Tag Archives: a christmas carol

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Posted in Classics, Fantasy, Holidays, Novels, The Classics Club by

A Christmas Carol.jpg

To bitter, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, Christmas is just another day. But all that changes when the ghost of his long-dead business partner appears, warning Scrooge to change his ways before it’s too late.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Published December 19, 1843 by Chapman & Hall
Format: Kindle e-book; 73 pages
Classics
Also By This Author: Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities
Goodreads | Amazon
My Rating: ♥♥♥♥

Thoughts

This is me attempting to catch up on book reviews from last year…

Last month I finally, for the first time ever, read A Christmas Carol. I amazed even myself by waiting that long to read it. Of course I knew the story; I’ve seen enough movie versions and even that one Boy Meets World episode that re-imagines Mr. Feeny as the Ghost of Christmas Future. But I had never read it! I had it in my mind that I could only read A Christmas Carol when it was actually Christmastime, and each December I would be so overwhelmed with holiday preparations or finishing reading challenges that I’d keep putting the Charles Dickens story aside for another year.

Well, 2016 was finally that year and I’m not at all surprised to say that I truly enjoyed A Christmas Carol and I can see why it will forever be a holiday classic and one of Charles Dickens’s most beloved works.

As expected, the Ghost of Christmas Present creeped me out, the idea of Tiny Tim passing away made me cry, and the renewed and re-inspired Ebenezer Scrooge buying the prize turkey and sending it in a cab to Bob Crachit’s house, all the while chuckling and probably confounding the poor messenger boy, made me chuckle as well.

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”

Read This Book If…

…you wish it were Christmas all year long.
…you enjoy shorter, novella-length books.
…you want to rediscover a classic.
…you’ve never read Dickens before and are looking to ease your way into his works.

Final Musings

I’ve heard that there are some wonderfully done audiobook versions of  A Christmas Carol, including one by Neil Gaiman. Maybe this December I’ll listen to one of those narrations while wrapping Christmas presents :)

Classic Alice: Classic Lit Meets Modern Media

Posted in Fun, Novels by

classicaliceLast week I shared my review of The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet, a book spin-off inspired by one of my favorite YouTube series: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.

Well today I’m here to rave about another one of my favorite web series: Classic Alice!

Classic Alice is not based on Alice in Wonderland, a common misconception, but it does have an extremely unique premise: Alice Rackham, over-prepared, goodie-goodie college student, decides to live her life according to Classic novels after she receives a bad grade on an essay. She makes big and small life decisions by referring to characters from beloved books such as Pygmalion, Crime & Punishment, and Macbeth. These decisions push her into a variety of ups & downs that are exciting, heart-wrenching, and swoon-worthy ;) Also, the characters are hilarious!

Andrew, Alice’s friend and classmate, is filming Alice’s endeavors for his documentary project. His quirky sense of humor always makes me laugh out loud. One of my favorite episodes from the series perfectly highlights his humorous personality:

Cara, Alice’s wholeheartedly honest roommate, is easy to like because she often speaks the thoughts that the audience is thinking. She challenges Alice and stands by her decisions no matter the consequences (and there are plenty of those):

Classic Alice just wrapped up Book 7, A Christmas Carol, and it was a very merry Christmas for the fans! ;) You’ll have to catch up on the show to see what I mean! Right now the creators behind the show are focusing on their indiegogo campaign for Book 8 and beyond! The team behind Classic Alice is so talented in developing a series that appeals to a wide audience; the series is one of the most diverse on YouTube. And they’re promoting Classic Literature!!! I love that :)

Watch This Series If…

…you love classic novels (so far they’ve done Crime & Punishment, Pygmalion, The Butterfly, Macbeth, Rip van Winkle, Wind in the Willows, and A Christmas Carol.)
…you like to live vicariously through other people (or through your favorite fictional characters).
…you enjoy stories and shows that deal with serious issues.
…you’re a fan of quirky humor and diversity in fiction.
…you love seeing multiple media platforms merge together to tell a story.

Curious about the Classic Alice series? Dying to know more about Alice’s future book plans? Visit the show’s website to read more about it (and to find links to every episode and transmedia post)!