A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Genre: Classics
Blurb (on back of book): 'If I had my way, every idiot who goes around with Merry Christmas on his lips, would be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. Merry Christmas? Bah humbug!'
To bitter, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, Christmas is just another day. But all that changes when the ghost of his long-dead business partner appears, warning Scrooge to change his ways before it's too late.
Part of the Focus on the Family Great Stories collection, this abridged edition features an in-depth introduction and discussion questions by Joe Wheeler to provide greater understanding for today's reader. "A Christmas Carol" captures the heart of the holidays like no other novel.
MY OPINION: ****
I must admit that prior to reading this book, I considered myself a Charles Dickens hater. Even though I've literally only read one (1) of his books before, that one was so distasteful to me that I never wanted to read another one of his works again. However, I succumbed to the whole "Charles Dickens is a genius" theory and decided to test it out for myself.
I don't like to admit when I'm wrong. So, I will not say that I was wrong. However, I will concede that this particular book was actually kind of... interesting. It wasn't an arduous read that made me want to rip my hair out. I did listen to the audiobook version of it over the span of two of my morning and afternoon 30-minute walks from my dorm to campus and I have to say, this might be my new audiobook era. I am aware that in my last review I said I wasn't a fan of audiobooks, but I think my new conclusion is that I am just not a fan of Robinson Crusoe, and that other audiobooks are not bad.
This book is surprisingly very short. I'm not going to go into the plot because I feel like we should all know it or at least have some vague idea of it. I've obviously heard of this book before but I just haven't actually sat down (or walked) and read it. I am also aware that it is not Christmas but it was the shortest audiobook option so sue me.
If I had started with this book instead of reading A Tale of Two Cities years ago, maybe I would have had my Dickens era but alas. I vowed to never read another until I realized it's on my English class syllabus (not this one). I decided I might as well try it out, especially since I do consider myself a more advanced reader now than I was then.
This book may be short but it managed to pack a lot in it. The book explores class differences, cynicism, religion, and demonstrates core character growth. Ebeneezer Scrooge, our miserly, grumpy, Christmas-hating Grinch-like man, ultimately learns a lot of important lessons by the end of this book.
This one was also a lot easier to understand AToTC (at least from what I can remember; I may do a reread *shudder*). Maybe it's because someone was reading it to me or maybe because it's a lot shorter and simpler, but I liked this one. I found it enjoyable and actually very intriguing in its themes and plot points. While I am very well-versed in the story, there was a lot in it that I had either forgotten or never seen depicted in its many adaptations before.
I would recommend this book to readers looking to try out Dickens but are scared of the length of his other books. This one is super fun and makes way more sense than some of his other more tiresome reads and is a familiar story to most people. I definitely would say to read it around Christmas because I can imagine how it would inspire cute Christmas spirit in everyone.
Main Character: Scrooge
Sidekick(s): Ghosts, nephew, etc
Villain(s): Cynicism, miserly behavior, etc
Classics Elements: This is a well known classic.
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