For many, just seeing the name “Charles Dickens” on the cover is enough to send them far away from anything to do with it. But ignore the label screaming “DANGER OF DEATH: DAHL”S CHICKENS DETECTED”: A Christmas Carol is different. It is lightly humorous and very easy to read, as well as having Charles Dickens’ style.
The Christmas Carol is about a miserable man, Scrooge, who hates Christmas and helping the poor, transforming into the exact opposite as he is visited by three ghosts. The first one reminds him of his past relationship, which ended when his greed overtook him. The second shows him how everyone else celebrates Christmas merrily, and then the third foreshadows what happens if he does not change.
I especially like the way the language is ingeniously put together. The way he creates moods so immersive and real seems like pure genius, but when observed closely, you find only common techniques like listing, similes and metaphors, just extended slightly and used with the frequency of the RPM readings you get with a jet engine.
The long, dreamy yet vivid descriptions that could be found on every other page of the book were also fascinating. They describe everything from food to dead bodies, all so vivid that you see it in the back of your mind as you read the book.
I would recommend this book to everyone, even people who don’t like Charles Dickens, as A Christmas Carol is different and a good place to start reading Charles Dickens’s works.
Hopefully, other modern readers will enjoy Dickens' descriptive language just as much. It is a much loved tale that should be enjoyed by every generation. I applaud your desire to make Dickens accessible to this generation.
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