A Christmas Carol

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Davidson, Ewan. "Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost (1901)". Screenonline. British Film Institute . Retrieved 10 January 2017. But enough of money matters, for now! What follows are a few random observations on this, the latest of my many readings. A Christmas Carol opens on a bleak, cold Christmas Eve in London, seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner, Jacob Marley. Scrooge, an ageing miser, dislikes Christmas and refuses a dinner invitation from his nephew Fred. He turns away two men seeking a donation to provide food and heating for the poor and only grudgingly allows his overworked, underpaid clerk, Bob Cratchit, Christmas Day off with pay to conform to the social custom. The first spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to Christmas scenes of Scrooge's boyhood, reminding him of a time when he was more innocent. The scenes reveal Scrooge's lonely childhood at boarding school, his relationship with his beloved sister Fan, who died young while giving birth to Fred, and a Christmas party hosted by his first employer, Mr Fezziwig, who treated him like a son. Scrooge's neglected fiancée Belle is shown ending their relationship, as she realises that he will never love her as much as he loves money. Finally, they visit a now-married Belle with her large, happy family on the Christmas Eve that Marley died. Scrooge, upset by hearing Belle's description of the man that he has become, demands that the ghost remove him from the house.

so let us follow scrooges (eventual) example, when he says ‘i will honour christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year,' and allow the christmas spirit be something we not only feel this time of year, but always. Still, an immortal Christmas classic that requires no introduction. Recommendable, for the right audience. A Visit from St. Nicholas" (also known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas", 1823) attributed to Clement Clarke Moore

Restad, Penne L. (1996). Christmas in America: a History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-510980-1.

Welch, Bob (2015). 52 Little Lessons from a Christmas Carol. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. ISBN 978-1-4002-0675-9. The Christmas classic that everyone knows – even if they haven’t read it. It's quite short, and at some levels quite an easy read, but there is plenty of depth, so I think it's worth reading it in a thoughtful and slightly leisurely way. It is required of every man,” the Ghost returned, “that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world…and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!” Not even to mention the Southern hemisphere and the immense, unnecessary, by a fair economic system easily preventable, suffering of billions and dying of tens of millions of people directly caused by this system. There are other links too: three people profiting from the spoils of the dead man (like the Roman soldiers at the cross, albeit they cast lots to decide who got what) and Peter Cratchit reading from the Bible in Christmas yet to come.The chill of the season seems to emanate from Scrooge himself. "External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty." This year, A Christmas Carol hit very differently. Over the past few years, I lost my ability to control my left leg due to a genetic defect. Look at that series of words (“squeezing, wrenching, grasping…”). They tell you everything you need to know about the man. I'm not sure I like “secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster” – we already get that. But what colourful, character-rich description. I LOVE the flint that doesn’t give generous fire! And that then leads to the passage about how the coldness WITHIN HIM affects his features. Brilliant.

Scroggie was unlike Scrooge in nature, and was described as "a well-known hedonist who loved wine, women, and parties... a dandy and terrible philanderer who had several sexual liaisons which made him the talk of the town... a jovial and kindly man". [43] The smug pun on "gravy" and "grave" is amusing, and there's a poetry of sorts in that "fragment of an underdone potato."

The Library's buildings remain fully open but some services are limited, including access to collection items. We're It is a simple tale of how a normal man turns cold-hearted and mean and how, when confronted with memories of his past and the possible outcomes of his actions and inactions, he is redeemed by making positive changes to his life and thus that of others.