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A Christmas Carol - Dec 2021 Book Group discussion thread

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Serendippily
Serendippily
Nov 2021
9:45am, 30 Nov 2021
24,333 posts
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Serendippily
It’s been a while since I’ve read this and it’s the first book I’ve read from my phone ibiblio.org
There was a lot of early fog and crackling writing. I loved it and it made me feel truly Christmassy and hopeful for sins forgiven, for change and charitable hearts.
Then the ghost of future appeared and I found myself feeling sorry for it, forced as it was to endure a lot of really dim Scrooge and overegged pudding. Then it was the final chapter, where I couldn’t get Michael Caine and the muppets out of my minds eye.
When Dickins works for me I really enjoy reading him, and I enjoyed this a lot. It lost a point for the last two chapters but hooray for the power of redemption
Angus Clydesdale
Angus Clydesdale
Nov 2021
9:49am, 30 Nov 2021
23,598 posts
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Angus Clydesdale
Oh, this is good. I might join, if I may?
Serendippily
Serendippily
Nov 2021
9:50am, 30 Nov 2021
24,334 posts
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Serendippily
*waves cheerily* welcome aboard
McGoohan
McGoohan
Nov 2021
9:54am, 30 Nov 2021
50,646 posts
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McGoohan
All are welcome AC
Angus Clydesdale
Angus Clydesdale
Nov 2021
11:37am, 30 Nov 2021
23,600 posts
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Angus Clydesdale
:)
Hanneke
Hanneke
Nov 2021
2:05pm, 30 Nov 2021
82,576 posts
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Hanneke
Yay! I am no longer the Newbie!
*Gets all nervous as no longer the newbie*
Diogenes
Diogenes
Dec 2021
8:04pm, 3 Dec 2021
64,976 posts
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Diogenes
For some reason I wasn’t looking forward to reading this. I have read and enjoyed Dickens before, Great Expectations, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, Bleak House, but I had no plans to read any more.

Therefore I am pleased to say I really enjoyed this and am glad I read it. Sure, Dickens lays it on thick, especially the sentimentality (Tiny Tim, for Pete’s sake) but he also writes some cracking prose and is very funny.

I don’t know if this is true, but I have an idea that many of our ideas about what constitutes a classic Christmas comes from this book.

I love the goodness at the heart of this story. Scrooge’s nephew is the best of people. Many could learn from this.
LullayDaisy
LullayDaisy
Dec 2021
4:03pm, 14 Dec 2021
34,795 posts
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LullayDaisy
Have also read ACC over the weekend.

It's not my favourite Dickens - it's a bit too rushed and as Dio says, laid on a bit thick. But as a tale to tell around the fireside at Christmas it's excellent: creepy and scary to the right degree, plenty of light as well as shade and a good outcome. I had never known of the nephew before but what a cracking example to set to us all.

A really good choice for the December read and I can see it becoming a traditional read for me every Christmas :-)
LindsD
LindsD
Dec 2021
6:34pm, 15 Dec 2021
51,508 posts
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LindsD
Totally loved this. Wasn't expecting to after slogging through GE. And what I wasn't expecting was how funny it was. I'm glad we chose it and I would read it again. Fab. Gave it a 9.
Columba
Columba
Dec 2021
9:45pm, 15 Dec 2021
21,464 posts
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Columba
I had read this several times before, so it didn't really hold any surprises, but I still enjoyed it. Yes, Dickens lays it on thick with Tiny Tim, but he always does lay it on thick (look at the death of Little Nell in Old Curiosity Shop) and I imagine the Victorians loved it.

There are touches of real darkness in it, like the two children briefly revealed beneath the Ghost of Christmas Present's robe and identified as Want and Ignorance. This is poverty beyond the Cratchits' poverty, real starvation and desperation stuff, and hardly fits with the rest of the story since there doesn't seem any hint of possible redemption there. It's as though Dickens is saying to his audience "Don't forget the real grinding misery in our city streets".

I wondered about Christmas Present being the ancestor of the present-day Santa Claus, and looked it up, but apparently the red-clad Santa originated later, with a picture in Harper's Bazaar of a tubby little man in red bringing presents to the troops (which troops, where, when? - I didn't note that)

About This Thread

Maintained by McGoohan
"You boy!"
"Me, mister?"
"Yes you young sir. What day is this?"
"Why 'tis St Choosinator's Day, sir.
"Splendid! St Choosinator's Day! Then I am not too late! Boy, take this shiney sixpence to the nearest independent bookshop and buy something absolutely impenetrable from the Booker shortlist."
"Sir?"
"And a goose. From Waitrose. Quick about it now."

It was always henceforth said of him, that he knew how to keep St Choosinator's Day well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Dan Brown observed, God bless Us, Every One!

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