Ghostly Story for the Holidays
Categories: Entertainment , Movies & Books , Fiction
Charles Dickens wrote a masterpiece when he came up with A Christmas Carol. I am partial to stories with ghosts in them, and this is one of the best. We have not only the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet-to-Come scaring the socks off Scrooge, but old Marley long deceased showing up as well. And how about the homeless suffering poor that wail their dirge outside Scrooge's window? Creepy, but he deserved it.
I will never forget that Scrooge was in denial as long as possible. He blamed the manifestations on "an underdone potato" or "an undigested bit of beef"!
There have been lots of film adaptations of the story with terrific portrayals of Scrooge, including George C Scott, Patrick Stewart, musical Albert Finney, and even Bill Murray in the modern "Scrooged". My favorite has to be "Scrooge" (1951) with Alastair Sim capturing the old miser perfectly!
It's just amazing to me how a story created in 1843 can be so timely today. Merry Christmas, 163 years later!
A Christmas Carol in book form has been in continuous publication since Charles Dickens published the first run of 6000 copies with hand-tinted plates in 1843. He also adapted it into a performance script, for reading aloud at his personal appearances.
Since then, the book has been condensed, annotated, abridged, recorded, performed as a play, and made into movies. The Muppets, Disney, "All Dogs", Sesame Street, and even Mr. Magoo have all done it mainly with children in mind.
"A Christmas Carol" is always popular as a stage play during the holidays as well, including an outstanding production at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and several neighborhood theaters.
Dickens drew extensively on his own personal life experience for his books. The house of Bob Cratchit was based on his own house in Camden Town. As a child, his father went to debtor's prison and he had to go to work in a bootblack factory, which forever influenced his attitudes toward the working poor and working children particularly.
The story warms the heart and gives hope. It has been tremendously popular since it sold out its first printing of 6000 in a few days. The characters, the language, and the atmosphere have stood the test of time, and the story is just as popular today as it ever was.
