Hey everyone! Have you ever heard of the book “A Christmas Carol?” If you have, this article that I’ll be writing, you will find a little more about it. If you’ve already read it, then this’ll be a sort of a review for you. Let’s start.

A Christmas Carol is a novel written by the English author, Charles Dickens, who is quite popular even till today. It was first published in the year 1843 on the day of December 19th. The book is basically about a stingy killjoy and his worldly adaption after he is visited by four ghosts on the night of Christmas Eve! The illustrations were made by John Leech, and quickly met with commercial success and critical acclaim. It was rapturously reviewed and became an instant success, the first 6,000 copies of its initial print-run being sold out by Christmas, with 2,000 further copies from the second printing snapped up by the 6th of January.

While obviously enormously popular from the outset, it has remained Dickens’s most widely enjoyed work, with hundreds of further reprints and adaptations. The tale has been viewed as a reflection of the nineteenth century industrial capitalism and has been credited with returning the holiday to one of merriment and festivity in Britain and America after a period of sobriety and somberness. A Christmas Carol remains popular, has never been out of print, and has been adapted to film, opera, and other media. It was a real social concern that motivated Dickens to write A Christmas Carol. In this instance, he was inspired to write a Christmas story highlighting the plight of the poor as an appeal for charity from those better-off. Such charity was desperately needed during the severe economic depression of the 1840s. Having suffered considerable hardship and poverty during his upbringing, the passionate feelings evoked in Dickens’ writings by social inequalities were based on bitter experience.

But sheer necessity as well as altruism was also a major factor in the creation of A Christmas Carol. None of Dickens’ other novels have entered the general consciousness as much as A Christmas Carol with its pervasive vision and philosophy of Christmas as a family feast. On its publication, its sentiments immediately endeared Dickens to the public and his name has been irrevocably associated with celebrating Christmas ever since. Undeniably sentimental, its intimacy of tone and many comic touches ensures its enduring popularity.

I hope by reading this you all have learnt a little about the history of the book, it is truly important to many people and I hope that if you haven’t read it yet, to do so. It will always stay in your heart.