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How Dickens Did It: 'A Christmas Carol' Debuted 180 Years Ago, and Won Hearts Instantly
Yahoo! News ^ | Thu, December 21, 2023

Posted on 12/21/2023 3:20:02 PM PST by nickcarraway

To hear Philip Palmer, the literary curator at the Morgan Library & Museum tell it, the story behind the writing of "A Christmas Carol" sounds, well, like something out of Charles Dickens.

It is October 1843 and Dickens’ debts are mounting. The 31-year-old author has moved his growing family into a new home in London, a bigger house with more servants. His father and his brothers keep taking out loans using his famous name. He is forced to take out ads in newspapers warning creditors not to loan his father any more money.

By 1843, Dickens was already known for “The Pickwick Papers," “Oliver Twist,” “Nicholas Nickleby,” and “The Old Curiosity Shop.” But his latest work, “The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit,” serialized in magazines, isn’t the barn-burner he’d hoped.

He devises what he calls “a little scheme” to right his financial ship and earn him what he hopes will be £1,000. He’ll write a ghost story for Christmas. But he’ll have to work fast. It’s nearly Halloween. He cancels social engagements, instead seeking inspiration on long nighttime walks through London. Walking by night, writing by day, the novella emerges. In just six weeks, Dickens crafts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a “covetous old sinner” who is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his seven-years-dead partner Jacob Marley.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; History; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: applyforwelfare; charlesdickens; christmas; christmascarol; donate; jimknows
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1 posted on 12/21/2023 3:20:02 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

I know it’s Christmas, but I have to say that my favorite Dicken movie is “Tale of Two Cities”. Very well done and moving.


2 posted on 12/21/2023 3:25:41 PM PST by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: Jim W N

The 1935 version?


3 posted on 12/21/2023 3:28:05 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Yes, the 1835 version with Ronald Coleman and Edna May Oliver who was wonderful in that movie.

What the heck, make it a Christmas movie. The Lord is all around the story especially at the end.


4 posted on 12/21/2023 3:32:13 PM PST by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: nickcarraway

Bookmark


5 posted on 12/21/2023 3:33:59 PM PST by Southside_Chicago_Republican (The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog. )
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To: nickcarraway
Nicko, here it is on the original site.

https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/2023/12/21/nycs-morgan-library-turns-page-on-original-christmas-carol-text/71893574007/

6 posted on 12/21/2023 3:36:40 PM PST by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken! )
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To: nickcarraway

I enjoy his novels, but Dickens was a philanderer. Dumped his wife and kids for a younger woman.


7 posted on 12/21/2023 3:37:58 PM PST by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
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To: nickcarraway

I read Martin Chuzzlewit, and it is VERY under-rated. From it we get the word Pecksniffian. Other favorites are Bleak House, Tale of Two Cities and Nicholas Nickleby.


8 posted on 12/21/2023 3:39:45 PM PST by Dr. Sivana ("If you can’t say something nice . . . say the Rosary." [Red Badger])
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To: nickcarraway

Good movie: “The Man Who Invented Christmas”


9 posted on 12/21/2023 3:39:48 PM PST by pgyanke (Republicans get in trouble when not living up to their principles. Democrats... when they do.)
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To: mass55th
Dickens was a philanderer. Dumped his wife and kids for a younger woman.

You can see hints of excusing himself in both David Copperfield and Hard Times. Still is a great writer.
10 posted on 12/21/2023 3:42:23 PM PST by Dr. Sivana ("If you can’t say something nice . . . say the Rosary." [Red Badger])
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To: nickcarraway; All
The article starts with Dickens in dire financial straights.

I kept waiting for it to tell me how he fared financially later in life.

11 posted on 12/21/2023 3:44:28 PM PST by marktwain
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To: nickcarraway

Everyone who likes Charles Dickens should read Chapter 6 of A Handful of Dust, by Evelyn Waugh. It was also published in an Alfred Hitchcock collection as a short story called “The Man Who Loved Dickens”. I won’t spoil it, but I always think of that story when the subject turns to Dickens.


12 posted on 12/21/2023 3:50:43 PM PST by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: nickcarraway
It’s nearly Halloween.

Was Halloween observed in England in the 1840's?

13 posted on 12/21/2023 3:54:25 PM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: Fiji Hill

Washington, Dickens blasted in American Notes, was the home of: “Despicable trickery at elections; under-handed tamperings with public officers; and cowardly attacks upon opponents, with scurrilous newspapers for shields, and hired pens for daggers”.


14 posted on 12/21/2023 4:08:09 PM PST by Bookshelf
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To: mass55th

Nice thread crap! Well done.


15 posted on 12/21/2023 4:17:25 PM PST by Gigantor (Either the United States respects its Constitution, or there is no need for a United States.)
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To: nickcarraway

Alister Sim was one of the best Scrooges.


16 posted on 12/21/2023 4:18:08 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants ( "It is easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled."- Mark Twain)
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To: Jim W N

“I know it’s Christmas, but I have to say that my favorite Dicken movie is “Tale of Two Cities”. Very well done and moving.”

I remember. I had lasagna.


17 posted on 12/21/2023 4:18:24 PM PST by Gigantor (Either the United States respects its Constitution, or there is no need for a United States.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

Did you see the Reginald Owen one?


18 posted on 12/21/2023 4:20:31 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: pgyanke
Good movie: “The Man Who Invented Christmas”

Indeed? And here I always thought Jesus was somehow central to Christmas. Which brings me to my greatest objection to Dicken's tale. It never mentions Christ. Instead it is one of the great influences on secularizing the story; and turning it into a vague fable of feel good humanistic brotherhood. I'll pass, thank you.

19 posted on 12/21/2023 4:22:35 PM PST by Robwin ( )
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To: nickcarraway

I had all his works at one time...old small leather books....illustrated.


20 posted on 12/21/2023 4:26:55 PM PST by Sacajaweau ( )
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