Today In History with The Retrospectors Meet Ebenezer Scrooge
Charles Dickens’ novella ‘A Christmas Carol’ was written in just six weeks, and published on 19th December, 1843. The timeless story, which introduced the world to Ebeneezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, was conceived in part to get its author out of a sticky financial situation.
Dickens’ other motive was to put into an accessible fable the political ideas that had formed the core of his proposed pamphlet, ‘An Appeal to the People of England on behalf of the Poor Man's Child’. In so doing, he re-focussed the Christmas message around charitable giving and kindness for generations.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Dickens plundered his own back-catalogue to surface some ‘Christmas goblins’; consider whether the book-buying public truly understood the intended message of his work; and reveal why his determination to produce it in an affordable edition hit him in the pocket…
Further Reading:
• ‘A Christmas Carol: The True History Behind the Dickens Story’ (Time, 2021): https://time.com/4597964/history-charles-dickens-christmas-carol/
• ‘How did A Christmas Carol come to be?’ (BBC Culture, 2017): https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20171215-how-did-a-christmas-carol-come-to-be
• "What day is it?" (George C. Scott - A Christmas Carol - 1984): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO17UOjcovg
#Victorian #Books #Christmas
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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.
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