Barry's Blog

Charles Dickens began writing his "Little Carol" in October, 1843, finishing it by the end of November in time to be published for Christmas. Dickens (1812-1870), already the successful author of such titles as Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, and Nicholas Nickleby, was one of the most loved novelists of his day when he wrote this short novel. Originally published on December 17th, 1843, A Christmas Carol became an instant success, with the first 6,000 copies of its initial print-run being sold out by Christmas. An additional 2,000 copies from the second printing were snapped up by the 6th of January. Tremendously popular from its publication, A Christmas Carol has remained Dickens' most widely enjoyed work.

Yet, the book's publication had not been filled with Christmas cheer. Feuding with his publishers, Dickens had financed the entire production of the book, ordering lavish binding, gilt edging, and hand-colored illustrations commissioned by John Leech to illustrate the volume (Leech had become an artist to support himself after the bankruptcy of his family forced him to abandon the medical studies he was pursuing in anatomical drawing). As in his previous novels, the plight of the poor was a primary motivation for Dickens to write A Christmas Carol (there was a severe economic depression in England during the 1840's). Yet he was also challenged to write a new work because his current serial work was selling badly. Threatened with a reduction in salary, in debt, and with his wife expecting their fifth child, Dickens urgently needed royalties. And while the sales were outstanding, the sale price of five shillings (to make it affordable to all) resulted in embarrassingly low profits.

Despite his personal disappointment with the book (he would break off relations with his publishers, Chapman and Hall, and publish elsewhere the following fifteen years), Dickens had nevertheless created a new literary genre in the Christmas story. There is little doubt that his character, Ebenezer Scrooge, the penny-pinching miser, is one of the most memorable personalities in all of literature. Scrooge particulary hates Christmas, which he views as "a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer." Early on in the book,  Scrooge is described as: "A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice."

You are probably familiar with the story, how Scrooge, a most wretched human being,  is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his former partner Jacob Marley, who died seven Christmas Eves ago. Marley, a miser of the same ilk as Scrooge, suffering the consequences of a poorly lived life in the afterworld, hopes to help Scrooge avoid a similar fate. He tells Scrooge that he will be haunted by three spirits, the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, who as the story unfolds, will show Scrooge the error of his ways. By the book's end, Scrooge has a new-found benevolence, as he raises Bob Cratchit's salary, and vows to assist his family, including Bob's crippled son, Tiny Tim. In the end, Dickens reports that Scrooge became "as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew."

Scrooge, through the visitation of the spirits, comes to realize that a full life is so much more than simply making money and acquiring stuff. It also involves our concern and charity beginning with our own families, and among friends, and our benevolence extended toward those less fortunate than ourselves. Though Dickens penned this work over one hundred and fifty years ago, his message still has a power and relevance to our own day. How will we be remembered? What kind of legacy are we building among our families, friends, and colleagues? What are we trying to do with our lives? Penetrating, sobering, thoughtful questions, for each one of us...

Perhaps the heart of Dickens' message to us is captured early on in the book, through the words of Scrooge's nephew:

"I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round--apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that--as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys..."

For FinishingWell,

 Barry Morrow