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Charles Dickens was born near Portsmouth, England on the 7th of February,
1812. Charles was the second of eight children born into what was a
middle-class British family. John Dickens, Charles' father, was a civil
servant, employed by the British Navy Pay Office. But John spent money
better than he made it, so that in Charles' 12th year, his father was arrested
and imprisoned to satisfy accumulated debts, and Charles was sent to work in
a warehouse, pasting labels onto pots of shoe-black.
Young Charles Dickens began his literary career at the age of 16, in 1828,
after completing a course in shorthand, when he secured his first position
as a full-time reporter in the London law courts. His first book, a two-volume
work entitled Sketches by Boz was published eight years later. His
first serialized novel, The Pickwick Papers followed closely on the
heels of Sketches by Boz and won his popularity in every
English-speaking nation.
The characters and situations of Dickens' novels are much influenced by
his own experiences, both as a child and later. His own father was the most
likely inspiration for the character of Micawber in
David Copperfield(1850), which Dickens'
proclaimed to be both his own favorite and the most autobiographical of his
novels.
Since its first publication in December of 1843, Charles Dickens' A
Christmas Carol has been a perennial feature of the Christmas season.
It is the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, an aging bachelor who has lived his life
according to the rules of modern capitalism, unaffected by human sentiments
of mercy, pity or affection, until he is visited one Christmas Eve by the
ghost of his deceased business partner Jacob Marley. Marley's visit is
succeeded by the visits of the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future,
and, through these adventures, Mr. Scrooge undergoes a personal transformation.
It is a short novel, not much more than a short story, that lends itself
well to reading aloud. And even though the story has been recreated on film
many times, there is much to be gained from the reading. Why not start a new
tradition in your family and spend two or four evenings this year reading this
story with your own family?
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens |
88 KB |
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Video Available
The most popular movie version of A Christmas Carol was made in 1951
and starred Alastair Sim and Kathleen Harrison. The video is available at
Amazon.
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