A Christmas Carol (book)

A Christmas Carol ("A Christmas Story") (full title: A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas) is a Novella by Charles Dickens.

A Christmas Carol first appeared on december 19, 1843 and was sold out on the 22nd. The first version was illustrated by John Leech. The book was an immediate success with sales of 6000 copies within a week.

The book came out at a time when less and less the old traditions of Christmas in honour were held, and new such as Christmas cards appeared. A Christmas Carol, partly as a result as possible. The themes of the story, social injustice and poverty, the relationship between them and their causes and consequences, are recurring themes in Dickens ' work. The illustrator of the first edition, John Leech, was also a politically radical artist.



Content
[hide] *1 the story  ==The story[ Edit] == Read warning: text below contains details about the content and/or the end of the story.A Christmas Carol is a Victorian allegory about an old and bitter miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, who has a number of dreams in the night before Christmas and thereby comes to repent. Scrooge is a financier and money changer who are life long has focused on getting more money and nothing else. He despised other than money, including friendship, love and the thought of the Christmas party. Dickens has the story divided into five chapters.
 * Publication 2
 * 3 Receipt
 * 4 A Christmas Carol in film, on television and in the theatre
 * 5   Sue

The story begins on Christmas Eve, exactly seven years after the death of Scrooges business partner, Jacob Marley, with whom he once their business, "Scrooge & Marley", began. Scrooge and his bookkeeperBob Cratchit are at work at the Office, with Cratchit in a poorly heated room-victim of the avarice of Scrooge. Fred, Scrooge's nephew, comes along to his uncle a ' happy Christmas ' to be desired and invite him for Christmas dinner on Christmas day. Scrooge sends him away with comments like "yuck! Rubbish! ". The gentlemen who then arrive to collect for the poor to be fleeced by Scrooge with the comments that the workshops and the Dutch poverty enough for the poor. If the men's answers that they die would prefer above end up in a Poorhouse, Scrooge replies "if they'd rather die ... then they should do so and so reduce the overpopulation". At the end of the day is a day off for Cratchit in Scrooge grunting with on Christmas day, as long as his boxing day comes to compensate than previously.

Scrooge goes home late, a stately building that used to be of the late Jacob Marley was. He lives in a small room and the rest of the House is rented as an Office. His room is dark and cold to save costs. If he puts the key in the lock, he scares the knocker on the door the shape of the ghostly face of Marley. This is the beginning of a memorable night. Sounds in the dark on the stairs, sounds of sliding latches and slamming doors elsewhere in the House, and an inexplicable clinking of the disused bediendenbel before a visit from the spirit Marley while Scrooge by the fire are pap is to eat. Marley has come to Scrooge to warn him that his current lifestyle will bring the same fate as Marley after his death: condemned to roam about the Earth as an atonement for the lack of charity during his lifetime. As a symbol of his torture carries Marley a heavy chain with symbolic objects from his life, but then in solid metal: cash books, money boxes, keys and the like. Marley warns that the fate of Scrooge may be worse, because his chain was seven years ago, just as long as that of Marley, and he has them with his egocentric lifestyle made only longer. Marley tells Scrooge that he has a chance to fulfill his destiny to escape by visits of three spirits who will come one by one.Scrooge is shocked but not entirely convinced that he not hallucinated and goes to bed, thinking that a good night's rest will do him good.

The first of the three spiritsAt 1: 00 am the first spirit calling itself ' spirit of Christmas Past "(" Ghost of Christmas Past ') calls. He leads Scrooge along some of the happiest and verdrietigste events, events that have made past Scrooge from Scrooges to what he is now. The events concerning his father (which even with Christmas Scrooge stood up on a lonely boarding school), the loss of his great love by too much attention to the business and the death of his sister, the only person who gave him love and attention. No longer able to endure the painful memories and with an increasingly becoming feeling of regret, he begs the mind to let go of him home. Back in his room is 12 hours.

