Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens

Ebenezer Scrooge, the very definition of grumpy miserliness, gets a second chance at figuring out what's really important in life, with the help of some ghosts who give him an unforgettable version of "This is Your Life." In the book's famous opening scene, on the night just before Christmas the old miser Ebenezer Scrooge sits in his freezing cold counting house, oblivious to the discomfort of his shivering young assistant Bob Cratchit. Scrooge is ceaselessly rude to relatives and visitors alike who drop in to convey their Christmas greetings or ask for a contribution to charity. Scrooge returns to his equally chilly mansion where he has an extraordinary supernatural experience. The spirit of his dead partner, Marley appears narrating tales of eternal suffering that he is condemned to endure because of the mean and uncharitable deeds that Marley did when he was alive. Marley tells Scrooge that three other supernatural visitors will make their appearance over the next three nights. The rest of the book traces the events that happen when these three otherworldly beings visit Scrooge. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is a quintessential piece of what Christmas is all about (and maybe a touch Halloween, too!). The story succeeds in entrancing so many of us because it touches upon the emotions, the senses, the human condition, and encapsulates it all in the life and death struggle we all go through...plus, who doesn't love a good ghost story and a happy ending?! A pearl in your book shelf.