The Christmas Books (A Christmas Carol / The Chimes / The Cricket on the Hearth)

A Christmas Carol might be my favorite book. I read it almost every year. The Chimes was very strange and I will need to read it again in the future to really appreciate it. The Cricket on the Hearth, though a bit long winded was a lovely story. All three carry messages of humanity and how love and kindness and empathy should rule our emotions and actions. Reading these stories gives me hope for humanity.

2022: Even though we stopped celebrating Christmas two years ago, I'm still reading through this every Christmas week. Ha! It has a good message that should be applied every day.

This time through I focused on humor. Dickens is stinking hilarious. The entire exchange between Scrooge and Marley is super funny---especially considering how terrified and curmudgeonly Scrooge was at the time. The last stave is also super funny. Additionally, I loved these quotes:

"Marley's face...had a dismal light about it...like a bad lobster in a dark cellar." WHAT?!! Hahaha! Has anyone ever experienced a bad lobster in a dark cellar? Do lobsters give off dim light?

"Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had never believed it show more until now." (This page also contains the "shade" joke)

"'What has he done with his money?' asked a red-faced gentleman with a pendulous excrescence on the end of his nose, that shook like the gills of a turkey cock." WHY??? Hahaha! There is absolutely no reason for this very minor character to be described thus, other than to just make us laugh. I love it.

And finally, I loved this quote that just really gives off the attitude of "shove-itousness" that Dickens seems to often take:

"Some people laughed to see the alteration in him (Scrooge), but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter at the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms."

Love it. Timeless lessons to be learned. As a friend said to me this morning, "Merry Everyday Christ!"

2021: This year I thought, "Ah, I should talk a little about two specific parts that always stand out to me: the fireplace tiles and the quote about 'Standing in the spirit at your elbow'..." Welp. Guess this review is just a rerun of last year's. Ha! Love this story. This is the first year we've not celebrated Christmas. Am I now a Scrooge???

2020: I read through A Christmas Carol this last week---it was wonderful, as usual. This year I paid special attention to a few things that were endearing to me:

The fireplace tiles: I love how they illustrated different stories from the Bible. I bet it was beautiful and I'm curious where Dickens saw these or what gave him the idea to include them in his story.

"I am standing in the Spirit at your elbow." Every. single. time. I read that, I look to my right and imagine him there. I wonder how far into future history he imagined his stories would go. I thought about that today as I laid in my 21st century bed in a little village in the American South thinking about this man who wrote the story 170 years ago somewhere in England. Fascinating.

I loved thinking about how Scrooge didn't seem to ever care about how people viewed him, but at the end of the story, it's a good thing. "Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him."

It has that distinctive ring of not casting one's pearls before swine...good for you, Scrooge!

2018: Each time I've read this book, I've only read the first story, A Christmas Carol. After finishing it, for the fifth time, a few days ago, I thought I'd give The Chimes a try.

My Dad once told me (about 16 years ago) I couldn't live on love (in a conversation in which he was berating my husband for not going to college yet). He was SO wrong. Trotty Veck finds this out in this spooky New Year story and, like Scrooge, has a second chance to change his ways.

I found the story to be a little convoluted but I think it will grow on me over time. I'll see how I feel about it next year. show less

Christmas Books

Only A Christmas Carol is worth re- reading from this collection. 4/5

A Christmas Carol

As timeless a classic as ever at Christmas. The ultimate secular story about redemption.

The Chimes

This had some interesting things to say about class divisions in mid-19th century England, but delivered without the author's usual charm and warmth. This was very bleak until the last two pages. Worse than that, though, it was confusing. It also isn't a Christmas story, though it is a new year's eve one.

The Cricket on the Hearth

Couldn't get into this. Interesting portrayal of a blind character, but overall too dull and I gave up on it.

I just read a Christmas Carol (not the other stories) for a book club. I haven't read it before, although the basic plot was (inevitably) familiar. It is short and moralistic, but more complex than I had expected. I liked the criticism of the church for its attempts to prevent the poor using the bakeries' warm ovens on a Sunday and the reasons given by Scrooge's fiancee for breaking off their engagement. As the introduction to this edition makes clear, the story is about more than Scrooge being a miser, it is about life being about people and charity and happiness coming only through that.

Due to my Dickens phobia, it took me until Christmas Eve, 2010, at the ripe old age of 34, to pick up my mother's copy of A Christmas Carol. How foolish I feel now to have waited for so long.

Reviewing and Old Christmas Classic could almost be deemed unnecessary. You'd have to live in a cave not to be exposed to the many television and movie adaptations of this beloved Dickens story. How many cranky Christmas grumps have you deemed a "Scrooge!"? How many times upon telling someone to have a Merry Christmas have you heard "Bah! Humbug!"? This is how important the story is to us.

To read this story, finally, after waiting so many years has been the biggest treat. The story has a message that transcends the ages. Love your neighbor, and in show more turn you shall be loved. If your neighbor is in want, and you have the means, give all you can and you will be blessed. It's not merely how Christmas is meant to be, but humanity on the whole. Dickens sends a message to the reader that the world is a horrible place if you don't have friends. Beware of "Ignorance" and "Want." Have patience and kindness for your neighbor. See other people as individuals, and not just the Surplus Population. Learn that charity and empathy are the keys to salvation.

