A Christmas Carol is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. A Christmas Carol recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man.
Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol during a period when the British were exploring and re-evaluating past Christmas traditions, including carols, and newer customs such as Christmas cards and Christmas trees.
Original Blog Review December 2014:
Not all of Charles Dickens' work is among my reading list but A Christmas Carol is my favorite of all. It's the best Christmas tale, in my opinion. At the heart of the story is what so many of us tend to forget, although perhaps not to the extent as Ebenezer Scrooge has, and that is that heart and kindness is more important than wealth.
“And therefore, Uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that [Christmas] has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”
“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,' faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.
Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
“It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.”
“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”
“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!”And I think the final quote from the book says more about why I love the book so much than any words I could come up with.
“And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!”
Re-Read Review 2017:
There was a time when I read A Christmas Carol annually but since starting my book blog it seems I that life just hasn't allowed me the time to read it yearly. So I decided that I would make time this year to give it a read and its just as good as its always been. I wish I could say we don't need to be reminded of what should be important to us at Christmastime but everyone is always so busy that the Christmas spirit doesn't stay with us the way it should. Charles Dickens has a way of making us remember and I love him for it. Merry Christmas everyone and if you aren't one to celebrate, try to remember that the true meaning of the story and the lessons Ebenezer Scrooge learns still rings true for you too and for every day: kindness and goodwill to your fellow man should never be far from your heart.
Re-Read Review 2019:
This book just never gets old. Frankly, if there ever was a time we need to be reminded of what is truly important in life it's now. With all the strife and ignorance and intolerance in the world, it's never wrong to be reminded of what Christmas is all about. A Christmas Carol should be read throughout the year, not just during the holiday season. The lessons of kindness, decency, and acceptance to our fellow man should be lived every day. I don't mean to sound preachy or judgmental but Charles Dickens has a way of making the spirit of Christmas come alive in A Christmas Carol that often gets forgotten the other 364 days of the year. Truth be told, not only does it remind us of the holiday spirit it's a pretty darn great ghost story too😉😉.
Re-Read Review 2020:
The only thing I want to add to my previous reviews is that 2020 needs A Christmas Carol more than ever. We need to see the kindness all around more this year as there has been so much negativity, hatred, anger, and plain old fashioned heartbreak. No matter what form you read, listen, watch, take the lessons the Ghosts of Christmas teach Ebenezer Scrooge to heart. Charles Dickens may have had no idea what he was giving to the world or the impact it would have on humanity but for me the story never gets old and frankly I don't have to wait till Christmastime to enjoy it. A true classic delightful gem.
RATING: 
Stave One
Marley's Ghost
Marley's Ghost
Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon' Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, his sole mourner.
Scrooge never painted out Old Marley's name however. There it yet stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley He answered to both names. It was all the same to him.
Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, was Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!
Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, "My dear Scrooge, how are you? when will you come to see me?" No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his fife inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blindmen's dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, "no eye at all is better than an evil eye, darkmaster!"
But what did Scrooge care!
Once upon a time — of all the good days in the year, upon a Christmas Eve-old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, bitMg foggy weather and the city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already.
The door of Scrooge's countinghouse was open that he might keel) his eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal litde cell beyond — a sort of tank-was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire., but the clerk's fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn't replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed.
"A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation Scrooge had of his approach.
"Bah!" said Scrooge, "Humbug!"'
"Christmas a humbug, uncle! You don't mean that, I am sure."
"I do. Out upon merry Christmas. What's Christmas time to you buta time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a yearolder, and not an hour ri cher; a time for balanci ing your books and having every item in 'em through a round dozen of months presented deadagainst you? If I had my will, every idiot who goes about with 'MerryChristmas,' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, andburied with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!"
"Uncle!"
"Nephew! Keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it mine."
"Keep it! But you don't keep it."
"Let me leave it alone, then. Much good may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!"
