Charles Dickens gives a reading, circa 1860. Dickens regularly made drastic changes to A Christmas Carol when he performed the story.
Posted on 12/05/2009 2:45:45 PM PST by BGHater
'Tis the season — every year at this time — for the various renderings of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This year, the current animated version in the cinema — starring a computer-generated Jim Carrey in multiple roles — has won some plaudits for sticking with the spirit of the Dickens original.
So it might come as some surprise to learn that when Dickens himself performed A Christmas Carol, he didn't do it as it's written. And during this holiday season, you can see the proof.
In a small glass case at the New York Public Library, there sits a promptbook in which Dickens recorded amendments to his originally published text. Isaac Gewirtz, the curator of the Berg Collection of English and American Literature, explains that the author gave perhaps 150 readings of A Christmas Carol, despite the fact that, at the time, "public readings of fiction or poetry [were] not done; it was considered a desecration of one's art and a lowering of one's dignity."
Dickens must not have been concerned much with dignity, or with the sanctity of his own written word. His first performance of the story ran three hours. Later versions took about an hour and 25 minutes. Looking at the promptbook, it becomes clear just how much he cut. Complex sentences were replaced with simple ones. Often, anything to do with the state of mind of a character would be excised if it could be conveyed by tone of voice.
"What's interesting to see is how much of the atmospherics have been deleted," Gewirtz says. "Scenes that set the mood in the streets of London, for instance. ... You will notice in the right-hand margin to this page, it says turns to pathos, so he had many of these kinds of cues, to himself, how to modulate his voice, what kind of emotion to convey at the time."
It turns out that those traditional renditions of A Christmas Carol may not be as traditional as you think. Dickens himself changed Dickens.
Charles Dickens gives a reading, circa 1860. Dickens regularly made drastic changes to A Christmas Carol when he performed the story.
Charles Dickens used this promptbook of for his hugely popular public readings of A Christmas Carol. Throughout, the pages are heavily marked up by Dickens with cuts, interpolations and directions for vocal expression (such as "soften very much").
Charles Dickens used this promptbook of for his hugely popular public readings of A Christmas Carol. Throughout, the pages are heavily marked up by Dickens with cuts, interpolations and directions for vocal expression (such as "soften very much").
Dickens is badly represented in most schools by his worst novels (Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities). Read ‘Bleak House’ or ‘Little Dorrit’ to see what Dickens could do.
My favorite has always been the Pickwick Papers, perhaps because it ultimately is “a show about nothing”. Pure entertainment.
Dickens was serialized in newspaper, wasn’t he? So he did not have the pretention of artist.
My favorite has always been the Pickwick Papers, perhaps because it ultimately is “a show about nothing”. Pure entertainment.
I could think of many places I would like to spend a Christmas, but Dingley Dell tops the list...
Great post!
I would never characterize A Tale of Two Cites as Dickens worse. In fact, Sydney Carton is one of the most fascinating literary characters ever.
His first performance of the story ran three hours. Later versions took about an hour and 25 minutes. Looking at the promptbook, it becomes clear just how much he cut. Complex sentences were replaced with simple ones. Often, anything to do with the state of mind of a character would be excised if it could be conveyed by tone of voice.
I’m reading this to my older kids this year. Any suggestions on a movie version when we’re done reading it? I haven’t looked into that yet.
But, my two favorites, are A Christmas Carol” starring George C. Scott and “Scrooge”, staring Alistair Sim.
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