My only regret is not reading this sooner. You can watch all of the movies you want, but reading the story is an entirely different experience. show less

I've ready read A Christmas Carol. THe other two:

The Chimes
Started: 28 November 2011
Finished: 8 December 2011

This really baffled me. Why is Trotty Veck the one the Bells give the Scrooge treatment to? Even the scholarly info gives a pretty wimpy reason. Apparently it is for dying from an accident. Just weird.

The Cricket on the Hearth
Started: 8 December 2011
Finished: 12 December 2011

Less truly weird than The Chimes but not any more Christmas-y. I can see why A Christmas Carol is the most famous. It started with something of heart warming charm, took a few very bizarre turns into dark and spooky, but finally ended happily. Well, except poor Bertha, who learns 'truth' that makes her unhappy and also has no one to dance with.

Ebenezer Scrooge is a selfish, unhappy old miser who makes his way through valuing every aspect of his life to the measure of gold taken. But one Christmas Eve, he is visited by four ghosts who intend on showing Scrooge where he came from, where he is, and where he very may well be going.

[Spoilers? Seriously though, if you don't know the premise of this story, that must be some rock you have as a roof.]

This is the second piece of Dickens that I have read, the first being A Tale of Two Cities in tenth grade or something like that. And, while I cannot remember any specifics as to why, I must say that I remember thoroughly enjoying the story as well as the style in which it was written. Inasmuch, when I got it in my head to finally read show more this annually observed story [the basis for one of my favorite Christmas movies, possibly now two], I did not expect to suffer through it. And I did not. I found Dickens to actually be an easy read, if somewhat dry at times. His style, though dated, I am sure, is attractive and flowing. His descriptions bring the mind into the place at hand and set the mood, while the characters form and move about as per their flaws and and histories. I will need to, perhaps, read something somewhat lengthier by him before sending up a resounding cheer for his canon, but for now, at least, I am eager to bread more. Let us just see how long it takes me to get there.

Now, beyond that, there is not a lot of brain power I can put into this review, because it is like preaching to the choir--everybody who watches TV has seen this basic plot: unpleasant man, four ghosts, redemption. It has been through several basic interpretations to film by different movie studios, TV channels, and even once by the Muppets. And television shows? It seems fairly mandatory for most cartoons, at least, to have a Christmas Carol episode, including but not limited to Animaniacs. It is just one of those basic plots that has been adopted by the visual media industry. Most recently created is Jim Carrey's rendition.

Now, some may say, 'Wait a minnit. Wasn't it billed as 'Disney's?' On a technical level, yes. It was Disney's. But like with Shakespeare plays, since the story has been around for so long, you end up remembering it by performance of specific characters, such as Hamlet. [The plays that are remembered by the companies are generally ones with more than one main character, such as Midsummer Night's Dream or Much Ado About Nothing.] And it will be the Scrooge of a film that will make or break it [unless there is something so horribly horribly wrong that you cannot even pay attention to Scrooge. Like what, I don't know.] Inasmuch, I am going to tell you about Scrooges.

Thus far, my favorite Scrooge is, in fact, Michael Caine. He played Scrooge in the 1992 muppet adaptation. I worry that some people believe I chose this as my favorite because of the muppets and not Caine, but it is him. Though they chose to make it a children's film and thereby skipped over certain scenes--ingnorance and want, for instance, and the deathbed--as well as filling it with the oddly shaped and voiced characters of the muppets, including but not limited to Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Rizzo and some singing fruit, Caine played Scrooge straight. He was angry, he was hateful, he was saved. I heartily believe you could put his performance in a normal production and be more than happy with it.

I have few qualms with Patrick Stewart's 1999 performance, and the rest of the cast was superb, but he did not, I feel, resonate with Scrooge. For me, this is saying something because Patrick Stewart is one of my all-time favorites. Brilliant, British and disgustingly skilled, he is just awesome. It was just that, in that rich, melodic voice of his, I did not hear Scrooge. In my mind, Scrooge is scratchy and tends to talk in a raspy voice because he cannot be bothered to use a proper one. And Stewart's face is just so blasted noble, his manner to dignified. He played it well, as well as perhaps he could, but he seems more destined to play leaders who don't skip when they are saved. It is a brilliant rendition, but just barely off.

And I will finish on the 2009 Jim Carrey Scrooge. I did not like it. It bothered me that he was the only one without an accent. It bothered me that he was also the ghosts of past and present. It bothered me that they injected so much of his brand of humour throughout a story that is supposed to be steady and quite scary at times. Again, I think it was his voice that put me off. Admittedly, it may be because it is quite recognizable. And, with this film, to be honest, there were little things all throughout that bothered me, so I am unable to say anything beyond I truly did not care for his performance. The other characters, however, such as Oldman as Crachit and Firth as Fred, were spot on.

the end, I love Caine. I like Stewart. I am irked by Carrey. And, if I were to assemble a new cast for a new rendition, I would actually like to see Oldman play Scrooge. Fred, I support Carey Elwes. Ghost of Christmas Present, I think I would like to see Neeson. Past maybe Julie Andrews. As for Crachit, I am not sure. I'll have to think on it. These are not hard-and-fast favorites. These are more just ponderies. I think it could be good.

And never please, give your Ghost of Christmas Future eyes. Just doesn't work. show less