Weekly Roundup 50: A Christmas Carol

The other day, I caught a replay of the SNL skit starring Martin Short as Ebenezer Scrooge. Motivated by his desire to do good after the ghosts imparted their lessons, Scrooge throws gold coins from his window, accidentally blinding an orphan. Mayhem ensues, and fake blood sprays everywhere. It's funny and over the top ridiculous.

Scrooge is a great character, who has been played so well by many talented actors, but I think the real stars in A Christmas Carol are the ghosts. 

As Charles Dickens wrote in the preface: “I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.”

Dickens began writing A Christmas Carol in October of 1843. He took six weeks to finish it, and, after a few production disagreements about endpapers and bindings, the novella was released on December 19 of that year. The book was an immediate success, so much so that even the Americans, whom Dickens had alienated with some of his earlier work, fell under its spell. 

In the many years since, A Christmas Carol has inspired a host of adaptations for film, stage, TV, and print, including opera, graphic novels, more versions starring animals than I can count--and most likely the story of another, much greener, holiday curmudgeon who sees the error of his ways (The Grinch, of course).

Though Dickens went on to write four more Christmas novellas, none achieved the popular and critical success of his first. I’m no Dickensian scholar, so I won’t delve into the particulars of the author’s life or the zeitgeist of Victorian England and its parallels in today’s society. I just appreciate the story for its most basic messages: Be generous. Be kind. Be grateful for friends and family. Celebrate. And if your front door knocker gives you a piece of its mind, prepare for a very restless night.

Merry Christmas, my friends!