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Description
This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary and reader’s notes to help the reader fully appreciate the beauty and humor of Dickens’s work. In his "Ghostly little book," Charles Dickens invents the modern concept of Christmas Spirit and offers one of the world’s... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis
Summary
This is about a man who doesn't have very much Christmas joy. His old business partner, who has been dead for a good long 7 years, has come back to haunt him. He wants the man, Ebenezer Scrooge, to change to fate of what will be of him, so Jacob Marley, his business partner, says 3 ghosts will... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Cast of Characters
- Ebenezer Scrooge: The owner of a accountant's office in London. A miser with no Christmas spirit.
- Bob Cratchit: Employed by Scrooge as his clerk.
- Tiny Tim: The youngest son of Bob Cratchit, a crippled child.
- Jacob Marley: Scrooge's deceased business partner.
- The Ghost of Christmas Past: The first ghost to visit Scrooge.
- The Ghost of Christmas Present: The second ghost to visit Scrooge.
- The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come: The third and final ghost to visit Scrooge.
Memorable Quotes
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“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.”
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“Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.”
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“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!”
Scrooge -
“God bless us every one!”
Tiny Tim -
“I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.”
Charles Dickens
First Sentence
In A Christmas Carol, Dickens shows us a cross-section of London society, from the very rich to the very poor, at the time of year when the gulf between rich and poor was most visible and felt most deeply.
Table of Contents
Stave One: Marley's Ghost
Stave Two: The First of Three Spirits
Stave Three: The Second of Three Spirits
Stave Four: The Last of the Spirits
Stave Five: The End of It
Glossary
- Almshouse: Privately funded lodgings for the poor, as opposed to the workhouse, which was publicly funded.
- Blind man's buff: Popular parlor game in which the contestant is blindfolded and then must catch another player and then guess who he had caught. The game dates from ancient times.
- Humbug: Nonsense, rubbish; used to express disbelief or disgust; something intended to deceive; a hoax or fraud.
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