A UNIQUE BOOK -- Dickens' original handwritten manuscript of A
Christmas Carol together with a typed text on the opposite page.
"Its impressive eloquence, its unfeigned lightness of heart, its playful
and sparkling humour, its gentle spirit of humanity" all put the reader
"in good humour with ourselves, with each other, with the season and
with the author." -- The Illustrated London News
A Christmas Carol was "a national benefit and to every man or woman who
reads it, a personal kindness." - Thackeray
Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in six weeks, at the end of
1843, during a particularly intense time of creativity. He was suffering
financial difficulties and was determined to have the manuscript ready
for publication for the Christmas market. This book contains a clear
copy of Dickens' one and only handwritten manuscript, with his revisions
and corrections evident on every page. The revisions show how Dickens
made the verbs become more active and reduced the number of words,
thereby achieving greater immediacy and vividness. The manuscript was
published on 19th December, 1843, and sold out on Christmas Eve, 1843.
This edition has each of the sixty-six pages of the original handwritten
manuscript on the left-hand page and the corresponding words typed on
the right-hand page. The book contains the eight original illustrations
by John Leech.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is generally considered the greatest
English novelist of the Victorian era. At the centenary of his death,
critical opinion placed him second only to Shakespeare. His many novels
include David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities,
Great Expectations, and Our Mutual Friend. Dickens enjoyed a wider
popularity during his lifetime than any other author had. His work
appealed to both the simple and the sophisticated and he rapidly
achieved worldwide fame. His vividly detailed writing, his compassion,
and his forensic depiction of his society and its shortcomings enriched
his novels and made him both one of the great forces in nineteenth
century literature and the conscience of his age.
