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JenniferRobb: Both have male protagonists who experience visions of the past and of the future and whose visions cause a behavioral change. Dickens's work is about Christmas while Kingsbury's is not.
JenniferRobb: Both books look at three different periods in the main characters life. In Dickens it is past, present, and future. In Blount, it is childhood, adulthood, and old age.
Anonymous user: The Greatest Gift is the book that was turned into It's a Wonderful Life, probably the second best Christmas story after A Christmas Carol!
This is my second time reading this, and I read it with r/ClassicBookClub. While I did not write a review/my thoughts the first time, I think I liked it more this time. I'm more and more like both Scrooge ("what is there to be happy about?") and Bob Crachit (underpaid and early to work the morning after Christmas). It felt weird reading this and then spending Christmas basically alone because of COVID, though I did text a Merry Christmas to a couple of friends, which I wouldn't normally bother to do, in honor of the book's message.
This is one of those books that everyone knows the story so well that it's always going to be a little boring since we know the outcome, but there is good humor in the first chapter especially, a spirit who spits Scrooge's words back at him, and and well-written story in general. ( )
One of the best-loved and most quoted stories of “the man who invented Christmas”—English writer Charles Dickens—A Christmas Carol debuted in 1843 and has touched millions of hearts since.
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.
Listened to as part of Craftlit podcast. This was actually 2010's Christmas book, but I've only got around to listening to it in full now. The book has pervaded so much of our definition of Christmas that it's actually good to go back to the original text and find out what was covered.
Heather, as an English Lit teacher, gives an excellent commentary over the various chapters and manages to give a little context around Dickens, how his upbringing could well have affected the writing of the book - eg Scrooge's attitude towards the poorhouse for instance, and why the Ghost throws it back in his face.
The Narrator (from Librivox I believe) was excellent and well suited to the story ( )
Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge’s name was good upon ’Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Para começar, quero ganatir que Marley estava morto. Sobre isso não havia a menor dúvida.
Quotations
"God bless us, every one!" said Tiny Tim, the last of all.
"Bah!" said Scrooge. "Humbug!"
Marley was dead: to begin with.
If you should happen, by any unlikely chance, to know a man more blest in a laugh than Scrooge's nephew, all I can say is I should like to know him too.
[This is when Scrooge is about to meet the Ghost of Christmas Past. The clock has struck 12 and he's wondering if it's noon or midnight, even though it's dark. He's not hearing people rushing around outside, though. Because the story was first published in 1843, this snark must be about the US depression of 1837-1844.]
... This was a great relief, because 'three days after sight of this First of Exchange pay to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge or his order,' and so forth, would have become a mere United States security if there were no days to count by.
[Scrooge is waiting for the Ghost of Christmas Present to show up in his bedroom, which is filled with a ruddy light.]
... and which, being only light, was more alarming than a dozen ghosts, as he was powerless to make out what it meant, or would be at; and was sometimes apprehensive that he might be at that very moment an interesting case of spontaneous combustion, without having the consolation of knowing it.
[This was about bakers leaving their ovens available, for a small fee, for poor people to cook their dinners on Sundays and others wanting those ovens cold on the Sabbath. Scrooge wanted to know why the Ghost of Christmas Present would want to have those ovens closed on Sundays and deprive poor persons of a chance for their one real meal a week.]
'I seek!' exclaimed the Spirit.
'Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your name, or at least in that of your family,' said Scrooge.
'There are some upon this earth of yours,' returned the Spirit, 'who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.'
Last words
He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and 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! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!
Scrooge não voltou a encontrar os espíritos, embora tenha se tornado o homem que melhor sabia festejat o Natal. Oxalá isso aconteça com todos nós! E, como dizia o pequeno Tim, que Deus nos abençoe a todos!
This work contains various editions of the unabridged book "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. Please do not combine it with adaptations or abridgments, or with collections that contain additional works.
I am assuming (without any evidence!) that the Puffin children's edition is an adaptation: if you know that it is NOT, please combine with the main work, otherwise leave it be.
Specially edited for reading aloud before an audience.
ISBN 1568461828 is not a DK Eyewitness Classics edition.
ISBN 1580495796 is "Unabridged with glossary and reader's notes." "This Prestwick House edition, is an unabridged republication of A Christmas Carol, published by George Routledge and Sons, London."
Filled with description, Charles Dickens writes about the struggles of a poor family and the despicable Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge is a ruthless man who only cares about himself and money. Scrooge's entire character is changed on the night of Christmas Eve when is is visited by three ghosts as he relives parts of his past and his future in order to see what has and would become of him if he does not make a dramatic change in his life. I absolutely love this story and all that it entails. It is somewhat towards the bottom of my list though because some of the description can become a bit daunting as you read this novel.
Renowned actor Tim Curry’s voice is warm, deep, and arch to the point of campiness. Curry is an actor’s actor. His voice is so distinctive as to be unmistakable. Fans of this Dickens classic will enjoy hearing Curry manifest the coterie of pithy characters that inhabit this novel, ranging from small boy to old man to dire ghost. Curry’s knowing tone suits this fable well. His dramatic but nuanced performance highlights the emotions of loss, fear, hope, and joy that inform this text. Curry takes delight in the macabre aspects of this gothic tale. His irreverent take on this famous novel heightens the drama even for listeners who know the story inside and out.
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Book covers - A Christmas Carol
Wikipedia in English (6)
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