Literary novella review: A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens.

Lately I have been thinking about horror and its subgenres. There is gothic, which I have mentioned here on my blog. There is also the supernatural, which I have not covered yet. That is about to change...

For today's blog post I am reviewing the supernatural novella A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens. I remember first reading this Victorian ghost story back when I was at school. What stands out most to me is how Dickens makes us realise that people can change and that does mean anyone. At the start of the novella we see that Scrooge is a grumpy man who despises Christmas. To him Christmas Day is just another ordinary day. But when the ghosts start to appear, Scrooge is made to rethink some of his attitudes and opinions. As the ghosts continue to offer him the versions of what was, is and could be, Scrooge changes. Sometimes I think now that we showed some people what could be if they continue to make the choices they make, then we could do some good. However, that would be a weird superpower and could cause some harm...

What Dickens has also done I think is to get readers asking, what does the future hold? No one knows and Dickens perhaps wanted readers to think "be careful what you wish for..." Having noted that, Christmas is a time for joy and the novella does place some emphasis on that. Christmas and Scrooge are juxtaposed as opposites in this novella. It was clever seeing how the ghosts differ from one another though I do wonder... Do people see it as a ghost story? Do they see it as a Christmas tale? Is this a story taking aim at the rich and the bosses? It is up to each person how they see it... Me, I am still unsure.

But it was a nice book to read, if not my favourite. I am going to give this book a 5/10.


Until next time,


Thomas.

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