It’s only in recent times - the last few years - that I’ve really started reading the works of Charles Dickens; well, now I’m finished them in fact. For several years I would read
A Christmas Carol for my sister Karen every Christmas - became a sort of tradition with us - and one year, bored with doing the same thing, I rewrote it for her. Prior to that, the only Dickens I had read was
Oliver Twist, several times (because Karen likes to hear/read books more than once, unlike me who, once I’ve read a book, seldom if ever revisit it) and had to admit I wasn’t a fan of his style. But a few years back I got his complete novels and we decided to go through them. If nothing else, it would eat up a year or two as we worked through the fifteen finished novels, and as we went along I do have to admit I began to acquire a new respect for the man. Of course, I knew and accepted he was feted as a genius, one of the best English writers - one of the best humanity has ever produced, placed on a level with the great William Shakespeare and with few if any peers other than him, but I just had never really liked his style, which seemed overly descriptive of ordinary matters.
Now, I can honestly say I’m a fan. I was wrong in my initial assessment of him, and I can now see why he is rated so very highly. In addition to reading all his novels, we also read a biography of the man, which was almost as interesting, and other connected works. All of which, of course, gave me the idea for yet another journal.
This one will work rather similarly to the one about Prince, wherein I trace the man’s beginnings from his early childhood to his first writings, and then feature those writings - be they stories, novels, novellas or other articles - and comment upon them as I feel it may be needed. So all his works will be looked at in chronological order, and I will be trying to cover them all. Needless to say, the synopses will contain many spoilers, so if you’re just getting into his works, or planning to, or in the middle of one, as the sea captain says in The Simpsons: “Fairly warned be thee, says I.” Don’t blame me if my writing here ruins it for you.
Of course, the works of Dickens are not confined to his original books, but have been translated over the years, decades and even a century and a half later show up in films, television and even the odd musical, so I’ll be looking at those too. These will be done in conjunction with the novels, mostly, so when, for instance, talking about
David Copperfield I will also take into account the television series and movies made based on the novel, and so on. Comment and debate is as always invited.
To kick things off, I’d like to cheat slightly and repost an article I wrote around Christmas time for the Playlist of Life, and here it is:
The man who invented Christmas --- Charles Dickens
It’s not too much of a stretch to make the above claim. One of the foremost writers of the nineteenth century, Dickens’ works have been transformed into television dramas, films, cartoons and plays, and even Walt Disney took inspiration from him when creating the character of Donald Duck’s miserly old uncle, and so Scrooge McDuck was born. Everybody knows of Dickens’ more famous works, even if they have never read a line. Most have been as I say on the TV or made into films, and names like Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and David Copperfield evoke the kind of familiarity with the works of a man of whom many of us can say we have never read anything that is almost astonishing.
But of course Dickens is always best remembered for his 1843 novella
A Christmas Carol, in which we are introduced to the mean, nasty old Ebeneezer Scrooge, who hates everything about Christmas until he is visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve, who show him where his life is heading unless he changes, and open up to him the joys of the festive season, making of him a new man. For this novel Dickens is widely and rightly acclaimed, but more than that:
A Christmas Carol became instrumental in remaking Christmas at least in England, where the season was only half--heartedly celebrated and where there was no real structure for same; it was mostly a religious holiday, strictly and piously observed but without the traditional jollity we associate with it now.
(This next passage is lifted wholesale from Wiki, as I’m too lazy to paraphrase it)
Christmas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dickens sought to construct Christmas as a family-centered festival of generosity, in contrast to the community-based and church-centered observations, the observance of which had dwindled during the late 18th century and early 19th century.[141] Superimposing his secular vision of the holiday, Dickens influenced many aspects of Christmas that are celebrated today in Western culture, such as family gatherings, seasonal food and drink, dancing, games, and a festive generosity of spirit.[142] A prominent phrase from the tale, "Merry Christmas", was popularized following the appearance of the story.
In addition to this revival of the Christmas holiday season, Henry Cole created the first ever Christmas card in 1843, not at all coincidentally the date of the publication of Dickens’ novella. This helped make Christmas more a time for family and friends, laughter and joy rather than cold religious observance as it had been up to then.
A man, then, who may not have invented Christmas
per se, but certainly shaped it into what we now recognise it as, and who was extremely instrumental in making it a holiday for all, not just the rich or the religious. Charles Dickens truly brought the real spirit of Christmas to the streets of London, Birmingham, Liverpool and all over England, and thence to Europe and the rest of the world, through his magical tale and its theme of redemption and forgiveness and change, so I think we can honestly say that without Dickens, and without
A Christmas Carol” we would in all likelihood not celebrate Christmas as we do today.
Mind you, we might also not have all the crappy Christmas films and all the overpriced gifts we have to purchase, but then you can’t have everything.
So let’s hear it for the man who saved Christmas, the man who brought Christmas back, the man who, to all intents and purposes, invented Christmas, at least, the Christmas we know today.
Thank you, Charles Dickens. And in a weird, off-key way, thank you Mister Scrooge…