A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Cruel miser Ebeneezer Scrooge has never met a shilling he doesn’t like... and hardly a man he does. And he hates Christmas most of all. When Scrooge is visited by his old partner, Jacob Marley, and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come, he learns eternal lessons of charity, kindness, and goodwill. Experience a true Victorian Christmas!

We all (I assume) know the story and so I won't go into detail with that. It's almost impossible to not at least at some point in your life see one of the many films that's been made based on the Dickens' classic tale of Christmas. I've seen a lot and my particular favourite is the film "A Christmas Carol" from 1999 starring Patrick Stewart as Scrooge.

I have never in my life before read the original book and the book club I recently joined had decided on this book as our December read. The book I read was a very old thing from 1942 and prettily illustrated by Arthur Rackam.

I must admit I was not impressed. Or rather, I just didn't get it. The book is the original old English Dickens-y language and it was so heavy to read. There are so many long descriptive sentences that are probably lovely, but to me they were noise. What's usually a lovely story became an annoyance to read and I'm really sad about that. I'd like one day to reread it, but this time in Danish or possibly in an easy-reader version in English, because I'm just good enough to understand the flowery lengthy wordings of Victorian English.

	A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens published in 1843
	Review by Iben Jakobsen, BoB, 2013