Excerpt:
"There is nothing like a good holiday book or movie to fight off holiday trauma. One of Dickens’s reasons for writing “A Christmas Carol” was, in fact, to circumvent the holiday humbugness of the day. He and Washington Irving had an exceedingly romantic relationship with the glorious and harmonious Christmas traditions far from the madding crowd. Dickens merely translated them to the urban squalor of an industrial city of the 19th Century"
As usual I spent some time with one of my
favorite holiday films this Thanksgiving. Tradition was turned on its head this
year so I especially needed the sensory fix. We were visiting with my eldest
daughter in her new hometown and my small family of three was put up in
overflow housing: borrowed lodgings in a bachelor pad next door. (The bachelor
professor having left the scene for sunny
Bachelors don’t seem to do much baking, I
found out. Still, I managed to create my holiday pies with no measuring spoons
or cups, whisk, or rolling pin. As I fumbled and bumbled around the gentleman’s
tiny kitchen I somehow managed to distract myself from this lack of proper
utensils. I watched the 1938 version of “A Christmas Carol” on my laptop, which
was perched on an overturned pot set on the cramped kitchen counter.
There is nothing like a good holiday book or
movie to fight off holiday trauma. One of Dickens’s reasons for writing “A
Christmas Carol” was, in fact, to circumvent the holiday humbugness of the day.
He and Washington Irving had an exceedingly romantic relationship with the
glorious and harmonious Christmas traditions far from the madding crowd.
Dickens merely translated them to the urban squalor of an industrial city of
the 19th Century.
The book was published in December of 1843
and, while it sold 6,000 copies in just a few short weeks, it wasn’t
particularly lucrative for Dickens due to high production costs. It did
announce his comeback from his literary bomb, Martin Chuzzlewit, so “A
Christmas Carol” can be considered a definite success. The book, in fact, has never been out of
print since that year 166 years ago.
One of my favorite versions of the book is
“The Annotated Christmas Carol,” edited by Michael Patrick Hearn. Some versions
of Dickens’ book are a mere 72 pages long; the annotated version includes an
introduction longer than that and an appendix nearly as long as the
introduction. This entire annotated version is rich with reproduced portraits
and engravings and original illustrations by John Leech. The annotations
enhance the reading with definitions (the post-boy, the garden-sweep, “lay the
cloth” and “have a warm”) and descriptions of Dickens’ own life history, and
customs and traditions of the day.
One commentary tells us that while the more
well-to-do were “flocking through the streets in their best clothes and with
their gayest faces” the poorest were emerging “from scores of bye streets,
lanes and nameless turnings…carrying their dinners to the bakers’ shops.”
The explanation tells us that the poor houses
of the time did not have large kitchens or any baking help and they were
poorly-equipped. Dishes and items were then sent to professionals to bake over
the requisite open fire. In another commentary it is revealed that Dickens had
great empathy for his Scrooge character, who, while a young boy, was forced to
remain away at boarding school for the holidays. Dickens himself had to take
lodgings away from his family who had been set to debtor’s prison when he was only
12 years old.
Not in the mood for actually reading, or
re-reading, the entire “A Christmas Carol”? Not interested in muddling through
all those bothersome annotations? You can listen to Patrick Stewart for a mere
90 minutes in the audio version on CD. Or you can see the most recent film
version. (Jim Carrey plays eight different roles in Disney’s new film.) Bill
Murray in the 1988 “Scrooged” is a more irreverent telling of the similar tale.
Another version that you might find at the library, the 1951 “Scrooge” fools a
bit with Dickens’ tale but leaves in the best parts, nevertheless.
Interestingly, Americans did not fall in love
with Dickens’ A Christmas Carol until after the Civil War. Perhaps it was our
need for the romance of a life before that terrible war that caused us to turn
towards a tale of love and family and solutions for the poverty, broken homes
and hearts.
Downtrodden readers can relate to the
characters in Dickens’s novels and to the themes of redemption, goodness and
hope. Whatever your reason this season, spend some time with a holiday film or
book.
Visit our website, www.norwoodlibrary.org or
call 781-769-0200. We wish you a happy, healthy and safe December.
