Every Christmas I treat myself to some form of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Sometimes I listen to a recording, sometimes I watch a movie or play, sometimes, like this year, I read the book. Oftentimes I do more than one. It's a compulsion every December for me to fellowship with the Cratchitts, nephew Fred, the ghost of Jacob Marley, and even ol' Ebenezer Scrooge himself. I have nothing original add to the volumes that have already been written about A Christmas Carol, so I won't try. I will, however, recommend a book I read two or three years ago called The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits by Les Standiford. Though it is the story of how Dickens came to write his best-known novel, it is much more. The book is part biography, part literary analysis, and part social history. It was an easy, fun read that filled in the backstory to one of my favorite holiday tales and authors.
The Christmas Carol is absolutely one of my favorite books of all time. I also love reading it each year, and I try to make time to watch it as well. I think I had better go find my book right now and settle in for a good story yet once again.
ReplyDeleteI had seen at least a dozen movie versions of the book before I ever read it. What a surprise to find the book so humorous (when most of the movies are so dark because of the ghosts). What a lovely tradition to re-visit it in some form every year.
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