A Christmas Carol (Great Stories)

Enjoyable moral fable about how you should be a good person. This book was a little hard to read because I have seen it in play form over and over again (we went once a year for at least four years when I was a teenager) and I am currently in a play of it myself. It was nice to finally be able to compare notes to the films and plays I've seen (some of them have got it surprisingly close and correct), and to finally find the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come as not quite as frightening as in those versions. However, this was BY FAR not the best Dickens novel I've read. I prefer the ones where the first 400 pages are all introduction to situations and characters and then the next 400 are the actual plot. When you get so many pages of character development, you naturally get closer to them, I feel. If you have the patience.

For a Dickens newbie, this is the perfect read. It's a simple story, it's awfully short, and it still has some of the wonderful Dickensian style that makes reading his other, longer novels such a joy. And don't forget that classic wit. Oh, I laughed out loud at several parts of the book, chortling to myself while others stared awkwardly. The best book enables that. Yes, for someone looking to start reading Dickens who hasn't the mental stamina for some of his chewier, denser, longer works, this is a good pick. But then, please read some of the better ones. My favorite is Our Mutual Friend. After you've read three or four, try that one.