A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings (Penguin Classics)

A Christmas without Charles Dickens and “A Christmas Carol” seems unthinkable, and therefore it’s appropriate that this Penguin Books edition of “A Christmas Carol” is introduced with the famous anecdote of a child in London responding to the news of Dickens’s 1870 passing by crying out, “Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?” The great British novelist’s influence on how people around the world think about the Christmas holiday has been that comprehensive, and remains just as strong today as it was when “A Christmas Carol” was first published in 1842.

As Michael Slater of the University of London points out in a perceptive foreword, Dickens associated his writings about Christmas with the importance of memory, including the remembrance of loss; additionally, Dickens achieved the neat trick of linking the holiday with Christian ideals of charity while avoiding any overt expressions of religious ideology that could be mistaken for sectarianism. That recipe for tempered holiday cheer has been charming readers for over 170 years now.

What makes this edition of “A Christmas Carol” a particularly good present for any thoughtful reader, and God bless us every one, is the way in which this edition situates “A Christmas Carol” within the larger context of Dickens’s writings about Christmas generally. The presence of these other writings reminds one that “A Christmas Carol” was neither the first nor the last time that Charles Dickens wrote about the Christmas holiday.

This Christmas collection proceeds chronologically, and begins with a brief 1835 newspaper sketch titled “Christmas Festivities.” The sketch is relatively general in nature, but looks ahead to “A Christmas Carol” in Dickens’s assertion that “That man must be a misanthrope indeed in whose breast something like a jovial feeling is not roused – in whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakened – by the recurrence of Christmas” (p. 1) – a descriptor that could remind many readers of one Ebenezer Scrooge. The story that follows, “The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton,” is one that you may already have if you are a Dickens fan who owns a copy of Dickens’s first novel, “The Pickwick Papers” (1837), in which the story appears as Chapter 28. In its depiction of a mean-spirited sexton named Gabriel Grub (good Dickensian name, that) whose abduction by goblins late one Christmas Eve results in dramatic changes to his life and character, one sees a foreshadowing of the basic plotline of “A Christmas Carol.” This first of Dickens’s ghost stories of Christmas is followed by what is described as “A Christmas Episode from Master Humphrey’s Clock,” the 1840-41 periodical for which Dickens was author and sole contributor. This concise episode looks ahead to “A Christmas Carol” in the way it depicts its narrator observing a lone diner in a tavern at Christmas, befriending him, and helping him to move forward from the paralysis of grief with which “His mind was wandering among old Christmas Days” (p. 22).

And then there is “A Christmas Carol” itself. I have read it a number of times before, but a number of facets of the story stood out to me this time. First is the story’s brevity – 85 pages, in this edition. No wonder some of the “stand-alone” printings of “A Christmas Carol” have had to resort to expedients such as large type fonts and wide margins in order to extend the story to something seeming more like modern book length. The story’s brevity has no doubt also contributed to the manner in which generations of filmmakers have been drawn to it; the Internet Movie Database lists over 200 “Christmas Carol” movies and TV episodes, including versions that feature the Muppets, Mr. Magoo, Mickey Mouse, the Smurfs, Barbie, the Flintstones, Dora the Explorer, Bugs Bunny, and the Jetsons, not to mention episodes of “The Love Boat,” “Family Ties,” and “The Six Million Dollar Man.” Indeed, it’s amazing that “A Christmas Carol” has survived all that so-often-uninspired adaptation.

It survives because it’s a great story, one that draws its characters quickly and economically. On my first reading of “A Christmas Carol,” many years ago, I was not over-optimistic at the story’s beginning, particularly when the narrator requires the whole first paragraph to inform the reader that Jacob Marley is dead, and the entire second paragraph to expatiate on the possible reasons for the existence of the phrase “dead as a doornail.” But from that point forward, the story moves forward like Yuletide gangbusters.

I found Scrooge to be more human and more believable than the cartoonish caricature of many of the adaptations. One mistake that many of the movies make is to depict Scrooge, in the evening before his hauntings begin, as making his dinner from gruel. In fact, however, Scrooge has already taken “his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern” (p. 41), and is eating the gruel only because he “had a cold in his head” (p. 43). How many busy businesspeople today, here in this Christmas season of 2013-14, took a melancholy dinner in a melancholy tavern tonight – Applebee’s, maybe, or Ruby Tuesday – and followed it up with their own favorite head-cold remedy, purchased perhaps at CVS or Walgreens? Perhaps there is more of Scrooge in all of us than many of us would care to admit.

Dickens scholar Slater’s notes for the story are also helpful. I learned, for example, that when Dickens uses the phrase “the wisdom of our ancestors” early in the story, he is poking fun at Tory phraseology and policies of his time. Similarly, in the famous scene when the Ghost of Christmas Present opens his green robe to reveal two hideous children, a boy named Ignorance and a girl named Want, Dickens is looking squarely at England’s endless delays in establishing a system for public education. At the same time, in looking at all these subtle features of the story, I do not want to neglect Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come – all those features that have helped “A Christmas Carol” to live for generations of readers. It is a great story, pure and simple.

