This initial post is from Bec, who, as an English teacher extraordinaire, taught this book a million times. She wears her heart on her sleeve with this one!
Kris asked if I would like to write our initial post because she knows how much I love this book and how many times I taught it. I could write volumes about it, but I promise I won’t!
A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas is its full title. Dickens wrote it at a time when he was struggling financially. It was immediately popular, although his publisher didn’t think it would be and, consequently, refused to publish it. So Dickens put up the money himself. Good call! Readers of all social classes loved it, and some well-known people were significantly affected by it. An American industrialist was moved to close his factory for Christmas day (which was not a common practice either in the US or England); Robert Louis Stevenson vowed to help the unfortunate by giving of himself as well as his money. Historian Thomas Carlyle “sent out for a turkey and asked two friends to dine.” And, the Queen of Norway sent toys to children in London hospitals in the name of Tiny Tim. Seriously. His novel had that impact on his readers.
But, on to my thoughts. One of the aspects I love about the novel is its length. It is short and tightly woven, a book one can read in a few hours. Dickens establishes his theme, and it is apparent from beginning to end. Scrooge was a good businessman, and that was ok. But, his old partner Marley, his first spirit visitor, sets the moral of the story early on: “Mankind was my business…The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business.” Marley tells Scrooge that you can be a businessman without cutting yourself off from all personal connection. And, throughout the novel, Scrooge is shown the results of his isolationist attitude.
I also love the way Dickens portrays each of the three spirits. Christmas Past’s appearance is constantly changing, the way our memories of past events can be colored by later experiences. Christmas Present is big and bold, just as our “present” should be for us. And Christmas Yet to Come is dark and scary. He doesn’t speak or show his face, because the future is unknown. I always enjoyed teaching Dickens because he wasn’t too tricky with his symbolism…he wanted his reader to get it!
Finally, I like that Dickens doesn’t keep the reader hanging as to whether Scrooge is open to transformation. As early as Scrooge’s visit to his past, he feels remorse that he didn’t give a little something to a caroler. By the time the last of the spirits arrives, Scrooge is anxious to get on with it, because he knows time is short. And, when he wakes up on Christmas morning, he doesn’t overthink. He immediately dresses and begins changing his life…and others’.
So….my questions are these: Did you enjoy reading the book? Had you read it or had it been read to you at some earlier point? Which of the spirits resonated the most with you? Having read it, would you be more likely to read something else by Dickens? Or less!?
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I am 60 years old, and I have never read A Christmas Carol. I have, of course, seen it a million times, everywhere from Micky Mouse’s version to a play at the Lincoln Theater in Washington, D.C. They don’t really change it up much.
ReplyDeleteI haven’t, in fact, read much by Charles Dickens. I own Bleak House. And I think I’ve read Great Expectations, but I’ve never tackled the book with the most famous opening line in literary history –“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
I’ve always enjoyed watching A Christmas Carol because it’s hard to deny that the basic message is sweet. Who doesn’t love to see a crabby old man be completely changed into someone who cares about those around him? But I’ve always been in sort of a hurry to get through the ghosts so that I could get to the Scrooge makeover.
Reading it made the experience a bit different. Dickens’ writing is, of course, awesome. I don’t often use the phrase “turn of phrase,” but I really did note the clever turns of phrase used by Dickens. I just liked the way he would put things. For example, when Scrooge told the ghost he wasn’t a spirit but just last night’s gravy (I paraphrase, obviously).
The way Dicken’s laid out Scrooge’s life through simple stories told by ghosts was so clever. We know a whole lot about this man though the story can be read in one sitting.
Like Bec, I loved that Scrooge, even while still disbelieving that the spirits could be real, immediately regretted that he hadn’t given the begger boy some money. He was immediately ready to make some changes in his life. I’m not sure why it took the ghosts to help him make the change. He had people who cared about him (his nephew). But the ghosts were able to lay out his life in such a way that he could see how his past made his present, and how his present would make his future.
It was fun to be able to talk with Bec about the book as I read it. I didn’t know, for example, how much of an impact Dicken’s story had on the world at large. She said that it wasn’t typical for businesses to give Christmas Day as a holiday prior to Scrooge. Interesting.
A Christmas Carol is a wonderful book to read at Christmastime. I think it will become a tradition. And I will definitely read something else by the author.
My favorite part about reading this book was Beckie's post about it. I hope in my next life Beckie will be one of my English teachers. Having said that, she has been my teacher in this life, just not in a class room. Okay, I digress.
ReplyDeleteI have never read a Dickens novel before, I came to know this story thru a Mickey Mouse cartoon. And I love this story. I did like Dicken's writing. I did like that the book was short which made it even more fun at Christmas time. And I would read another Dickens novel in the future. I also have the thought that the more times I read this novel the more I will enjoy it. I read it the first time quickly and once again to skim it.
The Christmas Yet to Come resonated with me because I always catch myself envisioning great dramas in my future which never come to fruition. I loved the lesson taught in Christmas past.
I agree with Kris. I love reading Christmas books at Christmas time and this will be a fun book to add to my Christmas reading list.