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 ...
I think I'll take you up on that. Just to make sure I got it right, it's Chapter VI - Du Côté de Chez Todd?
https://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/waughe-handfulofdust/waughe-handfulofdust-00-e.html#chapter06
“I enjoy his novels, but Dickens was a philanderer. Dumped his wife and kids for a younger woman.”
He was long dead by the time my reading of his works brought him any royalties, so I don’t really care about his foibles and indiscretions. He was a very good writer, and I judge him on that.
That’s it. Evelyn Waugh was, IMO, one of the great black humorists.
I didn't know about Dickens until after I'd read several of his novels. Then I found out what a scumbag he was.
Mrs. Dickens probably thought he was a good writer too, but he failed her and their kids, because he let his popularity swell his head and ego. He publicly claimed his wife didn't love their children, and that she was mentally ill. Claiming your wife was nuts, and getting her locked away in a mental institution was one way men used to get rid of their wife, without having to divorce her. He actually tried to get his wife Catherine locked up in one.
Letters reveal Charles Dickens tried to place his wife in an asylum
See my additional comment at #25 where he tried to have his wife committed to an insane asylum, because good heavens!! a divorce would have been scandalous for him. Many men who wanted to get rid of their wives back then, could easily get them committed for some reason or other. He was a snake.
It is convenient for one to pass judgment on the past through the eyeglasses of the present.
It’s a conversion story.
What religious backgrounf do you think old “Ebeneezer” hails from?
His nephew employs Christian charity to land the big fish before it dies of old age like its partner!
We watch the 1951 version every year. Patrick Mc NEE is young Marley. The Morgan put out the original book every Christmas .
Maybe. What year was it released?
I love the George C. Scott 1984 version. My family watches every Christmas Eve.
I remember watching the 1935 “Tale of Two Cities” when I was a cynical student in high school who did not take anything seriously. We were in the back of the auditorium not paying attention even though we were supposed to watch it.
But somehow in between stupid jokes, the end came and grabbed me and totally surprised me. I was awestruck and silent and the ending scripture struck me silent even though I had not yet received the Lord.
“I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever lives and believes in me, shall never die.”
God works in your life sometimes even before he comes into your life.
If you search on: Charles Dickens
You see he is a scraggly half starved looking guy.
Ooh! A two-part crap. You must get a lot of roughage.
“I love the George C. Scott 1984 version. ”
A great overlooked movie
Also, this wasn't Dickens' first attempt at a tale of redemption, set at Christmas. An earlier effort was titled "The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton". It's a quick read, if you're interested.
Sims IS Scrooge.
And in my opinion Scrooge is the hero.
He’s got everyone holding out their hand to him begging charity while he works for a living.
[Christmas] “A poor excuse to pick a man’s pocket every 25th. of December!’’.
It’s called history.
My judgement on the behavior of Charles Dickens is based on documented history.
I always liked Alistair Sims interpretation best.
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