#(i mean dickens doesn't totally get there with him but better)

[itspileofgoodthings]

thinking about when I told my students that not everyone was a complex character, some people were just bumming their way through the hallways of life

[lakecountylibrary]

A Christmas Carol in a different light

You've seen dozens of adaptations of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol but have you read the actual story? You may be surprised to find that Dickens had quite a sense of humor, though sometimes you need a little Victorian era background to appreciate it.

For example, when Scrooge approaches the door to his house, in the doorknocker he sees...

“Marley’s face. It was not in impenetrable shadow as the other objects in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar.”

This comparison means little to us modern readers but no one in Dickens' time had a fridge so shellfish, like lobsters, were kept in cold cellars. After time, they'd start to decay, attracting a photobacteria that glows in the dark! Puts Marley's appearance in a whole new light, doesn't it?

Later, when Scrooge expects the second spirit to arrive, the narrator tells the reader:

“...I don't mind calling on you to believe that he was ready for a good broad field of strange appearances, and that nothing between a baby and rhinoceros would have astonished him very much. Now, being prepared for almost anything, he was not by any means prepared for nothing; and, consequently, when the Bell struck One, and no shape appeared, he was taken with a violent fit of trembling.”

Wait until he sees the Ghost of Christmas Present!

We all know how the story ends but, just before the famous last words, the narrator tells us that Scrooge “had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards...”

Abstinence is refraining from alcoholic beverages, commonly referred to as “spirits” – get it?

If you like the theme of this classic tale, I highly encourage you to read it – or better yet, stream one of several unabridged audiobook versions on Hoopla. It's a delightful 3-hour ghost story!

See more of Chris's recs