Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a Christmas classic, and almost everyone knows the story. It is a tale of kindness, charity, and change; for almost 200 years this book has helped define the Christmas season as one of joy and generosity. And while its somewhat archaic prose may be confusing at times, it also reaches a height of beauty that few modern books rival.
Table of Contents
Plot
“Marley was dead: to begin with.” As the book opens, this fact is vital to understanding the events that follow. For though Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s old business partner, was “dead as a doornail,” Scrooge saw his ghostly face on that Christmas Eve.
Marley comes with a dire warning—Scrooge must amend his ways, or else he will join his old partner as a spirit doomed to walk the earth in chains for eternity. The apparition explains he came to give Scrooge a message: three spirits will visit him during the night and give him one final chance to change.
The spirits that come to Scrooge shake him to his core, but will it be enough to overcome his years of wretchedness?
There is little to be said about this plot that has not already been said by someone else. It’s a classic. The fact that it survived 178 years and is still a beloved book is a testament to its quality.
I did find interesting some aspects of the book that are not in movie depictions. For one, it seems that the three spirits are supposed to visit Scrooge on three consecutive nights, not all the same night. Then, when he wakes up Christmas morning, he realizes it all happened in one night.
Also, the longest part of the book is the time with the Ghost of Christmas Present. It takes up more pages than any other individual section. In those pages, they visit all the popularly depicted places—Bob Cratchit’s house, the Christmas party with Scrooge’s nephew—but also for a short time stop by a solitary lighthouse with two men having their own Christmas celebration, a boat at sea with men wishing one another Merry Christmas, and innumerable houses of the poor and needy, all joyful with the spirit of Christmas.
Characters
Scrooge is practically greed incarnate. The featured quote beginning this review is part of his introduction. He’s harsh, cruel, and of course, hates Christmas. Perhaps one reason this story is so popular is because it promises that even the evilest of people can change. For that is a great message of A Christmas Carol.
Other prominent characters include Bob Cratchit and Fred, who the reader is immediately endeared to.
Theme & Content Warnings
The themes of this story are as close to Scriptural as one can get without quoting the Bible. Scrooge is rich, but miserable, as he only hoards his money and never helps others. By the end, he might as well have become a Christian for how joyful and generous he is. It’s an endearing arc of the most positive change.
Other messages are scattered throughout, such as the Cratchits being grateful for their meager Christmas meal though it barely feeds them. In light of the questionable themes many books today hold, you can’t go wrong in picking up life lessons from this classic.
I was also pleasantly surprised by all the Biblical references Dickens makes. It’s not a Christian book, to be sure, but the culture of his time was very influenced by the church. Marley says he should have been guiding people to “that blessed Star” instead of only making money. One of Bob Cratchit’s sons reads part of a verse from a Gospel.
The premise of this being a ghost story is obviously a content warning for Christian readers. I’ve never had a problem with the erroneous representation of what happens to the souls of people, as it’s obviously used for thematic purposes only, but some might find issue with it.
Other than that, the book is clean, so far as I could tell (the old prose might have contained something I missed). One character has a crush on a girl and chases only her in a game of blindman’s bluff. Scrooge ends up in his bedroom with the Ghost of Christmas Future next to his own dead body.
Overall
Story time!
One thing that made me decide to review A Christmas Carol this year is the movie “The Man Who Invented Christmas”, which is an excellent (if not historically dubious) movie about the writing of this book. Especially to a fiction writer, it’s very relatable, and has become a favorite movie of mine. Full review with content warnings here.
In addition to that, the edition I have is a replica of the original book, so it looks just like the book shown in the movie. As a book nerd, this makes me very happy.
Anyway, back to the review.
A Christmas Carol has endured years of war and change, a monument to the quality of the story and writing. This Christmas season, if you haven’t already, why not give it a read?
No links this week, as there are myriad versions of this book. You’ll have no problem finding a copy by searching “A Christmas Carol”.
If you like this book, you might also like A Christian’s Carol by Wayne Thomas Batson.
And as always, thanks for reading, and I’ll write you in the next one!
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