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    A Christmas Carol
    A Christmas Carol
    A Christmas Carol
    Ebook128 pages1 hour

    A Christmas Carol

    By Charles Dickens and David Mann

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Christmas?! What a load of Humbug.Mistletoe and wine just don't do it for Scrooge; he's a workaholic miser with an attitude problem. If he doesn't change his ways, he'll end up with no friends and Tiny Tim won't last the year. Let's hope some spooky nighttime visitors can put the jingle back in his bells!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPulp The Classics
    Release dateNov 1, 2013
    ISBN9781843441441
    Author

    Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and grew up in poverty. This experience influenced ‘Oliver Twist’, the second of his fourteen major novels, which first appeared in 1837. When he died in 1870, he was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey as an indication of his huge popularity as a novelist, which endures to this day.

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    Reviews for A Christmas Carol

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    • 4/5
      He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions, that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call. He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears.
      It is hardly a surprise that the holiday arrived this year without my falling into the mood. Overwork and unseasonable weather has left me jarred -- quite removed from the trappings of the spirit. My wonderful wife bought me one of them there smartphones -- so I could join the century. I was simply pleased to be with her on a rainy morning with the thought of the trip to my family weighing rather ominously. I survived it all and actually enjoyed myself. I did not read Mr. Dickens there.

      We came home and enjoyed Chinese take-away and it was then that I turned again to the Christian charm of social justice by means of poltergeists: spectral redemption. There are sound reasons why this tale has proliferated since its inception.
    • 5/5
      This is the way to enjoy this story – having Tim Curry read it to you. He does an absolutely fabulous job and it was just a total delight.

      For the story – I love how creepy yet still uplifting the author was able to keep the story. He has really had you feeling for past Ebenezer. I would have liked more about Bob Cratchit because he always seems so much more developed as a character in the cinematic versions of the story. I kind of missed that.

      Tim Curry gives this story a fabulous feel and it keeps you listening to very end. He gives each character a distinct voice and really does the creepy justice. Great way to enjoy a classic.
    • 5/5
      Such a pleasure to read these lovely words! You may know the story, but until you read Charles Dickens’ own words you haven’t truly experienced the magic.
    • 5/5
      This was brilliant, Patrick Stewart does an excellent job portraying the different characters.
    • 5/5
      No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty.
      This was surprisingly quite funny! The narration was done in that particular style that seems to have been largely abandoned by modern authors: third-person told from a first-person non-character narrator. I love this style! Many of my favorite classics (Peter Pan, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc) are told in this style, and it always lends itself a storybook quality that is sorely lacking in today's literature.

      The story itself was something I am at this point extremely familiar with, as it has permeated all corners of Western civilization at this point, but still, there were some things that are often excluded in most adaptations, such as the children of mankind: "They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware of them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased." (Except for that one with Jim Carrey, but it added that weird chase scene.) Those parts not oft-explored were really interesting and added a great deal of meaning to the story.

      I am quite glad I read this. This was my first Dickens experience and it has fully convinced me that I really need to read more classics! Time to read them instead of watching their BBC Masterpiece Classics adaptations!

      "There are some upon this earth of yours," returned the Spirit, "who 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."
    • 5/5
      Wonderful illustrations by PJ Lynch sets this edition above the others. The full page illustrations throughout the book helps bring the story alive with the scenes of Victorian England.
    • 5/5
      Every year at Christmas the kids and I reread A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens but this year I won a copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Illustated by Francine Haskins and  Afterword by Kyra E. Hicks on Library Thing. This popular classic was not changed it was wonderfully illustrated with contemporary line drawings as it brings all of the characters to life as Black Victorians. The Afterword highlights over 100 African Americans, Black British and Canadian actors that have performed A Christmas Carol over the last century demonstrating this story belongs to everyone. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Go Read, Goodreads/StacieBoren, Amazon, and my blog at readsbystacie.com
    • 5/5
      A book that stands the test of time and I read this with the approach of Christmas! A very enjoyable book even if you know exactly what is going to happen, worth worth it and it is quite a small book.
    • 5/5
      I recently received a new version of a great classic, A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens. This particular version is illustrated by Francine Haskins with an afterword by Kyra E. Hick. This version has wonderful illustrations that belong in everyone's collection. Thank you to Kyra E. Hick for bringing this to my attention so that I may share it. Francine Haskins brings to live a Christmas Carol for ALL to enjoy regardless of where we live.
    • 5/5
      This is a great performance of a wonderful classic.

