Although Charles Dickens is always associated with Christmas, when he was born in 1812, it was a very minor festival. However he became with stories like The Christmas Carol a successful protagonist for the Victorian middle-class philanthropic view that Christmas should be reinvented as a season of goodwill.
The first eight Christmases of Dickens' life were all white.
Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol over six weeks in October and November 1843 at a time when he was in debt to his publisher and lawyer.
Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in such a state of excitement that he could not sleep but walked the streets of London thinking about the story.
Before settling on the name Tiny Tim, Dickens had considered three other alliterate names: Little Larry, Puny Pete & Small Sam.
Dickens is said to have based Ebenezer Scrooge on famed miser John Elwes MP, who lived on £50 a year but left £74 million.
The first eight Christmases of Dickens' life were all white.
Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol over six weeks in October and November 1843 at a time when he was in debt to his publisher and lawyer.
Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in such a state of excitement that he could not sleep but walked the streets of London thinking about the story.
Before settling on the name Tiny Tim, Dickens had considered three other alliterate names: Little Larry, Puny Pete & Small Sam.
Dickens is said to have based Ebenezer Scrooge on famed miser John Elwes MP, who lived on £50 a year but left £74 million.
An alternative theory is that Ebenezer Scrooge was inspired by the tombstone of Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie, which Dickens saw in Edinburgh. The stone read "Meal Man," referencing his profession as a corn merchant. Dickens' misread it as "Mean Man." Scroggie, known as a generous man, led a rambunctious, and even licentious life.
Scrooge never said, “Bah, Humbug!” —In the original story he said, “Bah, Christmas!”
A Christmas Carol was published on December 19, 1843. All 6,000 copies of its first print run were sold in just five days and it was reprinted. However, the extravagance of its gilted pages and cloth cover meant despite its success, Dickens only made £130 from the book.
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| A Christmas Carol-Title page-First edition 1843. |
Every year afterwards for more than 20 years in his periodicals Dickens produced histories and fantasies on Christmas theme.
An American businessman, Mr Fairbanks, who attended a reading of A Christmas Carol in Boston in 1867, was so moved by Dickens' story that he closed his factory on Christmas Day and gave every employee a turkey.
A Christmas Carol is Hollywood's most filmed book. It has been filmed on average every three years, even Mickey Mouse starred in a version.
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