A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens
Reviewed by Alicia


If you’re wanting to get past the hustle-and-bustle of this time of year and into the true holiday spirit, I definitely recommend "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. If you’ve never read Dickens before, it’s a good chance to try him out. If you labor under the assumption that all classical authors write in the sometimes difficult language of Shakespeare, let me assure you it’snot true! I read a pocket book edition, and it was very easy and fun to read. An understanding of human nature shows through well in Dickens’ writing. I imagine everyone has heard this story, seen a movie based on it, or at least heard about Scrooge, “the man who called Christmas ‘humbug’”, but the book is still interesting and relatively short. There are many brilliant characters who don’t take up a page of your time to introduce themselves, and Scrooge himself is incredibly well developed. Much, much is made of the season of Christmas in this book, but nothing is mentioned about the true “reason for the season”, unless you count that famous line “God bless us, everyone!”. Still, I believe that there is a good lesson in this book. There are four appearances of “ghosts,” of course -if you didn’t know, that’s basically what the story is about. But to the discerning reader, they shouldn’t be a problem. No reference is made to “who” actually sends them, they are simply taken as fact. The story keeps going, there are no pauses; it is remarkable to watch the change in Scrooge, of course, and my favorite part is the end, after he’s learned that his life should be about being generous. So, not only is this a book you can be proud of saying you are reading (hey, it’s a classic!), it should hold your interest! Check it out and have a very merry Christmas!!


A Christmas Carol Movies.
I wanted to watch quite a few versions of this movie for this review, but I couldn't find any great ones. I think my favorite will always be The Muppet Christmas Carol (yes, that’s right, with Jim Henson’s muppet characters!), but for those of you who don’t count the muppet movies as proper movie classics, there are lots of other versions out there!


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