The Christmas Carol
Written in 1843, The Christmas Carol is the timeless tale of Scrooge, known as the meanest miser to all. For this mean-spirited, miserly old man, Christmas is nothing but a ridiculous money-wasting scheme. Then, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley, his deceased business partner, who informs Scrooge that three spirits will visit him during the night on Christmas Eve. As Marley predicted, Scrooge receives a visit from three spirits, the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future showing him the errors of his ways. The ghost of Christmas past allows Scrooge to see his gradual decline from innocent boyhood into his life as a miser; the ghost of Christmas present shows the happy lives of his poor employee and his nephew. The last ghost, the ghost of Christmas future takes Scrooge to the future site of his own grave, where he dies a lonely death. When Scrooge wakes on Christmas morning, he comes to a realization. He changes his life and becomes a generous, kind-hearted soul.
Teaching us what the true happiness of life is, The Christmas Carol is a monumental book that created a new literary genre about the Christmas experience.
