Hi, Lovelies.
I missed yesterday 12 Books of Christmas because I was having technical difficulties. (If you missed the last book, click here) It is kinda hard to post a new blog post in the airport especially when my hosting site changed login systems on me. So this book will have to do for today and tomorrow. Writing a post a day is harder than I thought it was going to be, so give me some grace please.
We’re doing another classic today. A Christmas Carol! Written by Charles Dickens. Now, I know that pretty much everybody knows the story.
A Quick Summary
Ebenezer Scrooge is a grumpy old man who mistreats his staff and is stingy with his money. He is visited by three ghosts, four if you include his dead business partner, Jacob Marley. (If y’all don’t remember that part, you probably didn’t read the book) The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. At the end, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come scares Scrooge enough to make him reform his life and become kinder to everyone.
So while this is a lovely story about a grumpy, stingy old man who becomes kinder and generous, it also has a deeper meaning.
A Dive in Charles Dickens’ Childhood
To truly understand this, we need to look at the life of Charles Dickens. For starters, Dickens lived during the early 1800s in Britain. Britain was the first country to start the Industrial Revolution and basically everything that happened in America during the Industrial Revolution happened in Britain first. Basically, farmers moved to factory work and factory owners mistreated and overworked their workers.
Now originally, Dickens was middle class, but his father was terrible with money and put their family in debt and ended up in prison for it. So at the age of 11, Dickens had to stop his schooling and work at a boot-blackening factory for six shillings a week.
And then, he went on to be a clerk, work at a newspaper, and write novels and short stories. But that’s not why I brought up his life story.
Due to his time as a child-worker in the dismal conditions of the British Industrial Revolution, Dickens had more compassion for factory workers, especially child workers, which inspired A Christmas Carol. Dickens wanted this system to be changed and believed that part of that change was on the employees.Â
Why does it matter?
I know that many of you already know the story from the many remakes and movies, but I highly suggest reading the original book written by Charles Dickens. He wrote in such a powerful way in hopes that he could enact change in his world. And A Christmas Carol is such a powerful book because it embodies the spirit of generosity and general human decency.
That’s all for today, Lovelies. Check in tomorrow for the next book in 12 Books of Christmas.
Additional Research
Charles Dickens | Biography, Books, Characters, Facts, & Analysis | Britannica
A Christmas Carol: The True History Behind the Dickens Story | TIME
British Industrial Revolution – World History Encyclopedia
Charles Dickens: Biography, British Author, Books and Characters
