A Christmas Carol
    Ebook162 pages2 hours

    A Christmas Carol

    By Charles Dickens

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    About this ebook

    Enriched Classics offer readers accessible editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and commentary. Each book includes educational tools alongside the text, enabling students and readers alike to gain a deeper and more developed understanding of the writer and their work.

    In this classic, heart-warming tale, four ghostly guests teach valuable lessons to an old miser. Ebenezer Scrooge, a selfish, crotchety skinflint, spends his days counting money and grousing, “Bah Humbug!” Scrooge doesn’t care for anyone other than himself. However, on Christmas Eve, he is visited by his partner Marley, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come, who teach him about benevolence, charity, and goodwill.

    Enriched Classics enhance your engagement by introducing and explaining the historical and cultural significance of the work, the author’s personal history, and what impact this book had on subsequent scholarship. Each book includes discussion questions that help clarify and reinforce major themes and reading recommendations for further research.

    Read with confidence.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster
    Release dateJul 21, 2014
    ISBN9781476795812
    Author

    Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and grew up in poverty. This experience influenced ‘Oliver Twist’, the second of his fourteen major novels, which first appeared in 1837. When he died in 1870, he was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey as an indication of his huge popularity as a novelist, which endures to this day.

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    Reviews for A Christmas Carol

    4/5

    5,097 ratings201 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This was brilliant, Patrick Stewart does an excellent job portraying the different characters.
    • 4/5
      He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions, that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call. He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears.
      It is hardly a surprise that the holiday arrived this year without my falling into the mood. Overwork and unseasonable weather has left me jarred -- quite removed from the trappings of the spirit. My wonderful wife bought me one of them there smartphones -- so I could join the century. I was simply pleased to be with her on a rainy morning with the thought of the trip to my family weighing rather ominously. I survived it all and actually enjoyed myself. I did not read Mr. Dickens there.

      We came home and enjoyed Chinese take-away and it was then that I turned again to the Christian charm of social justice by means of poltergeists: spectral redemption. There are sound reasons why this tale has proliferated since its inception.
    • 5/5
      This is the way to enjoy this story – having Tim Curry read it to you. He does an absolutely fabulous job and it was just a total delight.

      For the story – I love how creepy yet still uplifting the author was able to keep the story. He has really had you feeling for past Ebenezer. I would have liked more about Bob Cratchit because he always seems so much more developed as a character in the cinematic versions of the story. I kind of missed that.

      Tim Curry gives this story a fabulous feel and it keeps you listening to very end. He gives each character a distinct voice and really does the creepy justice. Great way to enjoy a classic.
    • 5/5
      Such a pleasure to read these lovely words! You may know the story, but until you read Charles Dickens’ own words you haven’t truly experienced the magic.
    • 5/5
      A book that stands the test of time and I read this with the approach of Christmas! A very enjoyable book even if you know exactly what is going to happen, worth worth it and it is quite a small book.
    • 5/5
      I recently received a new version of a great classic, A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens. This particular version is illustrated by Francine Haskins with an afterword by Kyra E. Hick. This version has wonderful illustrations that belong in everyone's collection. Thank you to Kyra E. Hick for bringing this to my attention so that I may share it. Francine Haskins brings to live a Christmas Carol for ALL to enjoy regardless of where we live.
    • 5/5
      No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty.
      This was surprisingly quite funny! The narration was done in that particular style that seems to have been largely abandoned by modern authors: third-person told from a first-person non-character narrator. I love this style! Many of my favorite classics (Peter Pan, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc) are told in this style, and it always lends itself a storybook quality that is sorely lacking in today's literature.

      The story itself was something I am at this point extremely familiar with, as it has permeated all corners of Western civilization at this point, but still, there were some things that are often excluded in most adaptations, such as the children of mankind: "They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware of them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased." (Except for that one with Jim Carrey, but it added that weird chase scene.) Those parts not oft-explored were really interesting and added a great deal of meaning to the story.

      I am quite glad I read this. This was my first Dickens experience and it has fully convinced me that I really need to read more classics! Time to read them instead of watching their BBC Masterpiece Classics adaptations!

