A CHRISTMAS CAROL is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in
London on December 1843. The novella met with instant success and
critical acclaim. A Christmas 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 Christmas 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.
Dickens was not the first author to celebrate the Christmas season in
literature, but it was he who superimposed his humanitarian vision of
the holiday upon the public, an idea that has been termed as Dickens'
"Carol Philosophy". Dickens believed the best way to reach the broadest
segment of the population regarding his concerns about poverty and
social injustice was to write a deeply felt Christmas story rather than
polemical pamphlets and essays. Dickens' career as a best-selling author
was on the wane, and the writer felt he needed to produce a tale that
would prove both profitable and popular. Dickens' visit to the work-worn
industrial city of Manchester was the "spark" that fired the author to
produce a story about the poor, a repentant miser, and redemption that
would become A Christmas Carol. The forces that inspired Dickens to
create a powerful, impressive and enduring tale were the profoundly
humiliating experiences of his childhood, the plight of the poor and
their children during the boom decades of the 1830s and 1840s, and
Washington Irving's essays on old English Christmas traditions published
in his Sketch Book (1820); and fairy tales and nursery stories, as well
as satirical essays and religious tracts.
