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PREFACE
A Christmas Carol is a novella written by Charles Dickens. First published on December 17, 1843, the book was an instant success. Thousands of copies were sold within weeks. Originally written as a potboiler to enable Dickens to pay off a debt, this story has become one of the most popular and enduring Christmas stories of all time. In fact, some historians have suggested that the very popularity of this story played a critical role in redefining the modern importance of Christmas and the major sentiments associated with the holiday. The story is a Victorian morality tale of an old and bitter miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, who undergoes a profound experience of redemption. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley. Marley, who in life was as miserly as Scrooge, is condemned to an eternity of carrying a heavy chain which he forged in life, and being unable to interfere for the good of mankind, which he would never have thought to do in life. The reason for Marley's visit is to give Scrooge a chance to avoid Marley's fate. Scrooge is sceptical of what he has seen and heard, but during the course of the night, he is visited by the spirits of "Christmas Past", "Christmas Present" and "Christmas Yet to Come". The ghosts show Scrooge scenes from his life (past, present and future) that open his eyes and make him realise that he desperately needs love and forgiveness from his fellow men. In the end, Scrooge changes his life and reverts to the generous, kind-hearted soul he was in his youth, before the death of his sister, the only person in his youth who seemed to care for him. Tiny Tim is the lame youngest child of Bob Cratchit, Scrooge's poor and ill-treated clerk. Scrooge's spirit-provided visions show him the meagre Christmas celebrations of the Cratchit family, the sweet nature of Tiny Tim, and a possible early death for the child; this prospect is the immediate catalyst for his change of heart. The story deals extensively with two of Dickens' recurrent themes, social injustice and poverty, the relationship between the two, and their causes and effects. It was written to be abrupt and forceful with its message, with a working title of "The Sledgehammer." The first edition of A Christmas Carol was illustrated by John Leech a politically radical artist who in the cartoon Substance and Shadow printed earlier in 1843, had explicitly criticised artists who failed to address social issues. A Christmas Carol has been adapted to theatre, film, radio, and television numerous times. According to the Internet Movie Database, various movie adaptations of the story were filmed as early as 1910. Perhaps the most popular and critically-acclaimed film adaptation of the story was made in Great Britain in 1951. Originally titled Scrooge (and renamed A Christmas Carol for its American release), it starred Alastair Sim as Scrooge, and was directed by Brian Desmond-Hurst with a screenplay by Noel Langley. Other noteworthy adaptations of the story include:
Charles Dickens was a well known personality and his novels were immensely popular during his lifetime. His first full novel The Pickwick Papers brought him immediate fame and this fame continued right through his career. He maintained a high quality in all his writings and although never departing greatly from his typical "Dickensian" style he did experiment with different themes, moods and genres. Some of these experiments were more successful than others and the public's taste and appreciation of his various works have varied over time. He was usually keen to give his readers what they wanted and the monthly or weekly publication of his works in episodes meant that the books could change as the story proceeded at the whim of the public. A good example of this are the American episodes in Martin Chuzzlewit which were put in by Dickens in response to lower than normal sales of the earlier chapters. In Our Mutual Friend the inclusion of the character of Riah was a positive portrayal of a Jewish character after he was criticised for the depiction of Fagin in Oliver Twist. His popularity has waned little since his death and he is still one of the best known and most read of English authors. At least 180 movies and TV adaptations based on Dickens' works help confirm his success. Many of his works were adapted for the stage during his own lifetime and as early as 1913 a silent film of The Pickwick Papers was made. His characters were often so memorable that they took on a life of their own outside his books. Gamp became a slang expression for an umbrella from the character Mrs Gamp and Pickwickian, Pecksniffian and Gradgrind all entered the dictionary owing to Dickens' perfect portrayal of these kind of people. Sam Weller was an early superstar perhaps better known than his author at first. It is likely that A Christmas Carol is his best-known story, with new adaptations almost every year. It is also the most-filmed of Dickens' stories, most versions dating from the early years of cinema. This simple morality tale with humour and pathos, for many, sums up the true meaning of Christmas and eclipses all his other Christmas stories. Major novels
Selected other books
Short stories
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