      "There are some upon this earth of yours," returned the Spirit, "who 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."
    • 5/5
      Wonderful illustrations by PJ Lynch sets this edition above the others. The full page illustrations throughout the book helps bring the story alive with the scenes of Victorian England.
    • 5/5
      This is a great performance of a wonderful classic.

      I think there are few people who don't know the story: Ebenezer Scrooge, tight-fisted businessman who calls Christmas a humbug and has no use for charity or kindness, goes home on Christmas Eve, and is visited by the ghost of his dead partner, Jacob Marley. Marley warns him of the fate he has been forging for himself by caring only for business and not for other people, but promises him he has one last chance at salvation.

      He will be visited by three spirits: the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Be. Scrooge is not delighted at this news, but it's not a choice for him. The spirits are coming.

      Tim Curry animates the characters with power, flexibility, and control. We feel the chill of Scrooge's office, and rooms, and heart, and correspondingly the warmth of his nephew's home and heart, as well as Bob Cratchit's home, heart, and family. We hear, and thereby see and feel, the hardships of Victorian London, as well as its life and color.

      This is a great way to enjoy this wonderful classic of the Christmas season.

      Recommended.

      I received this book free as a member of the Ford Audiobook Club.
    • 5/5
      Every year at Christmas the kids and I reread A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens but this year I won a copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Illustated by Francine Haskins and  Afterword by Kyra E. Hicks on Library Thing. This popular classic was not changed it was wonderfully illustrated with contemporary line drawings as it brings all of the characters to life as Black Victorians. The Afterword highlights over 100 African Americans, Black British and Canadian actors that have performed A Christmas Carol over the last century demonstrating this story belongs to everyone. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Go Read, Goodreads/StacieBoren, Amazon, and my blog at readsbystacie.com
    • 5/5
      Dickens eminently accesible, immortal masterpiece.
    • 3/5
      Uiteraard erg melo en wat belegen, maar toch mooi. Licht dantesk van opbouw
    • 3/5
      Indeholder "Et juleeventyr", "Nytårsklokkerne", "Fårekyllingen ved arnen", "Livets kamp", "Manden, der så spøgelser eller Handelen med Fantomet"."Et juleeventyr" handler om: Gnieren Ebenezer Scrooge, der bliver omvendt til et bedre liv ved at se konsekvenserne af sine handlinger. Drivende sentimentalt ævl med medvirken af blandt andre Lilletim og Jacob Marleys genfærd. Og selvfølgelig en klassiker. Dickens fik efter sigende betaling pr ord og det kan godt fornemmes. En af Æsops fabler på tre sider kunne formidle samme historie på meget kortere plads."Nytårsklokkerne" handler om ???"Fårekyllingen ved arnen" handler om ???"Livets kamp" handler om ???"Manden, der så spøgelser eller Handelen med Fantomet" handler om ??????
    • 4/5
      Great classic story!
    • 1/5
      A Christmas Carol is a story I've seen I don't know how many adaptations for. I recently watched the one from Doctor Who, which was excellent, but there are a lot of good ones, and it's a good story. A bit overused and overrated, but good.

      This is the first time I read the original story, and I have to say I came away sorely disappointed. This is one of those cases where the best adaptations have something that the original story just doesn't. It seems to me that some of the adaptations give Scrooge a better reason for being a dickhead than the original story did. Here he was lonely and poor as a child, and that's pretty much it. I guess that's reason enough to be a dickhead? Sure, why not. It doesn't help that we fly right through the familiar treks of the story so fast and with no time to breathe that nothing sinks in or carries weight. Scrooge's lonely childhood is summed up in a vague sentence about him being neglected by his friends. How the hell am I supposed to give two shits about his already incredibly generic rough childhood if they don't even stop to focus on the details that make it unique to him?

      This is the first time I've read Dickens, and I really do not care for his writing style one bit, which definitely put a damper on any enjoyment I might have had . It rarely evokes emotion or vivid imagery and is just...oddly worded and structured. Here's an example:
      In the struggle, if that can be called a struggle in which the Ghost with no visible resistance on its own part was undisturbed by any effort of its adversary, Scrooged observed that its light was burning high and bright; and dimly connecting that with its influence over him, he seized the extinguisher-cap, and by a sudden action pressed it down upon its head.
      I honestly don't understand how someone living today can enjoy a book that's written this way. I'm sure it was great in it's time and everything, but it's just so counter to how prose has evolved since then. It's superfluous, redundant, and overwrought.

