Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol

• ISBN-13: 9781593080334
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Publication date: 4/1/2004
• Pages: 304

Generations of readers have been enchanted by Dickens's A Christmas Carol - perhaps the most cheerful ghost story ever. Written in just a few weeks, A Christmas Carol famously recounts the plight of Bob Cratchit, whose family finds joy even in poverty, and the moral regeneration of his miserly boss Ebenezer Scrooge as he is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. 
 From Scrooge's "Bah!" and "Humbug!" to Tiny Tim's "God bless us every one!" A Christmas Carol shines with warmth, decency, kindness, humility, and the values of the holidays. But beneath its sentimental surface, A Christmas Carol offers another of Dickens's sharply critical portraits of a brutal society, and an inspiring celebration of the possibility of spiritual, psychological, and social change. 
 This new volume collects Dickens's three most renowned "Christmas Books," including The Chimes, a New Year's tale and The Cricket on the Hearth, whose eponymous insect chirps amid happiness. 
 
As I really only have The Muppets Christmas Carol as a reference, I have to say - they did a pretty good job of keeping everything accurate. There was never a moment when I said to myself, "Well, that wasn't in the movie."
 But since this is not a movie review, that's all I'll say as far as that goes. I really just wanted to point out that I already knew Scrooge's story fairly well. And it's still one of my favorite Christmas stories. I love the spirit of Christmas present, and I kind of wish he would show up to me some Christmas Eve and take me around and generally have a rockin' good time. Although I would be terribly sad when he eventually grew old as dawn approached. Since everyone pretty much knows A Christmas Carol, I'm pretty much going to leave that one alone. Go read it!
 The second short story in this collection was entitled, "The Chimes." I'm not going to lie to you - I'm not 100% certain what this story was about, for one simple reason - it was a little confusing and also I was extremely tired when I was reading part of it, and was probably fading in and out of consciousness a bit, I blush to say. Essentially, there's a little package-carrier named Trotty that meets the spirits of some bells and they teach him a lesson. That's the major theme in all these stories - spirits teaching lessons. He spends a lot of time thinking about how people are generally bad and especially other poor people, for some reason. The spirits show him that sometimes circumstances lead otherwise good people into desperate situations, and show him a horrible future, pretty just because he was thinking negative thoughts. Of course, he returns home and is grateful for his meager life for the rest of his days.
 Parte trois de this collection is "The Cricket on the Hearth," which is an absolutely lovely story of pure love between two good people and the extent to which love can carry one. That's a lot of love, guys. There's a bitter old man who changes his ways, a sweet little blind girl whose father hides the reality of their bleak life from her unseeing eyes, and a former lover of a young girl who almost destroys a marriage (unintentionally). Sound confusing and like they might not all belong in the same story? I promise it makes total sense and it's a beautiful story. Kind of made me want to have a cricket in my fire place, although I absolutely loathe bugs.
 Overall: A
 Charles Dickens is always a pleasure, but I was particularly pleased with these short stories. They all involved families gathered around a certain communal living space learning to appreciate what they had. And for Christmas, what other lesson is there, really?