Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History A Christmas CarolOpen 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: Arthur Rackham
Release date: December 24, 2007 [eBook #24022]
Language: English
Original publication: Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott Company,, 1915
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24022
Credits: Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHRISTMAS CAROL ***
Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
[Illustration: _"How now?" said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever.
"What do you want with me?"_]
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
[Illustration]
BY
CHARLES DICKENS
[Illustration]
ILLUSTRATED BY ARTHUR RACKHAM
[Illustration]
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY PHILADELPHIA AND NEW YORK
FIRST PUBLISHED 1915
REPRINTED 1923, 1927, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1947, 1948, 1952, 1958,
1962, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973
ISBN: 0-397-00033-2
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
PREFACE
I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book to raise the Ghost of an
Idea which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with
each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their house
pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.
Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C. D.
_December, 1843._
CHARACTERS
Bob Cratchit, clerk to Ebenezer Scrooge.
Peter Cratchit, a son of the preceding.
Tim Cratchit ("Tiny Tim"), a cripple, youngest son of Bob Cratchit.
Mr. Fezziwig, a kind-hearted, jovial old merchant.
Fred, Scrooge's nephew.
Ghost of Christmas Past, a phantom showing things past.
Ghost of Christmas Present, a spirit of a kind, generous,
and hearty nature.
Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, an apparition showing the shadows
of things which yet may happen.
Ghost of Jacob Marley, a spectre of Scrooge's former partner in business.
Joe, a marine-store dealer and receiver of stolen goods.
Ebenezer Scrooge, a grasping, covetous old man, the surviving partner
of the firm of Scrooge and Marley.
Mr. Topper, a bachelor.
Dick Wilkins, a fellow apprentice of Scrooge's.
Belle, a comely matron, an old sweetheart of Scrooge's.
Caroline, wife of one of Scrooge's debtors.
Mrs. Cratchit, wife of Bob Cratchit.
Belinda and Martha Cratchit, daughters of the preceding.
Mrs. Dilber, a laundress.
Fan, the sister of Scrooge.
Mrs. Fezziwig, the worthy partner of Mr. Fezziwig.
CONTENTS
STAVE ONE--MARLEY'S GHOST 3
STAVE TWO--THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS 37
STAVE THREE--THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS 69
STAVE FOUR--THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS 111
STAVE FIVE--THE END OF IT 137
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
_IN COLOUR_
"How now?" said Scrooge, caustic
and cold as ever. "What do you
want with me?" _Frontispiece_
Bob Cratchit went down a slide on
Cornhill, at the end of a lane of
boys, twenty times, in honour of
its being Christmas Eve 16
Nobody under the bed; nobody in
the closet; nobody in his dressing-gown,
which was hanging up
in a suspicious attitude against
the wall 20
The air was filled with phantoms,
wandering hither and thither in
restless haste and moaning as
they went 32
Then old Fezziwig stood out to
dance with Mrs. Fezziwig 54
A flushed and boisterous group 62
Laden with Christmas toys and
presents 64
The way he went after that plump
sister in the lace tucker! 100
"How are you?" said one.
"How are you?" returned the other.
"Well!" said the first. "Old
Scratch has got his own at last,
hey?" 114
"What do you call this?" said Joe.
"Bed-curtains!" "Ah!" returned
the woman, laughing....
"Bed-curtains!"
"You don't mean to say you took
'em down, rings and all, with him
lying there?" said Joe.
"Yes, I do," replied the woman.
"Why not?" 120
"It's I, your uncle Scrooge. I have
come to dinner. Will you let
me in, Fred?" 144
"Now, I'll tell you what, my friend,"
said Scrooge. "I am not going
to stand this sort of thing any
longer." 146
[Illustration]
_IN BLACK AND WHITE_
Tailpiece vi
Tailpiece to List of Coloured Illustrations x
Tailpiece to List of Black and White Illustrations xi
Heading to Stave One 3
They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold 12
On the wings of the wind 28-29
Tailpiece to Stave One 34
Heading to Stave Two 37
He produced a decanter of curiously
light wine and a block of curiously heavy cake 50
She left him, and they parted 60
Tailpiece to Stave Two 65
Heading to Stave Three 69
There was nothing very cheerful in the climate 75
He had been Tim's blood-horse all the way from church 84-85
With the pudding 88
Heading to Stave Four 111
Heading to Stave Five 137
Tailpiece to Stave Five 147
[Illustration]
STAVE ONE
[Illustration]
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 brings me back to the point I started
from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly
understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to
relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's father died
before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his
taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts,
than there would be in any other middle-aged gentNext |