      The weird thing is, I have no idea if it's just a product of the time, or if it's unique to Dickens. I have thoroughly enjoyed quite a lot of books from the 1800s, ala Sherlock Holmes, H.G. Wells, etc. Those books are a joy to read. They are easy to read. Their prose is clear, and elegant. Sure, they still show some signs of that older style of writing, but it's never a blockade like it is here. It never impedes forward progress, or makes comprehension/immersion any more difficult than reading modern prose would be. Those are from the 1880s or later, however, and this book was written in 1843. Perhaps that 37 year gap holds a much wider difference in prose style than I think it should? I've read plenty of books from the 1950s that seem almost contemporary, but I have no idea if that's a fair comparison. Either way, it's not much fun to read now. Not much fun at all. Bah Humbug!
    • 5/5
      “I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!” Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. “The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.” Before he sings such a blessed, spirit-of-the-holiday tune, however, Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly grump living a lucrative but deplorable and loveless life. But a rather terrifying, painful, and enlightening adventure on Christmas Eve night will help him change his tune in A Christmas Carol, a tale by author Charles Dickens. Hilarious, touching, altogether delightful–I see why this story is such a classic. Well, not that I haven’t seen it before: I saw a play adaptation at the theater as a child, and the 1951 film adaptation, Scrooge, with Alastair Sim, has become a holiday staple of mine. I’ve long lost count of how many times I’ve watched the film, of which I can now say with confidence that, even with its handful of cinematic departures from the book, Scrooge captures and conveys the spirit of A Christmas Carol quite wonderfully. Ah, blessed Christmasness. And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One! THE END
    • 5/5
      From Gutenberg, the 1843 edition, with John Leech illustrations. I decided to watch as many visual versions of the story as I could this year (on #11 as I type this - the oldest surviving adaptation, a 1901 short ... gotta love the internet), and I realized that I'd not read this since I was 13, so forty years is long enough.

      I give five stars for inspiring so many adaptations. That and so pretty good writing. "The dealings of my rade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" And things weren't much different in 1843 England than from today's tea partiers and FoxNews watchers: Dickens named a creature hidden in the robes of Christmas Present "Ignorance", crying "...but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom..."

      Trivium point I had long forgotten: Cratchit's name isn't mentioned until Christmas Present.
    • 5/5
      Who does not know the story? This is my fourth time through A Christmas Carol and each time reveals something new. I am currently in the midst of reading God and Charles Dickens: Recovering the Christian Voice of a Classic Author by Gary Colledge, and this time through the Christian references were much more poignant. The illustrations in this edition were a very nice addition, and it is nice to see a standard Kindle edition with them. The book would always get 5 stars, and the Kindle version does as well.
    • 5/5
      There's not much to say about this book that hasn't already said by many others (and said better than I am capable of). Obviously, it's a great book. It's a classic for a reason. That said, this was my first foray into Dickens, and two things struck me about this book:

      1.) I was genuninely shocked to realize that Dickens had a sense of humor! I chuckled out loud a couple of times. For some reason, I expected this to be a very serious book, and it really was not.

      2.) I was also genuninely shocked by how closely the movie adaptations follow the book...something that never happens. Granted, this is such a short book, it's easy to remain true to it. But even the Mickey Mouse version is pretty darn accurate!

