A Christmas Carol, The Chimes & The Cricket on the Hearth (Barnes & Noble Classics)
1 journaler for this copy...
I purchased this from Barnes and Noble in Kennewick, Washington, USA. I bought it to add to my classics collection.
I read this again last week and love, love, loved it!
Enjoyed this this month, once again! Merry Christmas!
I read this over the weekend. One of my favorite stories!
I've just read this, and loved it, once again!
Each time I've read this book, I've only read the first story, A Christmas Carol. After finishing it a few days ago, I thought I'd give The Chimes a try.
My Dad once told me I couldn't live on love (in a conversation in which he was berating my husband for not going to college yet). He was SO wrong. Trotty Veck finds this out in this spooky New Year story and, like Scrooge, has a second chance to change his ways.
I found the story to be a little convoluted but I think it will grow on me over time. I'll see how I feel about it next year.
My Dad once told me I couldn't live on love (in a conversation in which he was berating my husband for not going to college yet). He was SO wrong. Trotty Veck finds this out in this spooky New Year story and, like Scrooge, has a second chance to change his ways.
I found the story to be a little convoluted but I think it will grow on me over time. I'll see how I feel about it next year.
I read through A Christmas Carol this last week---it was wonderful, as usual. This year I paid special attention to a few things that were endearing to me:
The fireplace tiles: I love how they illustrated different stories from the Bible. I bet it was beautiful and I'm curious where Dickens saw these or what gave him the idea to include them in his story.
"I am standing in the Spirit at your elbow." Every. single. time. I read that, I look to my right and imagine him there. I wonder how far into future history he imagined his stories would go. I thought about that today as I laid in my 21st century bed in a little village in the American South thinking about this man who wrote the story 170 years ago somewhere in England. Fascinating.
I loved thinking about how Scrooge didn't seem to ever care about how people viewed him, but at the end of the story, it's a good thing. "Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him."
It has that distinctive ring of not casting one's pearls before swine...good for you, Scrooge!
The fireplace tiles: I love how they illustrated different stories from the Bible. I bet it was beautiful and I'm curious where Dickens saw these or what gave him the idea to include them in his story.
"I am standing in the Spirit at your elbow." Every. single. time. I read that, I look to my right and imagine him there. I wonder how far into future history he imagined his stories would go. I thought about that today as I laid in my 21st century bed in a little village in the American South thinking about this man who wrote the story 170 years ago somewhere in England. Fascinating.
I loved thinking about how Scrooge didn't seem to ever care about how people viewed him, but at the end of the story, it's a good thing. "Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him."
It has that distinctive ring of not casting one's pearls before swine...good for you, Scrooge!
2021: This year I thought, "Ah, I should talk a little about two specific parts that always stand out to me: the fireplace tiles and the quote about 'Standing in the spirit at your elbow'..." Welp. Guess this review is just a rerun of last year's. Ha! Love this story. This is the first year we've not celebrated Christmas. Am I now a Scrooge???
Even though we stopped celebrating Christmas two years ago, I'm still reading through this every Christmas week. Ha! It has a good message that should be applied every day.
This time through I focused on humor. Dickens is stinking hilarious. The entire exchange between Scrooge and Marley is super funny---especially considering how terrified and curmudgeonly Scrooge was at the time. The last stave is also super funny. Additionally, I loved these quotes:
"Marley's face...had a dismal light about it...like a bad lobster in a dark cellar." WHAT?!! Hahaha! Has anyone ever experienced a bad lobster in a dark cellar? Do lobsters give off dim light?
"Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had never believed it until now." (This page also contains the "shade" joke)
"'What has he done with his money?' asked a red-faced gentleman with a pendulous excrescence on the end of his nose, that shook like the gills of a turkey cock." WHY??? Hahaha! There is absolutely no reason for this very minor character to be described thus, other than to just make us laugh. I love it.
And finally, I loved this quote that just really gives off the attitude of "shove-itousness" that Dickens seems to often take:
"Some people laughed to see the alteration in him (Scrooge), but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter at the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms."
Love it. Timeless lessons to be learned. As a friend said to me this morning, "Merry Everyday Christ!"
