A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens. It tells the story of bitter old miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation resulting from supernatural visits by Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. The tale begins on a “cold, bleak, biting” Christmas Eve exactly seven years after the death of Scrooge’s business partner Jacob Marley. Scrooge, an old miser, is established within the first stave as “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!” He hates Christmas, calling it “humbug”; he refuses his nephew Fred’s Christmas dinner invitation, and rudely turns away two gentlemen who seek a donation from him to provide a Christmas dinner for the poor. At home that night, Scrooge is visited by Marley’s ghost, who is forever cursed to wander the earth dragging a network of heavy chains, forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness. As Marley departs, Scrooge witnesses other restless spirits who now wish they could help their fellow man, but are powerless to do so. Scrooge is then visited by the three spirits Marley spoke of – each visit detailed in a separate stave – who accompany him on visits to various Christmas scenes.