      I think there are few people who don't know the story: Ebenezer Scrooge, tight-fisted businessman who calls Christmas a humbug and has no use for charity or kindness, goes home on Christmas Eve, and is visited by the ghost of his dead partner, Jacob Marley. Marley warns him of the fate he has been forging for himself by caring only for business and not for other people, but promises him he has one last chance at salvation.

      He will be visited by three spirits: the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Be. Scrooge is not delighted at this news, but it's not a choice for him. The spirits are coming.

      Tim Curry animates the characters with power, flexibility, and control. We feel the chill of Scrooge's office, and rooms, and heart, and correspondingly the warmth of his nephew's home and heart, as well as Bob Cratchit's home, heart, and family. We hear, and thereby see and feel, the hardships of Victorian London, as well as its life and color.

      This is a great way to enjoy this wonderful classic of the Christmas season.

      Recommended.

      I received this book free as a member of the Ford Audiobook Club.
    • 5/5
      I finally read one of my favorite Christmas stories. I love seeing it on stage and film, but I had never read it. I enjoyed it very much. I really did. It was interesting to see the story I had always enjoyed in film or on stage in it's original, written form. Awesome.
    • 5/5
      This was so much fun to read, especially after watching Mickey's A Christmas Carol so many times I know it by heart=) I'm sure everyone knows the story, so I"ll just say that its one of those books everyone should read, and everyone will love.
    • 2/5

      4/10.

      A victorian morality tale about the old and bitter Ebenezer Scrooge and the profound experience he has one christmas eve. He is visited by three ghosts who tell him that unless he changes his ways he will be doomed.

