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[i]

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

By CHARLES DICKENS

ILLUSTRATED BYGEORGE ALFRED WILLIAMS

New YorkTHE PLATT & PECK CO.

[ii]

Copyright, 1905, by The Baker & Taylor Company

[iii]

"He had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church."

INTRODUCTION

The combined qualities of the realist and the idealistwhich Dickens possessed to a remarkable degree,together with his naturally jovial attitude toward lifein general, seem to have given him a remarkably happy feelingtoward Christmas, though the privations and hardships of hisboyhood could have allowed him but little real experience withthis day of days.

Dickens gave his first formal expression to his Christmasthoughts in his series of small books, the first of which wasthe famous "Christmas Carol," the one perfect chrysolite.The success of the book was immediate. Thackeray wrote ofit: "Who can listen to objections regarding such a book asthis? It seems to me a national benefit, and to every manor woman who reads it, a personal kindness."

This volume was put forth in a very attractive manner,with illustrations by John Leech, who was the first artist to makethese characters live, and his drawings were varied and spirited.

There followed upon this four others: "The Chimes,""The Cricket on the Hearth," "The Battle of Life," and "TheHaunted Man," with illustrations on their first appearance byDoyle, Maclise, and others. The five are known to-day as the"Christmas Books." Of them all the "Carol" is the best knownand loved, and "The Cricket on the Hearth," although third inthe series, is perhaps next in point of popularity, and is especiallyfamiliar to Americans through Joseph Jefferson'scharacterisation of Caleb Plummer.

Dickens seems to have put his whole self into these glowinglittle stories. Whoever sees but a clever ghost story in the[iv]"Christmas Carol" misses its chief charm and lesson, for thereis a different meaning in the movements of Scrooge and hisattendant spirits. A new life is brought to Scrooge when he,"running to his window, opened it and put out his head. Nofog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring cold; cold, piping forthe blood to dance to; Golden sun-light; Heavenly sky; sweetfresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious!" All thisbrightness has its attendant shadow, and deep from the childishheart comes that true note of pathos, the ever memorabletoast of Tiny Tim, "God bless Us, Every One!" "The Cricketon the Hearth" strikes a different note. Charmingly, poetically,the sweet chirping of the little cricket is associated withhuman feelings and actions, and at the crisis of the story decidesthe fate and fortune of the carrier and his wife.

Dickens's greatest gift was characterization, and no Englishwriter, save Shakespeare, has drawn so many and so variedcharacters. It would be as absurd to interpret all of these ascaricatures as to deny Dickens his great and varied powersof creation. Dickens exaggerated many of his comic and satiricalcharacters, as was his right, for caricature and satire arevery closely related, while exaggeration is the very essence ofcomedy. But there remains a host of characters marked byhumour and pathos. Yet the pictorial presentation of Dickens'scharacters has ever tended toward the grotesque. The interpretationsin this volume aim to eliminate the grosser phasesof the caricature in favour of the more human. If the interpretationsseem novel, if Scrooge be not as he has been pictured,it is because a more human Scrooge was desired—aScrooge not wholly bad, a Scrooge of a better heart, a Scroogeto whom the resurrection described in this story was possible.It has been the illustrator's whole aim to make these people