The subsequent Christmas stories and tales in this volume show that Dickens continued to return to the Christmas holiday as a subject, if not always with the same degree of success that he achieved in “A Christmas Carol.” The novella “The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain” (1848) engages an interesting philosophical concept – that it is our memories of sorrow and loss that make us capable of compassion – but it is neither as concise nor as successful as “A Christmas Carol.” There is much that is interesting in the story’s account of the chemist Redlaw, who willingly accepts a phantom’s offer to relieve him of his sad memories, only to find that he has lost all that is good in his humanity, and that his malady of emotional death spreads to everyone he encounters – but it’s slow-paced and generally grim, like much of “Dombey and Son” (1848), the novel that Dickens was working on at the same time.

“A Christmas Tree” (1850) is a delightful essay in which Dickens evokes powerfully the way in which the ordinary toys and decorations of Christmastime can be strongly evocative of multiple layers of memory. “What Christmas Is, as We Grow Older” (1851) is a somewhat somber examination of how the meaning of the Christmas holiday changes, in some ways, and remains consistent in others, as people we love go before us and leave us to observe Christmas without them. And “The Seven Poor Travellers” (1854) provides a striking look at a Christmastime visit to a hostel in Dickens’s hometown of Rochester in Kent; founded by the bequest of a 16th-century nobleman, the hostel provides one night’s lodging to six poor travelers. Dickens makes himself a seventh of these poor travelers, and arranges a Christmas evening’s entertainment for them.

“A Christmas Carol” is the centerpiece of these Dickensian Christmas tales, as it should be; but this very fine volume shows where “A Christmas Carol” came from, and where it fits within Charles Dickens’s literary treatments of the holiday that would forever after be identified with him. Writing this review on the eighth day of Christmas ("eight maids-a-milking"), I encourage you to make this edition of "A Christmas Carol" a part of your future holiday celebrations.

To be honest this is the first time I have actually read Christmas Carol. I loved it. The short stories are fun to read also. Will reread each Christmas season. Dickens is wonderful to read. Love how he builds on his characters.

I love Dickens and was pleased with this choice of my book club for their December session. No one can draw me into a scene like Dickens. No one can write entertaining characters combining realism and caricature like Dickens.
On a serious note, it's refreshing to find a well versed moral advocacy for the poor that doesn't subscribe to big government socialism and especially not to egalitarianism. He never uses morality as a pretense to override political economics. He mentions the Poor Law and contemporary Malthusian theory with a line about surplus population. Three years later the Corn Laws were repealed so he had some political effect without subscribing to the Chartists, Luddites, Unionists or other popular movements of his day. While some of his later work involved social critique, I don't think he ever gave an opinion on population control or on the economics of contemporaries Ricardo and Bentham.
While a modern writer would probably characterize Scrooge as a member of the 1%, Dickens never implies that he has too much money. He knows that a reformed Scrooge is a better medium to redistribute wealth than is big government. He never confuses charity with universal good (Social Security) or Nanny State social control as do so many of today's pseudo economic moralists.

This one of my Christmas traditions reading A Christmas Carol by Chales Dickens. The vivid nature of the great work has been a part of even my vocabulary if imagery. One of the most sticking images is as the Ghost of Christmas Present is about to depart and the two children of Man are revealed and Dickens warns against the nature of Ignorance and its danger. A message still relavant today.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) has been called the man who invented Christmas! In 1843 he published A Christmas Carol. In that short novella we witness the transformation of the irascible curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge into a benevolent kind employer and neighbor. In four staves Scrooge is conducted by Ghosts to Christmas Past, Present and Future. Scrooge learns what will be the fate of the crippled Tiny Tim (son of Bob Cratchitt and his wife) unless he has the money for medical treatment. Scrooge redeems himself in five staves and the tale ends with joy and the celebration of Christ's birth.
Dickens wrote many Christmas stories throughout his peerless career. A few of the other Christmas tales he wrote are included in this compilation including The Haunted Man, A Christmas Tree, What Christmas Is As We Grow Older; The Story of The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton; A Christmas Episode from Master Humphrey's Clock: The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain and The Seven Poor Travellers. The Penguin Edition has extensive footnotes, includes the original illustrations and appendixes on The Arabian Nights which greatly influenced Dickens writing; prefaces to Dickens Christmas books and his descriptive headlines for the collected edition of the Christmas books. An inexpensive and valuable edition published in the priceless Penguin classics series.

