A Christmas Carol (Chiltern Classic)

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A Christmas Carol (1984). Definitely the most faithful movie by far. Several quotations can be found through the whole film, which deviates little from the original script. George C. Scott plays a highly convincing Ebenezer. And also notable Warner, Rees and Tiny Tim. Aged well all things considered. Most recommendable for adults who want to enjoy a serious faithful adaptation.

As Scrooge explores what each of the ghosts has to show him, I loved how the ghosts use Scrooge’s own words against him. There is humour too, such as observing that a coffin nail would be deader than the proverbial doornail. Canción de Navidad (2009). Un lindo film animado hecho por Disney. Una razonablemente fiel adaptación, con varias citas directas y estrellas como Carrey, Oldman y Firth actuando las voces. Destacan efectos especiales y escenas de acción que no necesariamente van bien con el libro. Recomendable mayormente para pequeños, y adultos con corazón de niño que no resientan desviarse un poco del texto.It has been suggested that it is a surprisingly secular book, but we live in a less religious society and so don’t always notice religious symbolism and allegories unless they’re spelt out. The whole story is a parallel of the Christian gospel, and the fact it’s set at Christmas emphasises that. The main message of Christianity is that no sinner is beyond salvation if they genuinely repent, and that is also the story of Scrooge. The first is pale, shadowy (long forgotten?) and “ like a child; yet not so like a child as an old man” (the child is father of the man?).

One example of this was the introduction of turkey as the main meat of the Christmas meal. In Britain the tradition had been to eat roast goose, but a change to turkey followed the publication of the book. By 1868 Mrs Beeton, in her Book of Household Management, advised her readers that "A Christmas dinner, with the middle-class of this empire, would scarcely be a Christmas dinner without its turkey." [103]A Christmas Carol opens on a bleak, cold Christmas Eve in London, seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner, Jacob Marley. Scrooge, an ageing miser, dislikes Christmas and refuses a dinner invitation from his nephew Fred. He turns away two men seeking a donation to provide food and heating for the poor and only grudgingly allows his overworked, underpaid clerk, Bob Cratchit, Christmas Day off with pay to conform to the social custom.

All of this seems trite and melodramatic in summary; in practice, it is pure magic, a precious gem that waits to be reread each year, and each year just as good as the last.

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A Visit from St. Nicholas" (also known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas", 1823) attributed to Clement Clarke Moore carry the reader through the story, daring us to disbelieve in the events which follow, and the ghastly phantoms which are about to appear. The author's voice is there at every turn. One part which gave this reader a bit of a jolt, is the arrival of the first Spirit when the curtains of Scrooge's bed were drawn aside. He was thus face to face with the apparition,