A Christmas Carol (Illustrated Edition) E-Book

Charles Dickens.

• Herausgeber: MABED
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

A Christmas Carol is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. Carol tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation into a gentler, kindlier man after visitations by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come. The book was written at a time when the British were examining and exploring Christmas traditions from the past as well as new customs such as Christmas cards and Christmas trees. Carol singing took a new lease on life during this time. Dickens' sources for the tale appear to be many and varied, but are, principally, the humiliating experiences of his childhood, his sympathy for the poor, and various Christmas stories and fairy tales.

Leseprobe

A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens

(1843)

Digital Edition (2015) by MABED

ISBN: 9788898891207

www.mabed.it

[email protected]

The Author 

Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.

His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.

The Book

A Christmas Carol is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. Carol tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation into a gentler, kindlier man after visitations by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come.

The book was written at a time when the British were examining and exploring Christmas traditions from the past as well as new customs such as Christmas cards and Christmas trees. Carol singing took a new lease on life during this time. Dickens' sources for the tale appear to be many and varied, but are, principally, the humiliating experiences of his childhood, his sympathy for the poor, and various Christmas stories and fairy tales.

– Taken from Wikipedia

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

~ • ~

byCharles Dickens

ILLUSTRATED BY 

ARTHUR RACKHAM

"How now?" said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever.

"What do you want with me?"

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.

Stave One

— • —

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.