      It was a great read for our December bookclub meeting...festive AND short. Glad I finally got around to reading this one.
    • 5/5
      *** This was a reread. I originally read this book many years ago, and have seen and heard numerous variations since. This time around I listened to the audiobook narrated by Jim Dale, who can do no wrong in my eyes ears.
    • 5/5
      Well, I don't need to tell anybody here about Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. I might be the only person living who hadn't already read it at some point. I'll just say Tim Curry is brilliant (also not news) and he elevated the story to art. My reaction throughout the story was surprise, as I had always had the impression that Scrooge was a hostile witness throughout the first two ghosts' visits. That's what I get for comparing the real thing to a TV adaptation. Anyway, if you're looking for a brilliant audio production of a classic for Christmas, look no further than this little gem.
    • 5/5
      A well-known and famous Christmas Classic written by the master wordsmith. This is a great book to read at Christmas time.
    • 5/5
      What better way to get oneself into the Christmas Spirit than by reading THE Christmas story?Think about how many times this tale has been told and retold, adapted to stage and screen, and even used in multiple television shows for that one-off Christmas episode the writers just weren't in the mood to be original on (kidding... sort of...). It all comes back to Ebenezer Scrooge and the Christmas he was visited by three spirits (four counting his former business partner, Jacob Marley). A visit that would leave him greatly changed for the better. I think one of the reasons the story resonates so well is it has the power to remind us of the worst parts of ourselves as human beings, and makes sure we know there is still time to fix things if we need to. And, among other things, be kind.After this year (2016), I know that I for one needed the message Dickens provides in this classic, so I'm definitely glad I decided to read it again this particular Christmas season.
    • 5/5
      Inhaltsangabe:Ebener Scrooge ist ein reicher Kaufmann, der aus ärmlichen Verhältnissen stammt. Seit dem Tod seines Geschäftsparnters Marley ist er noch geiziger, noch kaltherziger und garstiger geworden. Und die Weihnachtszeit ist ihm sowieso ein Greuel, denn das bedeutet, das sein Kommis Cratchit einen bezahlten freien Tag bekommt.Doch am Abend vor Weihnachten bekommt Scrooge plötzlich Besuch: Den Geist von Marley. Marley kündigt ihm den Besuch von drei Geistern an: den Geist der vergangenen, der gegenwärtigen und zukünftigen Weihnacht. Und Marley mahnt ihn, sich sehr bald zu ändern, denn sonst würde ihm das gleiche Schicksal ereilt wie ihm.Mit schlotternden Knien erwartet Scrooge die Geister und macht sich mit ihnen auf eine Reise, die ihn für immer verändern.Mein Fazit:Eine bezaubernde Weihnachtsgeschichte, die heute traditionell einfach nicht mehr fehlen darf, weder als Buch noch im Fernsehen. Schon mehrfach verfilmt, strahlt die Geschichte immer wieder eine Botschaft aus: Es ist Weihnachten, habe Mitleid, praktiziere Nächstenliebe und schieb den Groll beiseite.Charles Dickens bedient sich dabei einer sehr bildlichen Sprache, beweist zuweilen trockenen Humor und zeigt ohne mahnenden Zeigefinger die Mißstände in der zwei-Klassen-Gesellschaft auf, die damals in England herrschten und im Grunde zeitlos überall bis heute vorherrschen. Deshalb hat diese Geschichte ihren wahren Charakter bis heute nicht verloren und kann noch viele weitere Generationen zu Weihnachten erzählt werden.Dies ist eigentlich eher eine Kindergeschichte, aber ich denke, auch -oder gerade- Erwachsene haben etwas davon. Ich kann es immer wieder empfehlen. Trotz der an einigen Stellen holprigen Sprache (ist ja auch schon 160 Jahre alt) kann man es ganz gut verstehen.Von mir bekommt das Buch 4,5 von 5 Sternchen.Anmerkung: Die Rezension stammt aus Dezember 2009.Veröffentlicht am 22.12.15!
    • 5/5
      All time favorite Christmas book. Dickens understood man's greed and avarice and disregard for society's downtrodden. Yet even while knowing so much of his fellow man Dickens still believes that humanity can change and their is hope in even the hardest of hearts. Dickens introduces the character of Scrooge, a man who has become so caught-up in the almighty dollar that he has forgotten about his fellow man. But Dickens sends Scrooge a second (and a first and third !) in the form of three ghosts - The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Through their visits Scrooge discovers what he has forgotten (perhaps never known) - that love and kindness make even the worst of situations bearable. I think that Scrooge's nephew Fred is Dickens alternate ego. After reading Dickens writing I always feel like I have been to that England that Dickens knew. I can taste the hot chestnuts, the plum pudding, and the roasted goose; smell the stink of the over-crowded city, and feel the awe and wonder Tiny Tim must have felt while going to the cathedral for Christmas service and when he and his father came home to a beautiful big Christmas goose. I wish everyone could read this book and have their hearts open to the joy of giving and their minds open to miracles.
    • 3/5
      Being my first Dickens, I won't be shying away from him just yet, but I figured I'd start with a short one first. Most of us already know the story of A Christmas Carol. There are so many adaptations of it in the modern world that it's hard to escape it. When looking at the story itself, I might think to have given it almost 5 stars. But that's not all that goes into writing a book. If I had the option, I would have cut a majority of what was written into this book. Dickens seems to like listing off anything and everything, whenever he can. When establishing the setting of a scene, he wrote on and on about various things, but by the time he got back to moving the story forward, I'd given up on caring where it was set anymore. At least the dialogue was strong enough.