This time through I focused on humor. Dickens is stinking hilarious. The entire exchange between Scrooge and Marley is super funny---especially considering how terrified and curmudgeonly Scrooge was at the time. The last stave is also super funny. Additionally, I loved these quotes:
"Marley's face...had a dismal light about it...like a bad lobster in a dark cellar." WHAT?!! Hahaha! Has anyone ever experienced a bad lobster in a dark cellar? Do lobsters give off dim light?
"Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had never believed it until now." (This page also contains the "shade" joke)
"'What has he done with his money?' asked a red-faced gentleman with a pendulous excrescence on the end of his nose, that shook like the gills of a turkey cock." WHY??? Hahaha! There is absolutely no reason for this very minor character to be described thus, other than to just make us laugh. I love it.
And finally, I loved this quote that just really gives off the attitude of "shove-itousness" that Dickens seems to often take:
"Some people laughed to see the alteration in him (Scrooge), but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter at the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms."
Love it. Timeless lessons to be learned. As a friend said to me this morning, "Merry Everyday Christ!"
2023: This year’s reading had me being a little more contemplative. I loved the description toward the end of Stave Two of how the narrator valued the woman he was observing. He says, ”I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest license of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its value.”
By the time the second spirit is on the scene, Scrooge is willing to be taught lessons he knows he needs to learn. It made me think how sometimes we are the way we are because we don’t know any other way or because we’ve forgotten there is one. In this stave, he begins to look outside himself and starts to realize the needs within the family of his clerk. Before this, he told himself people’s needs were their own fault. Now he realizes some are beyond our control.
In Stave Three, Scrooge is definitely changed; although he is still a bit narcissistic as he doesn’t imagine the dead man people are speaking of is himself. But, I guess the first step is recognizing there is a problem! Haha!
I thought about how happiness is found in the simplicity of life. My own father knew this but was too afraid to walk in it; for my mom, in her younger years, the simple life wasn’t good enough. Thankfully, she learned this in later years and has found peace. The simple life has been my life most of my marriage; but now that we are more financially thriving, I’m fighting to keep it.
A couple things I noticed from a Biblical perspective: one is that there were references to Biblical stories in the way Scrooge interacts with the spirits. I didn’t catch on to this until toward the end so there is probably more, but I noticed how he holds the robe of the second spirit and how he wrestles, fairly evenly matched, with the third.
Also, I found it interesting that he had a dialogue with someone about stores closing Sundays because it kept people from obtaining the things they needed. I wondered why people didn’t shop the day before, but also wondered if this issue was part of his greater social justice cause. It’s a topic I’ll pay attention to in future reading to see if I can make some connections.
By the time the second spirit is on the scene, Scrooge is willing to be taught lessons he knows he needs to learn. It made me think how sometimes we are the way we are because we don’t know any other way or because we’ve forgotten there is one. In this stave, he begins to look outside himself and starts to realize the needs within the family of his clerk. Before this, he told himself people’s needs were their own fault. Now he realizes some are beyond our control.
In Stave Three, Scrooge is definitely changed; although he is still a bit narcissistic as he doesn’t imagine the dead man people are speaking of is himself. But, I guess the first step is recognizing there is a problem! Haha!
I thought about how happiness is found in the simplicity of life. My own father knew this but was too afraid to walk in it; for my mom, in her younger years, the simple life wasn’t good enough. Thankfully, she learned this in later years and has found peace. The simple life has been my life most of my marriage; but now that we are more financially thriving, I’m fighting to keep it.
A couple things I noticed from a Biblical perspective: one is that there were references to Biblical stories in the way Scrooge interacts with the spirits. I didn’t catch on to this until toward the end so there is probably more, but I noticed how he holds the robe of the second spirit and how he wrestles, fairly evenly matched, with the third.
Also, I found it interesting that he had a dialogue with someone about stores closing Sundays because it kept people from obtaining the things they needed. I wondered why people didn’t shop the day before, but also wondered if this issue was part of his greater social justice cause. It’s a topic I’ll pay attention to in future reading to see if I can make some connections.
