Thursday, December 10, 2009

Thackeray on Dickens's A Christmas Carol


In his introduction to The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits, Les Standiford notes:

Dickens's contemporary, William Makepeace Thackeray, as scathing a critic as ever walked the streets of London, once said of [A Christmas Carol], "Who can listen to objections regarding such a book as this? It seems to me a national benefit, and to every man or woman who reads it, a personal kindness."

Standiford's book is full of interesting tidbits like this. I'm a quarter of the way into it now and finding it to be a fascinating bit of literary scholarship. I will no doubt write more about it here when I've reached the end.

5 comments:

sassymonkey said...

I really want to read this one. I think I may need to add it to my wish list.

Dorte H said...

What a good choice for a December read.

Suko said...

Standiford's book does sound intriguing. I never before thought of Dickens as the man who invented Christmas!

The Reader said...

I'd love to hear your comments when yo finish the book!

The Reader
I'm a Bookworm

Melwyk said...

I saw this book in a catalogue and really want to read it. I organized the CBC Christmas Carol reading here in Stratford a couple of years ago and love hearing it read. I'd be interested to see what he has to say about this work - thanks for the excerpt!