      So I'm torn between the story and the writing style for this one, and I predict it'll be the case in any future Dickens I try out. I might be surprised though. Time will tell. Maybe the thick books I have on my shelf isn't the author being long winded and stretching out a story for no reason. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.
    • 4/5
      Everyone knows the story of A Christmas Carol - it has been told a thousand times in a thousand different ways and it says a lot about the power of the original text that it can be re-interpreted so often yet people still find it fresh.

      The reinterpretations never stray too far from the general concept (in fact I'd say the Muppets version surprisingly was one of the most loyal versions of the story - bonus points to Kermit & co!) so basically it comes down to whether you like the story of not. I'm a sucker for redemption & ghosts and all those themes so I enjoy it but I know that some people find the whole thing a little gloomy.

      Regardless, this is a classic for a reason and, especially at Christmas, well worth a read.
    • 5/5
      I try to reread this one every year at Christmas, though I'm a little late with it this year. It is just as wonderful each time.
    • 5/5
      A friend of mine (Thanks, Carmen) had sent me an article about Dickens that said the perfect age to introduce this author to a child is 12. I'm not sure if I agree with the article - Dickens can be wordy and his books don't have a chance of competing with the action packed stories that our young adults are reading today. But, I love Dickens and I want my 12 year old son to love him also, so I decide that A Christmas Carol would be the perfect story to enjoy together as a family, especially since the audio version I have is narrated by Jim Dale.

      We were not disappointed! This book was not only filled with humor and charm, but also preached a valuable lesson on the true meaning of Christmas - without being too preachy. But, what really surprised me was how much this book touched me. Let's face it. It's December 5th, I have not started my holiday shopping, and I was beginning to get a little panicked. But nowhere in this classic Christmas story, does Dickens talk about Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or internet shopping vs buying local. The lesson Ebeneezer Scrooge learns from the Christmas Ghosts is that the holiday is a time to connect and enjoy family and friends. What a good reminder for us all!
    • 5/5
      This wasn't so very far off from the movie editions of this story. Not too many books can claim to be more closely or more accurately followed in the movies than this one has been. Still, I enjoyed the book tremendously and I am very happy to have read it now. Jim Dale gave an amazing performance as he always does. The man is phenomenal. Not enough can be said about him. He's a credit to the written word, plain and simple.

    Book preview

    A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

    Cover: A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

    Enriched Classic

    A Christmas Carol

    Charles Dickens

    Includes detailed explanatory notes, an overview of key themes, and more

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    A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, Simon & Schuster

    INTRODUCTION

    A Christmas Carol:

    THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS

    From Bah! Humbug! to God bless us, every one, Dickens’s holiday classic, its characters, and even their dialogue embody the spirit of Christmas. A Christmas Carol has become such a part of modern American and British culture that it would be difficult to find anyone unfamiliar with its story or with the characters of Tiny Tim and Scrooge. The Carol is practically a manual for Christmas, with its depictions of playing games, adorning rooms with festive decorations, and enjoying a turkey feast. Not only does the tale inform certain traditions but it is also a tradition in itself. Indeed, many people would not find their Christmas complete without watching performances of the Carol on stage, on television, or at the cinema.