Many people have seen some version of this story on TV and loved it, but I imagine very few of those same people have actually read the book that it is based on. If you have enjoyed a movie or made-for-TV series based on this novel, or you are just looking for fantastic 18th century literature with a Christmas bent, then you must read this novel. It is a true classic for a reason.

It’s hard to find classics that aren’t mass produced, this penguin published book is good!

This collection of Christmas writings by Charles Dickens contains (of course) “A Christmas Carol” and 7 other stories/essays. Although I was not fond of moments in the collection, overall the animating spirit of Christmas, Christ, and human decency that permeates them all won me over in the end.
I start with “A Christmas Carol”, a piece that I love even more every time I return to it. It has become such a mainstay in how we perceive the spirit of Christmas. Its power is obvious in how permanently and potently it has permeated our collective culture.
A moment that I absolutely love is the speech that Scrooge’s nephew gives on what Christmas really means. It is rousing and beautiful. And true.
Some quotes that jumped out-
• “It’s enough for a man to understand his own business and not interfere with other people’s.”
• “I wear the chain I forged in life.”
• “If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.”
• “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
• “…they were not forty children conducting themselves like one, but every child was conducting itself like forty.”
• “Now, being prepared for almost anything, he was not by any means prepared for nothing…”
• “He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas day who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.”
• “But, they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another, and contented with the time…”
• “…hear me. I am not the man I was!”
• “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”
• “Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make amends in.”
“A Christmas Carol” ends with a final chapter that is as joyful a reading as can be found in imaginative literature.
I love this text!
#1
The essay “Christmas Festivities” is a lovely little piece about family holiday gatherings.
Quotes:
• “Reflect upon your present blessings.”
• “A Christmas family party! We know nothing in nature more delightful.”
#2
“The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton” is an okay story about a gravedigger who is visited by goblins on Christmas Eve. In all honesty I don’t remember much about it.
Quotes:
• “But he was an altered man, and he could not bear the thought of returning to a place where his repentance would be scoffed at, and his reformation disbelieved.”
#3
“A Christmas Episode from Master Humphrey’s Clock” is a nice short story about two lonely people who meet on Christmas Day and become dear friends. I found it to be such a positive spin on the loneliness some folks endure during the holidays.
Quotes:
• “Solitary men are accustomed, I suppose, unconsciously to look upon solitude as their own peculiar property.”
• “Meantime we have gone on strengthening in our friendship and regard, and forming an attachment which, I trust and believe, will only be interrupted by death, to be renewed in another existence.”
#4
“The Haunted Man”
This novella has a powerful theme. Unfortunately it is incased in a work who execution from time to time I did not care for at all. This was the only piece in the collection that I wanted over and yet it kept going. It is the longest piece in the collection.
But then, there would pop up a moment like this that would make the slog worth it. Consider this moment-
“ ‘May I tell you why it seems to me a good thing for us, to remember wrong that has been done to us?’ ‘Yes.’
‘That we may forgive it.’ ”
Hard to hate a work that emphasizes that theme.
Quotes:
• “If I could forget my sorrow and wrong, I would.”
• “Think of your own remarkable mother boys…and know her value while she is still among you.”
• “Health will be more precious to you, after this illness, than it has ever been.”
• “There is hope for all who are softened and penitent.”
• “I thought there was no air about you; but there is and it’s the air of home, and that’s the purest and the best there is, and GOD bless home once more.”
#5
“A Christmas Tree”
The oddest piece in the collection. Dickens starts it out as a remembrance of childhood toys, brought on by his staring at a Christmas tree. It then transitions into an examination of ghosts. I was a bit lost for a moment, but then he brings the two elements together in an interesting conclusion.
Quotes:
• “I began to consider, what do we all remember best upon the branches of the Christmas Tree of our own young Christmas days, by which we climbed to real life.”
• “And I do come home at Christmas. We all do, or we all should.”
• “Ghosts have little originality, and ‘walk’ in a beaten track.”
#6
“What Christmas is as We Grow Older”
A sentimental and melancholy essay that focuses on the memory of those we loved and have lost. It examines how the season brings them back to our hearts and minds.
#7
“The Seven Poor Travelers”
A quick and simple conclusion to this text.
Quotes:
• "...that Christmas comes but once a year,—which is unhappily too true, for when it begins to stay with us the whole year round we shall make this earth a very different place.”
• “Our whole life, Travellers,” said I, “is a story more or less intelligible,—¬generally less; but we shall read it by a clearer light when it is ended.”

All in all, a good collection to read for the season. It will warm the heart, make the mind appreciative, and remind us to be thankful. I can’t complain about that at all.
Thanks, Mr. Dickens for not letting the negative spirits of this world keep you from celebrating the good in mankind!

Ordered for my 4th grader. He seems to like it. 👍🏻

This is a good paperback edition with some nice editorial additions, and interesting historical footnotes/references, etc.