Since this is the advent season, I thought it would be timely to read this beautiful manuscript edition of A Christmas Carol. To my surprise, I realised that I don’t remember the last time I read the original. I’ve definitely got some impression of Scrooge McDuck as Scrooge and I remember the Phua Chu Kang (aka the Singaporean) version, but of the original, nothing.
Which is a real pity because this was a great story. You should know it by now – Marley is dead, Scrooge is a miser, and for some reason, Marley’s ghost and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future decide that Scrooge deserves to be rehabilitated.
What surprised me in this reading was the fact that Scrooge was pretty receptive to the lesson. While the Ghost of Christmas Past was showing him around, Scrooge was showing signs of regret. In a sense, I guess it shows that Scrooge was a good candidate for the visits, since he was receptive to hearing pretty harsh criticism about himself.
Another thing that surprised me was the fact that I teared up reading the book. The language is Victorian and while the book is easy to read, I didn’t expect it to be so moving. I really did feel Scrooge’s regret and I definitely wanted him to have the chance to make things right.
As for the book I got, it’s a transcription of the original manuscript, which means that it comes with a very interesting forward on how Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol and how this edition was created (If you’re interested in reading more, Mr Dickens and His Carol has more information on the origin of the story). Each page of the manuscript is accompanied by the transcription, but to be honest I could not read Dicken’s handwriting. But it was nice looking at the pages and seeing how he crossed out the lines as he formed the story.
This was a great Christmas read. I’ve heard it said that A Christmas Carol was responsible for shaping a lot of Victorian (and from there, modern) notions of Christmas, so this hit all the Christmas notes for me.
I’m going to read A Christmas Carol and then I’m watching the Muppets Christmas Carol afterwards. I’ve never read the whole book, only parts of it.
Oooh, I’ve not watched the Muppets one! That should be fun!
I love Dickens, and “A Christmas Carol” is him at his finest (none of the bloat that you get in some of the books where he was paid by the installment).
And I think the fact he was writing to a deadline also helped!
It’s fantastic, and closer to the book than most other adaptations. The only other one that comes close in my opinion is the vastly under-appreciated version starring Patrick Stewart (some of the costuming is so-so, but Sir Patrick is phenomenal)
I’ve only read this once, so I think my opinions of the story are also colored by various film adaptations. On the other hand, I’ve never cared enough for the story to have any real burning desire to reread it….
Haha I also have a greater impression of the story via films/tv shows!
I love A Christmas Carol. It’s such a timeless story and so beautifully written. I wonder if I can talk my daughter into reading it with me this year . . .
I hope you suceed!
I agree, this story is very moving with a deep sense of the human experience. The most moving scene, to me, is when Scrooge can no longer stand to view scenes from his past, so he takes the ghost’s conical hat and presses it down over the ghost, but the light keeps shining out from underneath.
I found Scrooge to be a lot more realistic (in terms of how he was affected) than I had remembered from the adaptations!
Amazing to think that some contemporary critics panned it as a “potboiler”!
I simply have to drop a shameless plug for my favourite adaption, the one starring George C. Scott – the whole movie’s on YouTube…
On Youtube? Sounds like I’ll be playing the movie tonight!
This is the one…
🙂
Yes!!! I read this book on Christmas Day in 2018 and I loved it so much!! There’s a Jim Carrey adaptation that I really enjoyed too (although it creeped me the hell out when I was younger haha)
There are so many adaptations!! It’s pretty amazing how this story has resonated so well that people keep filming it!