A Christmas Carol
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
Ebenezer Scrooge is unimpressed by Christmas. He has no time for festivities or goodwill toward his fellow men and is only interested in money. Then, on the night of Christmas Eve, his life is changed by a series of ghostly visitations that show him some bitter truths about his choices. A Christmas Carol is Dickens' most influential book and a funny, clever and hugely enjoyable story.
I loooveee Vintage classics, I'm slowly collecting the Russian Classics (which are seriously gorgeous, check them out!) and they always do such gorgeous editions and the brand new Dickens Vintage classics are completely wonderful to behold! Bright, colourful covers, and excellent cover illustrations! But not only that...they have sprayed edges too! I'm not sure about the other ones but A Christmas Carol in particular has black sprayed edges! There's also an iconic quote on the back! I seriously can't wait to collect the other Vintage Classics!
Because A Christmas Carol isn't that long a book, this includes The Chimes and The Haunted Man too! A Christmas Carol is one of my favourite Dickens stories, and it's so Christmas appropriate, what could be more festive than ghosts terrorising an old rich man!? No but seriously, I do really love A Christmas Carol as a Christmas read and if you're looking for something festive to read, this is perfect because it's not too long either!
I really do love Dickens writing, contrary to what you may already think, it's actually quite easy to read and isn't as heavy or difficult as you'd imagine! I love the imagery and turns of phrase he uses, and it's quite an atmospheric read. The Ghost of Christmas Future is....scarier than in any of the movie depictions! Although I'm talking about Mickey's Christmas Carol and Muppet Christmas Carol, the only two I've seen (I used to work at Disney, the songs/videos where played on a loop...it was hard not to absorb them!).
A Christmas Carol is well written (obviously), atmospheric and vivid. It really paints a picture and you feel like you've time warped back. Dickens writing is witty, and it really does put you in the Christmas mood! It's also easy to sit and read in one sitting, and it's not a slog like some classics can tend to be. It being a short book, I'd recommend it not only for Christmas reading...but also for if you're after a taste of Dickens writing before diving in to one of the longer novels!
As for this Vintage edition...what more can I say? It's got a gorgeous cover both inside and outside, an excellent choice of quote on the back, the paper is lovely quality and thick, and the sprayed edges are a nice touch! Another nice touch is the little "Ex Libris" page at the front! This edition is wonderfully laid out too, and the font's a nice size, which might be an odd thing for me to comment on...but I've read plenty of classics that have the font size reaaaallly tiny and it's kind of annoying!
A Christmas Carol
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
Ebenezer Scrooge is a lonely, miserly old man who hates Christmas, which he dismisses as "humbug". One Christmas Eve, however, he is visited by a series of ghosts who reveal to him the innocence he has lost, the wretchedness of his future and the poverty of the present, which he has so far ignored. This experience teaches Scrooge the true meaning of the holiday and leaves him a transformed man.With its memorable cast of characters such as Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol is the most heart-warming of seasonal tales, a timeless classic that continues to enchant readers around the world and a lesson in charity and hopefulness that is as powerful today as when it was first written in 1843.
It's no secret that I love the Alma classics, the covers are always gorgeous, and the notes and additional information on the authors and their works paint a nice picture and add tonnes of context. I know I'm early reading this, but I got sent it to review and there's ghosts, so it kinda fits with Halloween but now that it's not Halloween I'm all excited for Christmas already, it probably doesn't help that I was working on a Christmas related project!
First things first, this isn't just A Christmas Carol, there's The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life and The Haunted Man and the Ghosts Bargain in here too! Now I liked the other stories don't get me wrong, but I think A Christmas Carol was definitely my favourite of the bunch! I love Dickens writing, the language he uses, the phrases, the imagery. I actually find him surprisingly easy to read, so I enjoyed his storytelling in all of the stories within this volume. I hadn't actually heard of the other stories except for The Chimes, I'm not going to lie to you, and I think I'm going to have to re-read Christmas Carol at least, at Christmas! I'm thinking I should make it a tradition to read it every year, I'm kind of surprised that it's taken me this long to read it!
I've watched many, many adaptions of A Christmas Carol, starting with the Disney Mickey Mouse one back when I was a kid, and ending with the Muppet Christmas Carol that I watch every single year, partly because when I worked at Disney, one of the songs was played on a loop at Christmas and it was damn catchy! So as I started to read Dickens original story....my brain conjured up Michael Caine, and the Muppets, and Mickey and then the people from that BBC show about Dickens characters that's name escapes me! I was trying to remember what the film adaptions of the ghosts looked like, because I don't remember the Ghost of Christmas Future being quite so scary!
I loved reading Dickens writing, it's atmospheric, it paints a picture, it's witty and it really put me in a Christmas mood, I'm not going to lie! A Christmas Carol really is a brilliant Christmas read you guys, and it's not that long so it's great if you want a taster of Dickens writing style, before diving in to one of his novels! I haven't been brave enough to pick up any of his novels yet, but I might one day!
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