A Christmas Carol
Merry Christmas, everyone!
“Bah!” said Scrooge. “Humbug!”
With those famous words unfolds a tale that renews the joy and caring that are Christmas. Whether we read it aloud with our family and friends or open the pages on a chill winter evening to savor the story in solitude, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is a very special holiday experience.
It is the one book that every year will warm our hearts with favorite memories of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future—and will remind us with laughter and tears that the true Christmas spirit comes from giving with love.
With a heartwarming account of Dickens’ first reading of the Carol, and a biographical sketch.
BUY THE BOOK
Join a book club that is reading A Christmas Carol!
Community Reviews
One of the best-loved and most quoted stories of “the man who invented Christmas”—English writer Charles Dickens—A Christmas Carol debuted in 1843 and has touched millions of hearts since.
Cruel miser Ebeneezer Scrooge has never met a shilling he doesn’t like...and hardly a man he does. And he hates Christmas most of all. When Scrooge is visited by his old partner, Jacob Marley, and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come, he learns eternal lessons of charity, kindness, and goodwill.
Listened to as part of Craftlit podcast. This was actually 2010's Christmas book, but I've only got around to listening to it in full now. The book has pervaded so much of our definition of Christmas that it's actually good to go back to the original text and find out what was covered.
Heather, as an English Lit teacher, gives an excellent commentary over the various chapters and manages to give a little context around Dickens, how his upbringing could well have affected the writing of the book - eg Scrooge's attitude towards the poorhouse for instance, and why the Ghost throws it back in his face.
The Narrator (from Librivox I believe) was excellent and well suited to the story
Cruel miser Ebeneezer Scrooge has never met a shilling he doesn’t like...and hardly a man he does. And he hates Christmas most of all. When Scrooge is visited by his old partner, Jacob Marley, and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come, he learns eternal lessons of charity, kindness, and goodwill.
Listened to as part of Craftlit podcast. This was actually 2010's Christmas book, but I've only got around to listening to it in full now. The book has pervaded so much of our definition of Christmas that it's actually good to go back to the original text and find out what was covered.
Heather, as an English Lit teacher, gives an excellent commentary over the various chapters and manages to give a little context around Dickens, how his upbringing could well have affected the writing of the book - eg Scrooge's attitude towards the poorhouse for instance, and why the Ghost throws it back in his face.
The Narrator (from Librivox I believe) was excellent and well suited to the story
Absolutely terrible if you are adult. It's banal and predictable with stuff you have seen a million times before. And the English feels so dated I had a hard time understanding everything. A comic book version would solve much of this. There is really no reason to read the book. If you do you'll understand the overview yet not the details. And only because we all know the story already.
I don't see how one should pick this over any visual version or even a version with modern English? It's just not good enough for me to work this hard. But frankly it's probably not ideal for adults.
I don't see how one should pick this over any visual version or even a version with modern English? It's just not good enough for me to work this hard. But frankly it's probably not ideal for adults.