Week 6 – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Welcome to 2023!  On Mondays this year, let’s discuss and have fun with books. No I’m not writing book reviews. But this website is for writers, and writers like books right? So let’s have FUN with books!

Week 6 – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm

https://www.read.gov/books/christmas-carol.html

A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas Carol, is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843. Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly and selfish miser, is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley, and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man.

Scrooge & Jacob Marley 1878

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol

The word “scrooge” was eventually added to the English dictionary with the definition of “a miser”.

The phrase “Bah Humbug!” became popular as a retort to overly festive Christmas cheer.

Scrooge paid Bob Cratchit 15 shillings a week.  Here’s how much that is now

https://www.measuringworth.com/blog/?p=256

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jan/03/facebook-posts/christmas-carol-characters-wages-not-best-comparis/

What disease did Tiny Tim have?

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/1107722

Bob Cratchit & Tiny Tim 1923

Why we love Christmas curmudgeons

https://www.readbrightly.com/from-scrooge-to-the-grinch-why-we-love-christmas-curmudgeons/

There are literally hundreds of adaptations of A Christmas Carol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptations_of_A_Christmas_Carol

My favorites are Scrooged with Bill Murray

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096061/

and Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123179/

Do you have a favorite adaptation? Tell us in the comments!