Back to: Dickens A Christmas Carol and the Bible
This article is a background to the readings.
The book is presented in its entirety. The next section has the “5 Staves” or Chapters to the book – Marley’s Ghost, The First of Three Spirits, The Second of Three Spirits, The Last of the Spirits, and The End of It
There are several differences from the original book:
1. Each Stave has been been divided in up to 4 or more parts of several pages to keep the readings manageable.
2. Also there are includes interludes or asides that cover the relationship to the Bible or connect Dickens life. They look like this and are in the form of “dropdowns”. They are optional. You can read the book without them but they provide the connections to the Bible and illuminate Dickens’ life in relationship to the book. You can try it out here with “Cratchit” from Stave 1:
4. Crachit
Cratchit
‘There’s another fellow,’ muttered Scrooge; who overheard him: ‘my clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. I’ll retire to Bedlam.’
“Fifteen shillings a week” was the amount Dickens received as an office boy. While fine for a teenage boy, the pay was much too little for a family man. Scrooge knows it—and yet does nothing about it
3. At the bottom of each post there are navigation links to the previous post and next one. There is also an outline that will appear on the right side of the screen (desktop) or at the bottom (mobile, tablet). 4. Finally, at the end of each part, there is a relevant portion to one of the many movie adaptations of A Christmas Carol embedded in the part. The one used throughout the book used is the 1984 version with George C. Scott playing “Scrooge.” The movie excerpt attempts to closely match the part of the Stave presented. They look like this. I have included the introduction up to Part 1 of the first stave