Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas!

(You can't beat John Leech's illustration of Fezziwig's Ball for Christmas spirit)

Back to Gruel!

That's obviously not Ebenezer Scrooge shown above, but the 1833 British lithograph does give us some insight as to why Scrooge was earing gruel on Christmas Eve!

For more info, check out this entry on the Library of Congress website!

Did they really have a cure for the common cold back then?

The Twain Shall Meet!

Mark Twain in the late 1860s

I had mentioned last time that there was an interesting little nugget in the Study Breaks article about Ebenezer Scrooge.

Said nugget being:

Interestingly, even though the novella was extremely popular among readers, it is said that Mark Twain was not a fan.

That doesn't really have anything to do with the rest of the article and we aren't told how "it is said," but it made me wonder if it's on the record somewhere that Mark Twain was critical of "A Christmas Carol."

Some virtual searching for "Mark Twain" and "A Christmas Carol" does bring up mentions of the former Samuel L. Clemens not liking "A Christmas Carol," some saying he thought it was "glittering frostwork," but without any references.

Eventually, however, I came across this:

Mark Twain Reviews Charles Dickens

Short version is that a not-yet-famous Mark Twain wrote a newspaper review of a Charles Dickens public reading in January 1968 and was not impressed by of Dickens as a reader. In fact, he's extremely critical.

But Twain only mentions Dickens reading "David Copperfield" and if I'm understanding correctly, he thought the reading was glittering frostwork, the actual text is good, with pathos and rich humor. 

I think Twain is saying that it's ironic that Dickens as a reader doesn't do justice to Dickens as an author!

So, as far as I can tell, we don't know whether Mark Twain ever publicly revealed his thoughts on "A Christmas Carol."

Still, it's fun to see a future literary legend throw shade at a current legend via newspaper - the social media of the day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

A Vision!

Here's an interesting editorial cartoon from 1886:

That's the ghost of Benjamin Disraeli showing the vision to not-really Scrooge.

I don't really "get" it, but I dig it!

Happy New Year!

Not-really Mrs. Dilber* cleans up after Mr. Scrooge's first-ever New Year's Eve blowout!

*Mrs. Dilber really being the laundress, but now the charwoman for purposes of this bit!

Happy Boxing Day!

Happy Boxing Day!

Victorian Kermit?

If Kermit the Frog had actually been around in Scrooge's time, would he look like this?

Hmmm...

Happy New Year!

 

Happy Boxing Day!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Happy Thanksgiving!

Smoking Bishop!

Here's one of innumerable cheap (I think one shilling was cheap!) editions of "A Christmas Carol" from the 1800s:

I'm presuming it's a knock-off, but it's pretty brazen, even using one of John Leech's illustrations on the cover!

One thing I always thought was interesting about that particular image is that the scene depicted is not actually in the book.

Scrooge tells Bob that they'll discuss his affairs over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, which is what they seem to be doing here, but it hadn't happened yet in the book.

And I've always wondered what Scrooge is supposed to be wearing here!

Not As Timely!

Here's a more traditional meeting:

It's apparently from 1899, but I'm not sure of the source or artist (Cooke?).

"The Empty Chair" - Luke Fildes (1870)

Following up on "Dickens' Dream" by R.W. Buss, that painting was apparently inspired by the earlier "The Empty Chair," as painted by Luke Fildes in June 1870, shortly after the death of Charles Dickens:

Sir Samuel Luke Fildes (1843-1927) was a young artist working with Dickens on "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" when the author passed away, and the loss prompted the painting of the titular empty chair in Dickens's study.

To continue the story a bit, an engraving of the painting was published in "The Graphic" in 1882, which caught the eye of Vincent Van Gogh, an admirer of Dickens:

So, this led to Van Gogh's own "Chair" painting from 1888:

At least that's how I understand it, all of this being way over my head from an art world standpoint!

"Dickens' Dream" - R.W. Buss (1875)

I had mentioned that the two 1980s books we were just looking at each (seemingly coincidentally) included the same picture of Charles Dickens with their biographies of the author.

That picture is a well-known painting by British artist R.W. (Robert William) Buss entitled "Dickens' Dream":

It was an ambitious undertaking and was not finished when Mr. Buss passed away in 1875.

There are lots of characters from the works of Dickens included so naturally we look carefully to see if there are any represented from "A Christmas Carol."

And, indeed, in the top row, the last sketch on the right is Marley's Ghost visiting Scrooge:

This image seems familiar to me, but I can't think of the artist it swipes from off the top of my head. Something lese for me to think about!

A striking work, it's easy to see why this would pop up frequently when Charles Dickens is being discussed.

"A Christmas Carol" Magic Lantern Slides - Newton & Co. (Circa 1885)

We stay in the magic lantern world to take a look at this set of illustrations from "A Christmas Carol" as presented by Newton & Co. from around 1885.

There's 25 of them, so here's a slideshow:

Very nice, but they'd better be, if made by the "Opticians to the King!"

 

"A Christmas Carol" - Charles Dickens's Dramatic Reading as Read in America (1876)

"A Christmas Carol" (1876)

Charles Dickens's Dramatic Reading as Read in America

Lee & Shepard (Boston)

We go back to the nineteenth century for this cool item: the text of "A Christmas Carol" as used by Charles Dickens in his public readings.

With so many adaptations over the years, it's always interesting to see how Charles Dickens himself condensed the story for maximum dramatic effect.

Maybe actually endorsed by Mr. Dickens, maybe not, but in a neat paper cover for 15 cents!

Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year!

I like to think that this could be Tiny Tim, maybe a year or so after the events we've been concerned with!

Happy Boxing Day!

 

"A Christmas Carol" All-Star Team - Day 14

Our All-Star Team continues to grow as we encounter a few more characters from the Christmas Yet to Come sequence: Old Joe and his gang!

I lump them together as they all share one scene. Different versions will sometimes have the charwoman (sometimes erroneously named "Mrs. Dilber") in other scenes, but she's just in the one scene in the book.

The characters are Old Joe (the proprietor of the junk shop), Mrs. Dilber (the laundress), the unnamed charwoman and the unnamed undertaker's man.

I have my ups and downs with that bunch in various adaptations, but an excellent representation is this illustration by Fred Barnard from the 1878 "Household Edition":

That's pretty early in the scheme of things, but I don't know if anyone's portrayed that scene as well since!