    Little did Dickens know when he finished A Christmas Carol after just six weeks of feverish writing that this brief story would become one of his most famous works. Though the story was successful as soon as it was published on December 19, 1843, Dickens bolstered its renown further by choosing to perform it aloud when he began touring in 1853. His name became synonymous with Christmas in England to the extent that, after his death in 1870, some feared the holiday would become culturally obsolete. Nothing could have been further from the truth—the story itself spawned an endless parade of adaptations and interpretations, from musicals to cartoons to comedies, and the holiday it celebrates has never been more popular.

    Charles Dickens is perhaps best remembered for his efforts to draw attention to the plight of the poor at the dawn of the modern era. His Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, two masterpieces of English literature, led to the coinage of a new word, Dickensian, to describe something particularly harsh, bleak, or wretched. But as large as that literary legacy may be, Dickens is most beloved for this book, his gift to the poor and affluent alike: a template for a warm, loving, charitable, and thankful family holiday.

    The Life and Work of Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens was one of the nineteenth century’s most prolific and respected novelists. The second child of John Dickens and Elizabeth Barrow, he was born February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. When he was five years old, the family moved to Chatham on the southern coast of England, where they would spend the next six years. In 1823, the Dickens family moved again, to London. When Charles was twelve, his father was imprisoned for debt, remaining incarcerated for three months. During that time, Charles’s family lived in debtors’ prison with his father, leaving Charles largely on his own. He worked at Warren’s Blacking factory, gluing labels to bottles of shoe polish, finding himself very poor and often hungry. Young Charles was tormented by the thought that his parents had abandoned him to this hard life. Dickens’s time as a child laborer left a permanent, traumatic impression on him; he did not discuss this ordeal publicly, but it surfaced in his fiction. His sympathetic descriptions of Tiny Tim and of Scrooge as a boy spurned by his father in A Christmas Carol reveal his deep compassion for poor, abandoned, or neglected children.

    Dickens attended school at the Wellington House Academy in London until he was fifteen, but primarily he educated himself at the library of the British Museum in London. Before becoming a writer he worked as a law clerk, a shorthand reporter, and a news reporter; his fictional writing drew extensively from these experiences. His first published novel, The Pickwick Papers (serialized starting in 1836), a lighthearted and popular work, established the young writer’s reputation and raised readers’ expectations. He went on to serialize what would become some of his lengthier novels: Oliver Twist (1837), Nicholas Nickleby (1838), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840), and Barnaby Rudge (1841). In 1842, he traveled with his wife, Catherine, to America, where he enjoyed immense popularity. He wrote a partially critical account of his observations on his trip, American Notes for General Circulation (1842), which offended many readers and critics, who became defensive about their country.

    When a report exposing exploitive child labor practices in England was released in 1842, Dickens made a special trip to Cornwall, where he could see for himself the horrible environment child mine workers endured. His wealthy friend and philanthropist Baroness Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts requested his opinion of her sponsoring the Ragged Schools of Field Lane, Holborn—free schools for the poor—so he visited them and wrote to her, I have very seldom seen… anything so shocking as the dire neglect of soul and body exhibited in these children. His sympathy for the poor and outrage at public indifference toward poor children inspired him to write A Christmas Carol in Prose, which he published at his own expense on December 19, 1843. It became so popular that he followed with other Christmas stories such as The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846), and The Haunted Man (1848).

    Dickens would next write his most autobiographical novel, David Copperfield (starting in 1849). With the publication of Bleak House (1852), he entered what many call his late period, writing a series of darkly pessimistic novels such as Little Dorrit (1857) and what would become his most popular novel, Great Expectations (1860). In 1858, just as he was separating from Catherine, he began an extensive tour of public readings in London and would eventually travel to Paris, Scotland, Ireland, and America for appearances and readings. His health declined seriously in the next decade, partly as a result of his busy work schedule. In 1870, he collapsed during a public reading in England, just after an American lecture tour. Dickens died from a stroke shortly thereafter. His last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, was in serialization at the time and remained unfinished.

    Historical and Literary Context of A Christmas Carol

    Christmas in Victorian England

    Just a few decades before A Christmas Carol was written, the celebration of Christmas in England had become almost obsolete. Christmas was once a lavishly celebrated holiday, with festivals that combined pagan customs and Christian symbolism in masques (a dramatic performance usually by actors in masks), plays, and other traditions. After Puritans took control of England during the seventeenth century, celebrations of Christmas were outlawed. The holiday was revived when the monarchy was restored in the eighteenth century, but it was not as elaborate as it had been in the past.

