“A Christmas Carol” – published

ON THIS DATE

Charles Dickens published his famous “A Christmas Carol”  12/17/1843.

Dickens Quotes:

“My advice is to never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.” David Copperfield

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”

“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”

“God bless us, every one!”  A Christmas Carol

“And this is the eternal law. For, Evil often stops short at itself and dies with the doer of it! but Good, never.” Our Mutual Friend

Read Full Post »

Charles Dickens – Published, Dec. 19, 1843

“Bah!” “Humbug,” and “Scrooge” are all readily recognized words anytime of year, but especially in December.  And, for good reason – as they are connected to a work called A Christmas Carol. 

 

Charles Dickens on this date, 12/19/1843, had published A Christmas Carol (publishers: Chapman and Hall), what is in literature known as a novella (nō vel’ lä).  One source says he didn’t start it until in October of that year and did not finish it until the early days of December.  Dickens divided his story, in line with his title, into five stanzas or what most would label chapters.

 

Scrooge, his main character, has a biblical word of his first name, Ebenezer.  And though A Christmas Carol is not a Christian story as such, it seems to have helped make readers/hearers less selfish on and near Christmas.  Two fellow writers, Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas Carlyle, both seem to have been more give to generiosity after the story appeared.  Reportedly as a result of it, a Boston manufacturer closed his factory for Christmas Day and gave a turkey to each employee.  Even the queen of Norway, later, is said to have given gifts to some crippled children marked “With Tiny Tim’s Love.”

 

A Christmas Carol is still popular and is reported to have never gone out of print.

Read Full Post »

Charles Dickens – birth, Feb. 7, 1812

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

 

The wind is rushing after us, and the clouds are flying after us, and the moon is plunging after us, and the whole wild night is in pursuit of us; but, so far we are pursued by nothing else.

 

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.

 

I am the Resurrection, and the Life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

 

All the above from Dickens Tale of Two Cities

 

Charles Dickens, one of the greatest (if not the greatest) British novelists was born this date (2/7/1812) in England.  He also wrote David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, etc.   

Read Full Post »