Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History

A Christmas Carol

Open Original Text

The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Christmas Carol
 
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.

Title: A Christmas Carol

Author: Charles Dickens

Illustrator: George Alfred Williams

 
Release date: September 20, 2006 [eBook #19337]
 Most recently updated: January 21, 2009

Language: English

Original publication: New York The Platt & Peck Co. Copyright, , by The Baker & Taylor Company, 1905

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19337

Credits: Produced by Jason Isbell and the Online Distributed
 Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHRISTMAS CAROL ***

Produced by Jason Isbell and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

By CHARLES DICKENS

ILLUSTRATED BY
GEORGE ALFRED WILLIAMS

New York
THE PLATT & PECK CO.

_Copyright, 1905, by_ THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY

[Illustration: "He had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church."]

INTRODUCTION

The combined qualities of the realist and the idealist which Dickens
possessed to a remarkable degree, together with his naturally jovial
attitude toward life in general, seem to have given him a remarkably
happy feeling toward Christmas, though the privations and hardships of
his boyhood could have allowed him but little real experience with this
day of days.

Dickens gave his first formal expression to his Christmas thoughts in
his series of small books, the first of which was the famous "Christmas
Carol," the one perfect chrysolite. The success of the book was
immediate. Thackeray wrote of it: "Who can listen to objections
regarding such a book as this? It seems to me a national benefit, and to
every man or woman who reads it, a personal kindness."

This volume was put forth in a very attractive manner, with
illustrations by John Leech, who was the first artist to make these
characters live, and his drawings were varied and spirited.

There followed upon this four others: "The Chimes," "The Cricket on the
Hearth," "The Battle of Life," and "The Haunted Man," with illustrations
on their first appearance by Doyle, Maclise, and others. The five are
known to-day as the "Christmas Books." Of them all the "Carol" is the
best known and loved, and "The Cricket on the Hearth," although third in
the series, is perhaps next in point of popularity, and is especially
familiar to Americans through Joseph Jefferson's characterisation of
Caleb Plummer.

Dickens seems to have put his whole self into these glowing little
stories. Whoever sees but a clever ghost story in the "Christmas Carol"
misses its chief charm and lesson, for there is a different meaning in
the movements of Scrooge and his attendant spirits. A new life is
brought to Scrooge when he, "running to his window, opened it and put
out his head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring cold;
cold, piping for the blood to dance to; Golden sun-light; Heavenly sky;
sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious!" All this
brightness has its attendant shadow, and deep from the childish heart
comes that true note of pathos, the ever memorable toast of Tiny Tim,
"God bless Us, Every One!" "The Cricket on the Hearth" strikes a
different note. Charmingly, poetically, the sweet chirping of the little
cricket is associated with human feelings and actions, and at the crisis
of the story decides the fate and fortune of the carrier and his wife.

Dickens's greatest gift was characterization, and no English writer,
save Shakespeare, has drawn so many and so varied characters. It would
be as absurd to interpret all of these as caricatures as to deny Dickens
his great and varied powers of creation. Dickens exaggerated many of his
comic and satirical characters, as was his right, for caricature and
satire are very closely related, while exaggeration is the very essence
of comedy. But there remains a host of characters marked by humour and
pathos. Yet the pictorial presentation of Dickens's characters has ever
tended toward the grotesque. The interpretations in this volume aim to
eliminate the grosser phases of the caricature in favour of the more
human. If the interpretations seem novel, if Scrooge be not as he has
been pictured, it is because a more human Scrooge was desired--a Scrooge
not wholly bad, a Scrooge of a better heart, a Scrooge to whom the
resurrection described in this story was possible. It has been the
illustrator's whole aim to make these people live in some form more
fully consistent with their types.

 GEORGE ALFRED WILLIAMS.
_Chatham, N.J._

CONTENTS

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

STAVE PAGE

 I _Marley's Ghost_ 11
 II _The First of the Three Spirits_ 32
III _The Second of the Three Spirits_ 51
 IV _The Last of the Spirits_ 76
 V _The End of it_ 93

ILLUSTRATIONS

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

_"He had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church."_ Frontispiece

_"A Merry Christmas, Uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice._ 14

_To sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence, for a moment,
 would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him._ 26

_"You recollect the way?" inquired the spirit. "Remember it!" cried
 Scrooge, with fervour; "I could walk it blindfold."_ 36

_"Why, it's Ali Baba!" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. "It's dear old
 honest Ali Baba!"_ 38

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

In Prose

BEING A GHOST STORY OF CHRISTMAS

STAVE ONE

MARLEY'S GHOST

Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.
The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the
undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name
was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old
Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there
is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined,
myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in
the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my
unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You
will, therefore, permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as
dead as a door-nail.

Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise?
Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge
was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his
sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even
Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was
an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and
solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.

The mention of Marley's funeral

Next