By Kevin Myers | Thursday, December 18, 2014|Off the Shelf
I dread reading classics. Four years of hard training for high school AP exams will do that to anyone. But if you feel the same, please get over it and start reading Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. You can read it in an afternoon (I downloaded a copy that’s 112 pages!), you already know the story so it’s easy to follow, and because of that, you’ll thoroughly enjoy the language that describes the very familiar story. I think you’ll find nuance and emotion you never thought would be in the original story.
Despite my own familiarity with the story, I was stunned by how thoughtless Scrooge is. He has no regard for anyone or anything, just a very narrow focus on work, pinching pennies, and keeping his particular routine. As he heads home one Christmas Eve, he starts seeing things, and the dread with which Dickens infuses even a mundane evening walk makes Scrooge’s walk incredibly chilling.
The lead up to the entrance of Marley’s chain-rattling ghost is unnerving. Not even a gentle reader such as I can be immune to a haunting after hearing Scrooge’s doubt in his conversation with Marley. - More
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