The second of the three spiritsAt 2 o'clock in the morning (once again) appears the second spirit that one's spirit of Current Christmas ' (' Ghost of Christmas Present ') calls. This spirit shows him the scant Christmas feast of the Cratchit family, the good character of the crippled son, Tiny Tim, and the possible early death of this boy. This prospect put Scrooge really thinking and he shows pity. The spirit reminds him of his words from earlier that day about reducing the overpopulation. They also visit cousin Fred where a Merry Christmas is celebrated with a game where a person guessed must be with only yes/no questions. Fred has of course Ebenezer Scrooge in mind and by the questions is his character brought to judgment. The chapter ends with symbolic showing two children, ignorance and need (Ignorance and Because), standing under the mantle of the spirit, and that the main causes of personify the suffering in the world. If Scrooge asks if they have no place to live again the spirit quotes him: "are there no poor homes?". After this visit Scrooge returns back to his room and allows the clock again at 12 o'clock.

The third and final spirit<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">The third, silent spirit, the ' spirit of Future Christmas ', (' Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come ') comes just after midnight. He confronts Scrooge with his own death: a group of people talks about the recently deceased "old scraper". Stuff from his house be sold, and in doing so shows how much his death humans cold late. Scrooge goes to him initially not that it recognizes itself. They visit also the home of the Cratchits that celebrate Christmas without Tiny Tim. As Scrooge begs the spirit to tell who the "old scraper" is the spirit, shows him his own tombstone.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">The last chapter talks about Scrooge that his life changes and the generous, gentle man is that he was for the death of his sister. He gives the command a boy on Christmas morning the butcher a Turkey ' twice as big as Tiny Tim Cratchit to be delivered to the family '.He apologizes at the men's collecterende and does a generous contribution. In addition, he takes Fred to cousin's invitation to join him to celebrate the Christmas party. ==Publication<span class="mw-editsection" len="341" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == The first edition<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Dickens was not the first author that a story dedicated to the Christmas period, but one of the first to his own vision on the Christmas party gave in a book.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Kelly12_1-0" len="184" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"> [1]  Dickens used among other things his own experiences of his youth, and Washington Irving's stories about an authentic British Christmas party as a source of inspiration.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Dickens began in October 1843 to A Christmas Carol,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Slater_43_2-0" len="186" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[2]  and completed the book in six weeks time.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Douglas-Fairhurst_xix_3-0" len="198" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"> [3]  the book was published by Chapman and Hall. The first edition was bound in red leather, and feature images by John Leech. ==Receipt<span class="mw-editsection" len="340" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">The book was a huge success, and by may 1844 there were already seven pressing sold out. The Athenaeum literary magazine called the story "A tale to make the reader laugh and cry — to open his hands, and open his heart to charity even toward the uncharitable [...] a dainty dish to set before a King. " Also William Makepeace Thackeray and poet Thomas Hood praised the book. Even Theodore Martin, which was so far little to speak about Dickens ' stories, admitted that A Christmas Carol had surpassed his expectations.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Glancy_xii_4-0" len="187" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"> [4]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Not everyone, however, gave the book an equally good assessment. "The New Monthly Magazine" was of the opinion that the book hard to get was for deprived people, and insisted therefore that there is a cheaper Edition would be released. Also in America was less excited in front of A Christmas Carol, especially since Dickens would have mortified their national pride with his stories American Notes and Martin Chuzzlewit. After the American civil war, however, also got A Christmas Carol in America foothold.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Dickens played in on the success of A Christmas Carol by in 1844, 1845, 1846, and 1848<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Douglas-Fairhurst_xxii_5-0" len="199" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[5]  to publish annually a new Christmas story: The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, and The Haunted Man and the ghost's Bargain . ==A Christmas Carol in film, on television and in the theatre<span class="mw-editsection" len="388" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">A Christmas Carol is numerous times modified for theatre, film and television. According to the Internet Movie Database was the first film adaptation all from 1901.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" len="176" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"> [6]  the first edits for the theatre, however, not always happened with Dickens ' permission. For example, in February 1844 for eight rival theatre productions were based on "A Christmas Carol" stepped up, including one by Edward Stirling.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In addition to direct film adaptations of the classic tale, there are also many modernized versions with other characters from another time period. A selection from the list of adaptations:

