The Lives And Times Of Ebenezer Scrooge

Discusses and compares American and British versions of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and shows how these interpretations reflect changing cultural values

Based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, this sequel is set twenty years after Scrooge's famous reformation and has him teaming up with a trio of ghosts to help the restless spirit of Jacob Marley.

A sequel to Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Ebenezer Scrooge is one of literature's most iconic redeemed villains. But all we know of him comes from Charles Dickens' glimpse into only a few extraordinary days of his life. What if Dickens, while not getting the story wrong, didn't get the story entirely right? And what happened to Ebenezer that caused him to become the man to whom Dickens introduced us? What did Ebenezer actually experience that so profoundly changed his life? What happened to him after his ghostly encounters? If you have ever wondered about these questions and more, read on for the amazing true story of this complicated and fascinating man whose tale transformed not only a season, but changed nothing less than the world.

Who HQ brings you the stories behind the most beloved characters of our time. Bah humbug! Get to know the story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation from miser to hero in this addition to the What Is the Story Of? series. When Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843, he likely had no idea that the story and its main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, would remain so popular nearly two centuries later. Today, readers still find themselves entertained by the story of a grumpy, selfish man who becomes a holiday hero after he learns generosity through the help of three spirits in Victorian-era England. Whether a Dickens fan or someone in love with all things "Christmas," readers will enjoy learning the history of this memorable character and his many appearances on the page, the screen, and the stage in What Is the Story of Ebenezer Scrooge?

A fascinating, heartwarming background tale of Bob Cratchit, Scrooge's clerk as we knew him in the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. This rousing dramatic back story follows Bob from his childhood youth in Bristol, England into his adult life, chronicling his development into the man his father inspired him to be.

Publisher description

The manger or Macy's? Americans might well wonder which is the real shrine of Christmas, as they take part each year in a mix of churchgoing, shopping, and family togetherness. But the history of Christmas cannot be summed up so easily as the commercialization of a sacred day. As Penne Restad reveals in this marvelous new book, it has always been an ambiguous meld of sacred thoughts and worldly actions-- as well as a fascinating reflection of our changing society. In Christmas in America, Restad brilliantly captures the rise and transformation of our most universal national holiday. In colonial times, it was celebrated either as an utterly solemn or a wildly social event--if it was celebrated at all. Virginians hunted, danced, and feasted. City dwellers flooded the streets in raucous demonstrations. Puritan New Englanders denounced the whole affair. Restad shows that as times changed, Christmas changed--and grew in popularity. In the early 1800s, New York served as an epicenter of the newly emerging holiday, drawing on its roots as a Dutch colony (St. Nicholas was particularly popular in the Netherlands, even after the Reformation), and aided by such men as Washington Irving. In 1822, another New Yorker named Clement Clarke Moore penned a poem now known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," virtually inventing the modern Santa Claus. Well-to-do townspeople displayed a German novelty, the decorated fir tree, in their parlors; an enterprising printer discovered the money to be made from Christmas cards; and a hodgepodge of year-end celebrations began to coalesce around December 25 and the figure of Santa. The homecoming significance of the holiday increased with the Civil War, and by the end of the nineteenth century a full- fledged national holiday had materialized, forged out of borrowed and invented custom alike, and driven by a passion for gift-giving. In the twentieth century, Christmas seeped into every niche of our conscious and unconscious lives to become a festival of epic proportions. Indeed, Restad carries the story through to our own time, unwrapping the messages hidden inside countless movies, books, and television shows, revealing the inescapable presence--and ambiguous meaning--of Christmas in contemporary culture. Filled with colorful detail and shining insight, Christmas in America reveals not only much about the emergence of the holiday, but also what our celebrations tell us about ourselves. From drunken revelry along colonial curbstones to family rituals around the tree, from Thomas Nast drawing the semiofficial portrait of St. Nick to the making of the film Home Alone, Restad's sparkling account offers much to amuse and ponder.