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well, I guess I coulda posted "Gift of the Magi," but...
There is a short list of people, I think, that everyone who writes in English must bow to as a non-gender-usage-intent Master. And, whether you personally like his work or not (and I like it, very much), Charles Dickens must be on that list. His use of our language is nothing short of extraordinary--funny, telling, clever and, quite often, simply beautiful. This skill is evident even in what he would consider his lesser works, like today's FfF, A Christmas Carol. Everyone knows the story, of course, adapted in countless and film versions and reenacted on far, far too many sit-coms. Fewer and fewer people, though, have actually read the original work and experienced Dickens' humor and (it must be said) sentimentality. In my heart of hearts, I would love to start a tradition of reading the story at one of our Christmas gatherings, but I entertain no illusions that children there (His Cuteness so far, but undoubtedly more to come eventually) would want to sit through that, let alone many of the adults.
But, at the very least, I can share the story with you now. Here is a very readable html version of the novel, divided up into its five "Staves" (recall that it is a Christmas Carol, after all). And here, as a special treat, are some of the illustrations from the original publication of 1843!
If Dickens contributed nothing else with this novel (beyond inspiring a lot of pale imitators), he did give us the wonderful secular vision of Christmas many of us like to think about:
‘There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,’ returned the nephew. ‘Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut–up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow–passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!’
Enjoy!
There is a short list of people, I think, that everyone who writes in English must bow to as a non-gender-usage-intent Master. And, whether you personally like his work or not (and I like it, very much), Charles Dickens must be on that list. His use of our language is nothing short of extraordinary--funny, telling, clever and, quite often, simply beautiful. This skill is evident even in what he would consider his lesser works, like today's FfF, A Christmas Carol. Everyone knows the story, of course, adapted in countless and film versions and reenacted on far, far too many sit-coms. Fewer and fewer people, though, have actually read the original work and experienced Dickens' humor and (it must be said) sentimentality. In my heart of hearts, I would love to start a tradition of reading the story at one of our Christmas gatherings, but I entertain no illusions that children there (His Cuteness so far, but undoubtedly more to come eventually) would want to sit through that, let alone many of the adults.
But, at the very least, I can share the story with you now. Here is a very readable html version of the novel, divided up into its five "Staves" (recall that it is a Christmas Carol, after all). And here, as a special treat, are some of the illustrations from the original publication of 1843!
If Dickens contributed nothing else with this novel (beyond inspiring a lot of pale imitators), he did give us the wonderful secular vision of Christmas many of us like to think about:
‘There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,’ returned the nephew. ‘Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut–up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow–passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!’
Enjoy!
