About Books Blog 53: A Christmas Carol

Author: Charles Dickens 
Genre: Classic

 Favorite Line

 “...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!” 

Summary (from Goodreads)

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.

My Thoughts

To tell you the truth I wasn’t sure if I would like A Christmas Carol. In the past I’ve had some trouble reading works by Charles Dickens. I think that he created excellent plots, but his writing sometimes borders on rhetoric for me. In previous attempts at reading his books I had never actually finished a single one. However, I wasn’t ready to give up on reading Dickens yet so I decided to take a crack at A Christmas Carol.

 I was assured by others that I would like it and I did. How could you not like a short heart warming tale with a great message? I enjoyed the little details that were added in to show Scrooge's transformation as a character. The fact that it’s a novella eliminated the potential for Charles Dickens to get overly wordy, and allowed me to see that he was quite an amusing writer. I can’t tell you how many surprisingly humorous moments I discovered in the book. I’m so glad to gave the book a chance. I definitely liked A Christmas Carol and will certainly read it again.

Interesting Facts

 Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 1843. Following it he capitalized on it’s success by publishing similar Christmas tales annually between 1844 and 1848.

During the time of the books release and many years following the book was said to cause a rise in charitable giving.

The Movie

It wasn’t until I completed the book that I realized the only adaptation of this classic I have actually watched is The Muppet Christmas Carol. A movie which to me is awesomeness upon awesomeness. Surprisingly it doesn’t stray too far from the book in terms of plot despite the Muppet comedy. My mom, dad, and I watch it almost every year at this time. My dad and I can pretty much quote it verbatim. If you haven’t seen it go and get it now. I’m a little surprised that I haven’t seen more movies since there are so many of them. I will have to watch at least one version that I haven't seen this year. 

Music To Read By 

I usually read this when I was out to lunch or dinner. So what ever the restaurant was playing over their sound system I listened to while reading this book. It's a shame I read it before Thanksgiving. I could have been listening to Christmas music while sitting in those restaurants. When I think of music for this book all I can think of is instrumental Christmas music by The O’Neill Brothers. They have several Christmas albums and I use them quite a bit for Christmas dances. I also think they are a perfect soundtrack for this book. Below is a playlist of songs from some of their Christmas songs.

 

 As Tiny Tim said "God bless us every one". Have A Merry Christmas!