December
Christmas Book
In December I wanted to either read something short or something Christmasy so we are going to do both! We are going to read Charles Dickens’ most famous novella, A Christmas Carol. I am sure most (if not all) of you already know the storyline since there are so many movie versions and spin offs, but I promise, if you haven’t actually read this one yet, you are in for a treat. I love Dickens and think he is hilarious and a master of plot, but most of his books are so long that it can make him feel inaccessible. So this is a perfect introduction to Dickens if you haven’t read him before and if you already love him then it’s a great way to dip back into his work without committing to an 800 plus page novel (not that I don’t also recommend that if you are up for it).
When you’re reading Dickens don’t forget that he is being funny in a very dry British sort of way. If there is a lot of description it is probably a very long winded joke that will be worth the effort of reading, I promise!
Here is a great example to whet your appetite for his humor…
Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. 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 door-nail.
My bookish, Dickens loving friend (and newest regular contributor to Reading Revisited) has offered to write about A Christmas Carol for us. Hannah is a constant inspiration to my literary life. She is a person I talk to at least daily about the books we’re reading and she pushes me to read literature I would otherwise have neglected. I am so glad she has agreed to inspire us to love Dickens more and I’m excited to read more of her writing in the future. Here’s what she has to say about this book…
There’s no one quite like Dickens for populating the mind of a reader (and, perhaps, a culture) with unforgettable characters. Mr. Scrooge’s place within our cultural imagination is pretty well-cemented…I mean how many other 19th-century characters can find their name in the Merriam-Webster dictionary? Whether we first met Scrooge in Dickens’ own work or encountered him through one of his frequent film debuts (we all know which is superior), Scrooge’s conversion is a masterful exploration of the power of memory to change us. This book is about a lot of things: greed, poverty, simplicity, resurrection, but I would suggest that the key to A Christmas Carol could be summed up best by an oft-repeated line from another of Dickens’ Christmas novellas, The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain: “Lord, keep my memory green.”
Scrooge is saved by remembering. His ghostly visitors all draw him to remember- to remember his past joys and hardships, to remember those in present need, and to remember (in the words of tiny Tim), “Him who made lame beggars walk”. In his journey of remembering we see Scrooge “recalled to life”. His memory comes alive, comes “green”, again after a long winter and we see the cold, hardened man enter into joy and newness of life.
This little book endures because it goes hand-in-hand with the feasting of the Christmas season. It reminds us that a feast is, at its very core, a remembering. In his epigraph Dickens hopes that this book will “haunt [y]our houses pleasantly”, and though it feels a bit cliche for a true Dickensian to claim A Christmas Carol as their most beloved of his works (surely it ought to be one of the 800-pagers to really show our chops?), I’ll admit to being most happily haunted by this book year after year. It seems only fitting to end with a bit of Dickensian sentimentality, so I invite you all to “live in the Past, the Present, and the Future” as you enjoy this ghostly story.
If you missed November, here it is!
Stay tuned for January featuring fellow book club member and our yearly Shakespeare play…
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Kelsie/Hannah- It’s been a minute since I revisited the Christmas Carol. So this was a welcomed change. I’ll be sure to revisit it this holiday season! 🙌🏼
every time i’m in or even talking about Dickens’ world i want to stay in it, and then when i’m out of it i forget that! but this little excerpt reminded me of that and i am very excited to visit his world again soon!