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A review by arianappstrg
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
5: If this story had a smell it would smell like pudding, mashed potatoes, and turkey.
A Christmas Carol is such a wholesome and inspiring little ghost story that it's difficult to find fault with it. I grew up obsessed with the Disney adaptation (pretty sure I still have it on DVD or VHS somewhere in my family home) so I'm quite emotional when I reminisce the story and its messages of kindness, charity, and compassion. And yes, I did read the story with Mickey and Donald's faces as Cratchit and Scrooge popping up in my head. The graveyard scene with the Ghost of Christmas Future pointing its sickly, deathly hand towards the tombstone still haunts me. In terms of writing, Dickens has a distinctly magical way of transforming gloomy, filthy, dingy, slimy, plain yikes Victorian London into a hopelessly dark labyrinth of mysticism and eeriness, where the simplest, most mundane things, like a tombstone or curtains, or the Tank where poor Cratchit does all his work, acquire otherworldly qualities. Interrupting the narration with glibs, comments, and jokes makes you feel like the story is told around the Christmas table or in a warm hearth in front of a softly crackling fire.
At times, I did become suspicious and sceptical of the idealization of Christmas and of the depiction of the Christmas spirit. Dickens aimed for this story to be social commentary that would endorse charity and establish a fairer social care system. But in doing so, he leans more on affecting the reader emotionally than having them use their common sense. In brief, the effects of the story are not long-lasting. You feel sad and hurt and angry when reading about Ignorance and Greed, Man's children, and your heart clenches when you hear of poor Tiny Tim's death but the emotions don't stay with you easily. Societies, from the Victorian era to the 21st-century, are far too desensitized for this story to take full effect and earn a permanent place at one's heart. And what happens to the poor when it's not Christmas? Is the charity and generosity of the rich confined to that time of the year?
But as I said, if you're like me and have linked the story to childhood memories of laughter, Christmas presents, food, and Disney, you'll find it hard to make your heart steel and assess the story as an adult reader.
At times, I did become suspicious and sceptical of the idealization of Christmas and of the depiction of the Christmas spirit. Dickens aimed for this story to be social commentary that would endorse charity and establish a fairer social care system. But in doing so, he leans more on affecting the reader emotionally than having them use their common sense. In brief, the effects of the story are not long-lasting. You feel sad and hurt and angry when reading about Ignorance and Greed, Man's children, and your heart clenches when you hear of poor Tiny Tim's death but the emotions don't stay with you easily. Societies, from the Victorian era to the 21st-century, are far too desensitized for this story to take full effect and earn a permanent place at one's heart. And what happens to the poor when it's not Christmas? Is the charity and generosity of the rich confined to that time of the year?
But as I said, if you're like me and have linked the story to childhood memories of laughter, Christmas presents, food, and Disney, you'll find it hard to make your heart steel and assess the story as an adult reader.
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death and Death
Tiny Tim's death is by no means minor! But in terms of how it is described and the references made to it... well... they aren't that explicit. They are just emotionally jarring. You feel the injustice of a little kid dying because the system that was supposed to protect him failed him but you don't explicitly read every gruesome detail of his death. The fear and the fury arise from the suggestion that the kid's death would have easily been avoided if he had proper medical care. But obviously, this is all hypothetical because at the end Tiny Tim doesn't die, he is saved by Scrooge's changed attitude to the poor .