Book Synopsis:
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens. It was first published by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. It tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation resulting from a supernatural visit by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come.
The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. The book was written and published in early Victorian era Britain, a period when there was strong nostalgia for old Christmas traditions together with the introduction of new customs, such as Christmas trees and greeting cards. Dickens' sources for the tale appear to be many and varied, but are, principally, the humiliating experiences of his childhood, his sympathy for the poor, and various Christmas stories and fairy tales.
My Review:
4/5 stars. This was a classic story I've known but have never actually read, so this Christmas season I decided I would finally get around to it. It was short, sweet, and simple, but -- this might be a hot take -- I thought it was somewhat anticlimactic. For it being a timeless classic everyone raves about, I was kind of expecting a grander ending. It was still a lovely, Christmas-y tale, though.
The biggest thing that stuck out to me right away was the writing style and grammar. It seemed almost bad. I know it's not actually "bad", it's just from a time when there were looser grammar rules, but it made it hard to read at times. There were so many run-on sentences and unnecessary commas that took me out of the story and really showed that it was written two centuries ago.
Something I thought was very heartwarming was how you could see that Scrooge really did have a heart deep down, as he reacted to things in the visions with sadness and joy. He had just become hardened by life and experiences, but he let his guard down and let his true emotions come out as the ghosts showed him different scenes.
Comments