Saturday, December 21, 2013

C_Club #15: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Again, I find myself in the situation of having to write something coherent about a hugely famous story. I don't remember having read A Christmas Carol before, at least not in its full length, but it's hard to not know about the story because of film adaptions.
 
I also started the book this time around with a warm and fuzzy feeling that I had got from a book I read back in summer - in A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) there is a scene where some of the cast prepare to perform the play of A Christmas Carol on stage; in the book this piece of storyline carries a strong importance and there are humorous bits that surround it, and remembering that made me smile instantly when I picked up Dickens' novella.
 
It's been a long while since I read anything by Dickens - I read David Copperfield in my teens, and I attempted A Tale of Two Cities earlier this year, but it didn't happen, mentally I wasn't ready. However, A Christmas Carol is not difficult to read or follow. It is built in a quite simple and straight-forward manner - description of the life of Ebenezer Scrooge as it is at the given moment, meeting the ghosts of the past, present and future, and then it is back to the given moment, only Scrooge is transformed after his experiences.
 
A Christmas Carol tells about the importance of being nice, shortly put. In the beginning, Ebenezer Scrooge is lost, in a way; he does not come off as evil, rather he does not see the point in being nice. He doesn't see many things - he is yet to realise that hoarding wealth is quite pointless if you do not have a good idea of what to do with it or people to enjoy it with. What I found interesting is that he didn't actually need a lot of convincing in the book; right from the beginning, when he encounters the ghost of his former business partner, you can see that he is actually very eager to change. Having the opportunity to see, whilst invisible, how others take him for a hopeless person comes as kind of enlightenment, it looks like he has never even given a second thought of how his rational ways may seem to other people.
 
The final bit of the book has very different tone from the bleakness of the beginning; it is a chapter full of light, that celebrates hope and the way a human can change. Maybe it is true that in essence, a human being is good by nature, just that there are several factors and experiences on the path of life that can alter this goodness into being hidden, or being something else. Scrooge is determined to set his affairs right and most of all it felt like the huge burden had been taken from his chest, as if he didn't even want to be the kind of person he was, and he was genuinely happy to change.
 
I guess such a book could be taken as a bit cheesy, but whether one thinks that or not, I think the message of the story is simple and in its right place, and one we all need to remind ourselves (and the others) from time to time: that it is important to be nice, and moreover - it is never too late to change.
 
I read this book with Sam and Christine.
 
Find Sam's review here:
 

11 comments:

  1. I agree that it is a bit cheesy, but Dickens gets away with it because it is Christmas!
    Great review, it's interesting to see what your reading experience was like compared to mine, as you were reading it for the first time and I've read it a few times before. And it's definitely very easy for Dickens - if only all of his books were like this!

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    1. I think David Copperfield was also fairly easy to understand, as I was quite young and enjoyed it a lot - given, I probably touched only the shallower layers of the story back then, but it was a smooth read :) I really want to tackle Bleak House some time soon(ish).

      It was nice to read A Christmas Carol with you!

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  2. I'm planning on reviewing this as well - a little daunting! :) Your's is very good, though - I think you've nailed it!

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    1. Thanks :) I find talking about classics daunting in general because I always have this fear that I didn't get the "point" or didn't understand the book in the way it was supposed to be understood... But our thoughts are so subjective and I guess I should remind myself that more often! :)

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  3. I don't think you can go wrong with cheesiness at Christmas. I'm giving up on A Tale of Two Cities so I may have to try this and see if Dickens can redeem himself.

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    1. Tale of Two Cities is one of my least favourite Dickens, I have to say.

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    2. Ellie - exactly. I don't respond well to cheesiness in general, but Christmas time turns even my ol' cynic heart a little bit more tender :) It's a short read (my copy was 86 pages), so it's definitely worth a try.

      o - I'm not sure where it went wrong with A Tale of the Two Cities for me, maybe a bad timing, but I'm pretty sure it won't end up to be my favourite Dickens either.

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  4. Well really, there's not much to say except yay, this is a great Christmas-y book and I really should have aimed to read it this year (I read it a year or two ago).

    But did you see the newest Epic Rap Battle? Trump's part sucks, but the rest is BRILLIANT - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP6VqB4klpQ

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    1. Haha no I hadn't, thanks for the link. Poor Scrooge :) The Spirit of Future sure is more blunt in the video than it was in the book :D

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  5. So glad we got to read this one together! I've just published my post -- I forget we're in such different times zones, Sunday is still young here :)

    I've been meaning to read A Prayer for Owen Meany for so long and this reference is really putting me in the mood for it now, it just may need to get bumped to my "shortlist."

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    1. A Prayer for Owen Meany is probably my strangest reading experience of the year, after I finished it I didn't quite get what all the hype was about, but then in time it just grows on me more and more! It is rarely when I have such experiences with books :)

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