    During the years leading up to the publication of A Christmas Carol in 1843, however, the holiday was enjoying a renaissance in England. Ten years earlier, William Sandys published Selection of Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern (1833), a collection of Christmas songs that would become extremely popular and incite a tradition of caroling in England. Thomas K. Hervey published a scholarly history of Christmas in The Book of Christmas three years later. Britain’s young Queen Victoria married the German Prince Albert in 1840, who popularized many Christmas traditions of his native country, such as the Christmas tree, in his wife’s homeland. In 1843, the same year A Christmas Carol was published, Sir Henry Cole commissioned the first Christmas card from John C. Horsley. It was a three-paneled drawing with a simple Christmas scene in which a family enjoys a dinner celebration in the center with the caption A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to you with a small space for the name of the sender. Dickens’s short novel would further promote and solidify these and other Christmas traditions in both English and American culture.

    Poverty: The Poor Laws and the Workhouse

    At the time of the publication of A Christmas Carol, England was still coming to terms with the Industrial Revolution. Technological innovations had shifted the basis of England’s economy from agriculture to industry between 1750 and 1850. The development of steam power and a boom in the cotton textiles industry caused a population shift from rural to urban areas. New steam-powered railroads and ships broadened the market for England’s output. Laborers were more at the mercy of their employers than ever before, and working conditions in factories, mines, and mills were often brutal. Children and adults alike commonly worked as much as sixteen hours a day, six days a week in dangerous conditions for very small wages. England went through particularly severe growing pains during the 1830s and 1840s. An economic depression in the early 1840s led to widespread unemployment and riots.

    In 1834, the Poor Law Amendment Act completely overturned previous methods of aiding the poor that had been in place for over two centuries. Before the poor laws were amended, parishes were required to feed, clothe, or otherwise financially support the poor in what was called outdoor relief. The poor laws replaced outdoor relief with mandatory rules that the poor who received aid must receive indoor relief, and to live in workhouses, or government-run shelters provided in exchange for work. The conditions in these workhouses were so grim and at times so unbearable that some preferred to starve on the streets.

    Dickens, having spent a few months in a workhouse with his family when his father was sent to one, fiercely opposed the practice. His fiction, essays, and letters often reflect this view. Clearly Dickens’s critical attitudes about both the poor laws and the workhouse show transparently in the narrative, as does his belief that a person’s wealth is not a reflection of his character.

    CHRONOLOGY OF CHARLES DICKENS’S LIFE AND WORK

    1812: Born on February 7 to John Dickens and Elizabeth Barrow in Portsmouth, England.

    1824: Dickens’s father imprisoned at Marshalsea for unpaid debts; Charles leaves school to work but returns when his father is released.

    1827: Begins work as a law clerk.

    1830: Begins works as a shorthand court reporter.

    1833: Works as a newspaper reporter. Publishes his first short story, A Dinner at Poplar Walk, under the pen name Boz.

    1836: Marries Catherine Hogarth. Pickwick Papers begins serial publication.

    1837: First child of ten—a son—is born. Oliver Twist begins serial publication.

    1838: Nicholas Nickleby begins serial publication.

    1840: The Old Curiosity Shop begins serial publication.

    1841: Publishes Barnaby Rudge.

    1842: Dickens’s family travels in America. American Notes published.

    1843: Publishes A Christmas Carol.

    1843: Martin Chuzzlewit begins serial publication.

    1846: Dombey and Son begins serial publication.

    1849: David Copperfield begins serial publication.

    1851: Catherine, now a mother of nine, suffers a nervous breakdown. The Dickenses’ eight-month-old daughter, Dora Annie, dies, as does Dickens’s father.

    1852: Bleak House begins serial publication.

    1853: Delivers first of many public readings.

    1854: Hard Times begins serial publication in Household Words, Dickens’s weekly periodical.

    1855: Little Dorrit begins serial publication.

    1858: Gives a series of public readings. Separates from his wife.

    1859: Publishes A Tale of Two Cities.

    1860: Publishes Great Expectations.

    1864: Our Mutual

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