==Sue<span class="mw-editsection" len="340" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Dickens close the story off with two short paragraphs in which he tells that Tiny Tim survives and that Scrooge is known by his newfound goodness. This happy ending gives no further details about what happens with the characters.
 * Scrooge (1935) with Seymour Hicks as Scrooge.
 * A Christmas Carol (1938) with Reginald Owen as Scrooge and Gene and Kathleen Lockhart as the Cratchits.
 * Scrooge (1951) (1951) (renamed to A Christmas Carol for the American release), with Alastair Sim as Scrooge.
 * A Christmas Carol (1954), a television film with Fredric March as Scrooge and Basil Rathbone as Marley.
 * Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962), a cartoon for television of UPA.
 * Scrooge (1970), a filmed musical like Scrooge with Albert Finney and Alec Guinness as Marley spirit.
 * A Christmas Carol (1970), at least 31 years staged in the theater Raleigh Memorial Auditorium.
 * A Christmas Carol (1971), an Oscar-winning partial cartoon with Alastair Sim as Scrooge
 * A Christmas Carol (1977) directed by Moira Armstrong with Michael Hordern, John Le Mesurier and Bernard Lee
 * The Stingiest Man in Town (1979), a comic tv musical produced by Rankin-Bass with Walter Matthau as the voice of Scrooge and Tom Bosley as Narrator.
 * An American Christmas Carol (1979), an adaptation in which the story has been moved to New England in the 1930s and the Scrooge has the name Benedict Slade.
 * Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol (1979), tv-cartoons with various Looney Tunescharacters.
 * The miraculous cure of Ebenezer Scrooge (1979), musical directed by Willy van Hemert with Henk van Villeda as Scrooge. Continue with Bram van der Vlugt, Paul of Gorcum, Marjan Berk, and more.
 * Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), a short cartoon with various Walt Disney characters, such as Scrooge McDuck (English name: Scrooge McDuck) in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge.
 * A Christmas Carol (1984), one for a Primetime Emmy Award nominated television movie with George c. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge.
 * The Gospel according to Scrooge (1986), a theatre musical that emphasizes the religious elements of the story and us churches still is performed.
 * Scrooged (1988), an adaptation in contemporary context, directed by Richard Donner, with Bill Murray as annoying tv producer who is haunted by the spirits of Christmas.
 * Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988), a parody in which the philanthropist Ebenezer BlackAdder a Tightwad is after a visit from the ghosts of Christmas.
 * The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), with various Muppetcharacters and with Michael Caine as Scrooge.
 * The Flintstones Christmas Carol (1994), cartoon with Fred Flintstone as ' Ebenezer Scrooge ', Barney as ' Bob Crachit ' and Mr. Slate as "Jacob Marley"
 * E (1995), the first operation with the role of Scrooge played by a woman with Susan Lucci as Elizabeth "Ebbie" Scrooge, the chilly owner of a department store.
 * A Solstice Carol (1996), a holiday episode of Xena: Warrior Princess in which Scrooge is replaced by an evil King and the three spirits have been replaced by the three fates of Greek mythology.
 * Ebenezer (1997), a Canadian tv production in western style with Jack Palance and Rick Schroder.
 * A Christmas Carol (1999), a film adaptation of the book again but performed with modern techniques and with Patrick Stewart as Ebenezer Scrooge
 * The Family Man (2000), is not a direct adaptation, but the story of a rich, chilly businessman (Nicolas Cage) who learns the meaning of Christmas by a supernatural event is inspired by the story of Dickens.
 * A Carol Christmas (2003), a television adaptation with Tori Spelling as "Scroogette" and William Shatner as the spirit of Current Christmas.
 * Caroll's Christmas (2004), with modern spirits that on Christmas Eve visits the House of the wrong man.
 * A Sesame Street Christmas Carol (2006), a Sesame Street characters based on dvd movie with Oscar the Courtney monster in the role of Scrooge.
 * A Camden Christmas Carol <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" len="176" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[7]  (2006), a multimedia operation for theatre played by the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts from Camden (New Jersey).
 * Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009), a film adaptation by Robert Zemeckis with Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge.
 * The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol (2011)

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Various authors in this hole blown and have written a sequel, on the internet or as novel (and even on television). Two examples:


 * Timothy Cratchit's House Christmas Carol, 1917: A Sequel to the Charles Dickens Classic by Dale Powell. In this version is ' Tiny Tim ' a rich immigrant in America that his own mind get visits on Christmas Eve.
 * "Scrooge & Cratchit" (scrooge-and-cratchit.com, 2002) by Matt McHugh. Seven years after the original is Bob Cratchit Scrooge's partner and they stand facing bankers who equally ruthless as Scrooge in his worst years.