I know this is completely out of season but I’m playing catch up with all my reviews so we are where we are.
A Christmas Carol is compulsory viewing in our house on Christmas Eve. The Patrick Stewart version, naturally. However, I’d never read the book, until this year.
I actually started it after Christmas last year but what with one thing and another never carried on and it has been sitting there, right next to my chair, gathering dust ever since. That is until I had a bout of insomnia just before this Christmas and finished the read in two sittings. It is after all a short story.
I had always had the impression that the film followed the text pretty closely and am pleased to confirm it. There are things that have been brought up in the film that raise a question every year from the audience in our house and those same issues were also in the book. Namely, the timings. I believe Dickens wrote this in October 1843 and it was published in December 1843 and I can’t help but think that a swift run passed an editor might not have been a bad thing as there are continuity issues with the timings, but I guess that is also part of its charm.
Anyway, I’m pleased to have finally read this one and would recommend it to all those wanting an easy entry to the world of Dickens.
