Humbug!

I confess! I’ve never read the book, A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. I’m a fan of the work, having seen many iterations of the storyline on screen ever since I was a young child. Is it by strange coincidence, then, that the viewing of The Man Who Invented Christmas – a retelling of how Charles Dickens came to write that famous tale – has inspired an urgent desire, or dare I say it – a need within me to read A Christmas Carol?

Perhaps it is the writer’s side of me who adores learning how such a classic story originated. Or maybe it is simply the ease with which I can allow myself to become lost in a stellar storyline. True, I have no idea how much of the retelling was factual, and how much of it may have been fabricated, but it doesn’t matter. This much I know: The Man Who Invented Christmas is now my favorite Christmas movie. And I am committed to annually read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens every enchanting Christmastime.

The Man Who Invented Christmas (Bleeker Street Media, 2017) starts with Charles Dickens, still reeling in the glory of his famed Oliver Twist and off on a promotional tour to the United States. Sixteen months later, back in London, he has written three more tales – all of them flops. Dickens is now desperate, broke, blocked, yet he attempts to convince his previous publishers that he is on the verge of a new best seller—and he wants to publish it by Christmas time—but it is mid-October. The publishers don’t want to take a chance in such a short amount of time, so Dickens, convinced that his inkling of a storyline has masterpiece potential, decides to take out yet another loan that he really cannot afford in order to publish this new Christmas wonder on his own.

Frames of Dickens’ life show inspiration coming from the name of a decrepit waiter, conversations from various encounters on the street or in business establishments, and the storytelling of the nanny who cares for his children. One by one, characters emerge from combinations of these ideas that captivate his mind. First Scrooge. Then Marley. The chains created link by link. The Fezziwigs. The Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and of Time-Yet-to-Come. Tiny Tim. Bob Cratchit. And as Dickens encounters each of them, they stay close to him, following him around his office, haunting his dreams, disturbing his days.

Dickens is almost out of time. He has written most of the story but has yet to find a sustainable ending. Debt continues to build. He fights with his main character, Scrooge, about who he is, or who he should be—or could become. Meanwhile, Dickens continues to be haunted, not only by his cast of characters, but also by his own past. He struggles to come to grips with who he has been deep inside. Denial! He grapples with how much of himself he finds in Scrooge. Denial! People can’t change, or they far too often choose not to change. He’s convinced of it. Denial!

More importantly, Dickens needs to know: does a person who’s spent a lifetime treating others horribly deserve to have the opportunity to change? Are they redeemable? Is Dickens himself redeemable?