Title: A Christmas Carol and Other Holiday Treasures
Author: Charles Dickens
Series: Word Cloud Classics
In: A Christmas Carol and Other Holiday Treasures (Charles Dickens)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Christmas, Classics, Short story collections
Pace: Slow
Format: Collection
Publisher: Word Cloud Classics
Year: 1843
5th sentence, 74th page: A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you, for many a year!
Most famous in the realm of holiday literature for his 1843 publication, A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens was in fact a prolific writer in the yuletide genre and a great contributor to many now-prevalent traditions of the holiday itself. In 1944, A Christmas Carol, Dickens released The Chimes: A Christmas Story of Some Bells That Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, which combined his usual sympathy for the poor with the notion that we must always strive to live in nobler ways. In 1845 came the novella The Cricket on the Hearth. The years 1846 and 1848 respectively saw published The Battle of Life and The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain. Because of this wealth of Christmas-themed works, Dickens is sometime referred to as “the man who invented Christmas.”
I can’t believe that it has taken me until I was almost twenty-six to read this collection! Actually, I can’t believe that it has taken me almost twenty-six years to read anything written by Charles Dickens. Normally I find anything written in the 1800s pleasurable, but a little difficult to get through. Not so with Dickens’ writing. It is so much more accessible and, although it still has the same mouthy, lyrical feel as much of the writing from that time, it is just somehow less formal, and more… real.
I know that sometimes Dickens is known as the father of the Christmas spirit. And, after reading these five “Christmas stories”, I can understand why. They all have the underlying theme of giving, love and family. Most of the stories feature the poor, and highlight that they almost have a better time in the holiday season than the rich – because for them it isn’t confused by the cost of Christmas, but of the love that surrounds everyone.
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