"There are many things from which I might have derived good, bywhich I have not profited, I dare say, Christmas among the rest. But I amsure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round-apart from the veneration due to its sacred origin, if anything belong' ingto it can be apart from that — as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitab1e, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of theyear, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-uphearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really werefellow-travellcrs to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound onother Journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"
The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded.
"Let me hear another sound from you," said Scrooge, "and you'll keep your Christmas by losing your situation. You're quite a powerful speaker, sir," he added, turning to his nephew. "I wonder you don't go into Parliament."
"Don't be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us tomorrow."
Scrooge said that he would see him — yes, indeed he did. He went the whole length of the expression, and said that he would see him 'in that extremity first.
"But why?" cried Scrooge's nephew. "Why
"Why did you get married?"
"Because I fell in love."
"Because you fell in love!" growled Scrooge, as if that were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. "Good afternoon!"
"Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before that happened. Why give it as a reason for not coming now?"
"Good afternoon."
"I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be friends?"
"Good afternoon."
"I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas humour to the last. So A Merry Christmas, uncle!"
Release Date: November 5, 1970
Release Time: 113 minutes
Director: Ronald Neame
Cast:
Albert Finney as Ebenezer Scrooge
Alec Guinness as Jacob Marley
Edith Evans as the Ghost of Christmas Past
Kenneth More as the Ghost of Christmas Present
Paddy Stone as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
David Collings as Bob Cratchit
Frances Cuka as Mrs. Cratchit
Richard Beaumont as "Tiny Tim" Cratchit
Karen Scargill as Kathy Cratchit
Michael Medwin as Harry, Scrooge's nephew
Mary Peach as Harry's wife
Gordon Jackson as Tom
Anton Rodgers as Tom Jenkins
Laurence Naismith as Mr. Fezziwig
Kay Walsh as Mrs. Fezziwig
Suzanne Neve as Isabel Fezziwig
Derek Francis as a charity gentleman
Roy Kinnear as a charity gentleman
Geoffrey Bayldon as Pringle, the toyshop owner
Molly Weir as a woman debtor
Helena Gloag as a woman debtor
Reg Lever as Miller, the puppeteer
Keith Marsh as a well-wisher
Marianne Stone as a party guest
Awards:
43rd Academy Awards - April 15, 1971
Best Art Direction - Art Direction: Terence Marsh and Robert Cartwright; Set Decoration: Pamela Cornell - Nominated
Best Costume Design - Margaret Furse - Nominated
Best Original Song Score - Music and Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse; Adapted by Ian Fraser and Herbert W. Spencer - Nominated
Best Song – Original for the Picture - "Thank You Very Much" Music and Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse - Nominated
24th BAFTAs - March 4, 1971
Best Art Direction - Terence Marsh - Nominated
28th Golden Globes - February 5, 1971
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy - Nominated
Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy - Albert Finney - Won
Best Screenplay - Leslie Bricusse - Nominated
Best Original Score – Motion Picture - Leslie Bricusse - Nominated
Best Original Song – Motion Picture - "Thank You Very Much" Music and Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse - Nominated
Charles Dickens
One of the grand masters of Victorian literature, Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Landport, Portsea, England. He died in Kent on June 9, 1870. The second of eight children of a family continually plagued by debt, the young Dickens came to know not only hunger and privation,but also the horror of the infamous debtors' prison and the evils of child labor. A turn of fortune in the shape of a legacy brought release from the nightmare of prison and "slave" factories and afforded Dickens the opportunity of two years' formal schooling at Wellington House Academy. He worked as an attorney's clerk and newspaper reporter until his Sketches by Boz (1836) and The Pickwick Papers (1837) brought him the amazing and instant success that was to be his for the remainder of his life. In later years, the pressure of serial writing, editorial duties, lectures, and social commitments led to his separation from Catherine Hogarth after twenty-three years of marriage. It also hastened his death at the age of fifty-eight, when he was characteristically engaged in a multitude of work.
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