    • 5/5
      An excellent story. My favorite quote: “His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.”
    • 5/5
      I have seen the movies lots of times, but reading the book for the first time was awesome. The way the old english is written gives it a special flavor. The story of a miser that hates Christmas and cares for nothing but money and how three ghosts help him change his ways, before is too late. A very good story and a great reading.
    • 5/5
      When I read Dickens, I'm continually tempted to read bits and pieces aloud to Chris. Dickens has such a beautiful writing style, it practically begs to be read out loud. Beautiful story. I hope to make this a new tradition in my life and read it every year.
    • 5/5
      You have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by this- but it's also very funny from time to time.
    • 5/5
      I think everyone has heard the title and read this book.So I need not introduce the story.I have read this book in Japanese.But in English, there is another impression.I felt how wonderful to love people!And I hope scrooge will become a kind person.
    • 4/5
      the only things taht matters to Scrooge is business and making money.and he do not have friends.on Christmas Eve he meet three sprits. and he see his past present and future.I love this story that scrooge`S change.lonly scrooge make a friends at the end .I want chance to very good change like him.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely a classic. Retold a million times, a million ways, with a bunch of different casts. However, no one can tell the story better than Charles Dickens himself. Just like every other book, a movie can't compare. A book goes into more detail and allows you to fall in love with the characters again. Love it! A must read every Christmas season.
    • 5/5
      I had never read A Christmas Carol and listened to the fabulous recording of it by Jim Dale (he also reads Harry Potter). High recommend.
    • 5/5
      Even though Dickens isn't exactly known for his conciseness, I can't help but love everything I've read by him (except for Great Expectations, which was more of a lukewarm appreciation, I guess). I'm not a Christian, but having lived in mostly Christian countries most of my life, I love it's traditions, especially Christmas!! And the reading of this book during the holidays has practically become that to many people. The many, many adaptations of this book in practically every holiday special of every sitcom ever aired is, I think, a testament to its greatness to all ye of little faith (in Dickens)!!
    • 3/5
      I've read this a couple of times. Dickens was paid by the word & writes like it. He spends way too much time digressing into idiotic areas & filling up space. Example: "Marley was dead, dead as a door nail, although why a door nail should be deader than a coffin nail..." or something like that & goes on about it forever. Never does come to a conclusion - the proper one being a door nail is dead because it was hammered through the door & clinched on the opposite side, hence is dead. Coffin nails are hammered straight in, hence can move with the wood. His stories are classics, but I detest his writing style. Probably worth reading once.
    • 4/5
      Despite the fact that I knew the storyline from multiply adaptations, I found the actual story refreshing and interesting. What surprised me most is how ready Scrooge is to be a changed man. It is only with the ghost of Christmas Past that he is reluctant and unbelieving. After that, he wants only to be taught and to change. And he is humble enough to see all the worst about himself and not be angry or get defensive. It makes Scrooge a more sympathetic character. I also liked the way there is a very present narrator, adding his own observations of the various scenes.
    • 4/5
      Charles Dickens classic tale “Christmas Carol” has been transformed into picture book format illustrated by Roberto Innocenti. Scrooge, and old miser who would rather make money than spread any kind of Christmas cheer, is visited by three ghosts – Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future. In each of these meetings Scrooge remembers more and more about his past, and learns more and more about himself. He is confronted in the end with the realization of what would happen to him after he dies. Awaking and realizing his visits were only dreams he decides to take matters into his own hands and change his outlook on life.I cling to nostalgia like a child to their favourite toy and always read “Christmas Carol” once a year at, you guessed it, Christmastime. I was delighted when scouring the shelves in the library’s picture book section to find this book – the entire novel written in this format. Mind you, it does not possess all of the typical qualities of a picture book (it has a lot of words and is quite thick) but nonetheless the publishers seemed to be successful in their attempt to make this story more accessible to younger readers who might find a novel to be too daunting to get through. It also lends itself well to some one on one reading of perhaps a parent to a child or an older sibling to a younger sibling. This story is one of those that is repeated many times, over and over into movies, TV, books, other formats… but I still find that the overall message that one takes from the story is really quite valuable and timeless.
    • 5/5
      The  Christmas classic. Dickens uses A Christmas Carol to highlight and underscore the economic conditions in Dickensian-era London. This book came to America in 1870, and, according to The Battle for Christmas, is the reason that Christmas is legal in America.
    • 4/5
      A Christmas Carol is the one classic that almost everyone knows, even if they've never read the book. It's shorter and easier to read than most of Dickens' other books and really is suitable for people of all ages. I loved it as a child and after re-reading it this week for the first time in years, I loved it as an adult too. No matter how many movies, cartoons or TV adaptions you may have seen, it's still worth reading the book for the richness and humour of Dickens' writing and for his wonderful descriptions and imagery. Although some readers might find it too sentimental at times, it's easy to see why this book has become a timeless classic, as it is everything a good Christmas story should be - heartwarming, inspirational and with an important message for us all.
    • 5/5
      It took a while to understand the language but I liked it once I did understand it.
    • 5/5
      As many times as I have watched the movie versions, I have never read the book until now. Not being a literature major in college, I don't know if it is the language of the time or the man, but the descriptions are refreshingly different. One that really stopped me was the lobsters that glowed green in the basement. I read the book in installments from Daily Lit.
    • 5/5
      I am so glad I decided to read this book again. This one is the original first edition text from 1843. This edition was reproduced from the original by Dover Publications in 1991 with the following note added:“The Christmas gift presented to the English-speaking world in 1843 by the preeminent novelist Charles Dickens (1812-1870) has never lost its power to delight. Adapted in numerous ways and for a great variety of media over the yeaars, this modern Christmas myth, which is linked to every Christmas celebration and whose characters have become household names, is still best enjoyed in its inimitable original wording. The text in the present volume is that of the first edition (Chapman and Hall, London, 1843)”.I quote this from the Dover Classics Edition because it is very true. Much as it wouldn't seem like Christmas without "A Christmas Carol" in one form or another, nothing tells it as well as Charles Dickens' original. My favorite movie version is the second made, with Alistair Sim, which sticks to the original fairly well. But the last time I read the book was in 1952. I loved it then and I love it now.Dickens' descriptions of mid-1800s London are so real and so chilling one wonders how the English survived those times. The attitudes are spot on, as Dickens' characters always are. What makes "A Christmas Carol" different is the absolute fear that Scrooge feels upon seeing his old "dead as a doornail" partner visit him on Christmas Eve. The feel of Dickens' writing is so powerful nothing can be ignored.The visits of the three spirits are amazing in the depth they are given and in what they accomplish and how. As most people do know the story in one form or another, I won't go into the visits other than how imaginative the story is in the way Scrooge's background and Scroogeness is dealt with so succinctly. This book is a must-read at least once in a reader's life, even if seen as plays, movies, even cartoons and remakes. Nothing is so satisfactory as the book itself.

    Book preview

    A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

    This cat was a drag …  'til a midnight wake-up call

    Christmas?! What a load of Humbug. Mistletoe and Wine just don’t do it for Scrooge; he’s a workaholic miser with an attitude problem. If he doesn’t change his ways, he’ll end up with no friends and Tiny Tim won’t last the year. Let’s hope some spooky night-time visitors can put the jingle back in his bells!

    Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world’s most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular.

    Born in Portsmouth, England, Dickens left school to work in a factory after his father was thrown into debtors’ prison. Although he had little formal education, his early impoverishment drove him to succeed. Over his career he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, 5 novellas and hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children’s rights, education, and other social reforms.

    Dickens sprang to fame with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers. Within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humour, satire, and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication.

    Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. This novella, A Christmas Carol, is one of the most influential works ever written, and it remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. His creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to GK Chesterton and George Orwell—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism.

    Praise for Pulp! The Classics

    ‘It is so great that you are doing this kind of publishing. Turning classics into fun’ – John Bird, founder of The Big Issue

    ‘It’s a clever gambit …  care and attention has gone into the product’ – Independent

    ‘I loved Pulp’s retro treatment of Pride & Prejudice and their version of F. Scot Fitzgerald’s classic is just as cool’ – Sunday Sun, Fabulous Magazine

    ‘Retro 1950s aesthetics, red page edges and pretend scuffmarks’ – New York Times

    ‘Great literature, pulp cover’ – Mr Hyde, (Shortlist)

    ‘Never judge a book by its cover, except, that is, when you’re being invited to do just that’ – Harper’s Bazaar

    ‘The new covers evoke the wry humour and rough-edged illustrations popular with magazines in the 1950s and 60s’ – Huffington Post UK

    Pulp! The Classics’ – Huffington Post USA

    ‘The new jackets from Pulp! The Classics are funny and ironic’ – Joanne Harris, Author of Chocolat

    ‘Eye-catching, retro covers’ – Bookseller

    ‘We love this book – amazing new… edition of Pride & Prejudice’ – We Love This Book

    ‘A pulp cover for Pride & Prejudice - love it’ – Justine Jordan, deputy books editor, Guardian

    ‘Amazing idea …  these are magnificent’ – Vagenda

    ‘Imitation tattered paper and bold colours …  accompanied with witty taglines’ — Design Taxi

    Titles in this series

    A Christmas Carol

    The Great Gatsby

    The Hound of the Baskervilles

    The Picture of Dorian Gray

    Pride and Prejudice

    Robinson Crusoe

    Tess of the d’Urbervilles

    Wuthering Heights

    LIST OF CHARACTERS

    Bob Cratchit, clerk to Ebenezer Scrooge

    Peter Cratchit, a son of the preceding

    Tim Cratchit (Tiny Tim), a cripple, youngest son of Bob Cratchit

    Mr Fezziwig, a kind-hearted, jovial merchant

    Fred, Scrooge’s nephew

    Ghost of Christmas Past, a phantom showing things of the past

    Ghost of Christmas Present, a spirit of a kind, generous and hearty nature

    Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, an apparition showing the shadows of things which may yet happen

    Ghost of Jacob Marley, a spectre of Scrooge’s former partner in business

    Joe, a marine-store dealer and receiver of stolen goods

    Ebenezer Scrooge, a grasping, covetous old man, the surviving partner of Scrooge & Marley

    Mr Topper , a bachelor

    Dick Wilkins, a fellow apprentice of Scrooge’s

    Belle, a comely matron, an old sweetheart of Scrooge’s.

    Caroline, wife of one of Scrooge’s debtors

    Mrs Cratchit, wife of Bob Cratchit

    Belinda and Martha, daughters of the preceding

    Mrs Dilber, a laundress

    Fan, the sister of Scrooge

    Mrs Fezziwig, the worthy partner of Mr Fezziwig

    The author’s preface to A Christmas Carol

    I have endeavoured in this ghostly little book to raise the ghost of an idea which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season or with me. May it haunt their house pleasantly and no one wish to lay it.

    Their faithful friend and servant,

    CHARLES DICKENS

    December 1843

    STAVE ONE

    MARLEY’S GHOST

    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 doornail.

    Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a doornail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will, therefore, permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a doornail.

    Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.

    The mention of Marley’s funeral brings me back to the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet’s father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot – say St Paul’s Churchyard, for instance – literally to astonish his son’s weak mind.

    Scrooge never painted out Old Marley’s name. There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge ‘Scrooge’, and sometimes ‘Marley’, but he answered to both names. It was all the same to him.

    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, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.

    External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn’t know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often ‘came down’ handsomely and Scrooge never did.

    Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, ‘My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?’ No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge.

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