
Over the Christmas Holidays, I read A Christmas Carol"by Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol is the tale of a mean-spirited, miserly old man called Ebenezer Scrooge, who undergoes an amazing transformation after a series of ghostly visits.
Set in London in the mid 19th century, the story begins on Christmas Eve, when Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley. Marley's ghost warns Scrooge that if he does not change his hard-hearted, miserly ways he will be doomed in the after-life. Marley tells Scrooge that he will be haunted by 3 spirits. Each spirit takes Scrooge to various places, in the hope of reforming him.
A Christmas Carol is really easy to read. It has a simple structure. It is written in 5 chapters or staves. Staves 1 and 5 act as a prologue and epilogue, while staves 2,3 and 4 show us how and why Scrooge changes.
A Christmas Carol is a story that's got it all, Ghostly apparitions, coldness, darkness, death and despair, but in the end it is the images of joy, warmth, light and love which stay with us. Read it! You'll feel better for it.
By Ian Keir