A Christmas Carol

"One of the greatest successes of Dickens's career, and the only non-novel of his still widely read, A Christmas Carol started as a frankly commercial project to counterbalance the disappointing early sales of Martin Chuzzlewit.  Dickens conceived it in October 1843 and had finished it by early December.  Part of the time he had spent visiting his now married sister Fanny in Manchester, his chief purpose there being to raise funds for an educational institution to benefit working people.  He gave a speech (alongside the MPs Richard Cobden and Benjamin Disraeli, a future Prime Minister) in which he pointed to ignorance as the parent of misery and crime.  Ignorance and Want are the two feral children the Ghost of Christmas Present reveals to Scrooge in A Christmas Carol."

~ Charles Dickens, A celebration of his life and work.  Charles Mosley, Worth Press Ltd. 2011

Tomorrow:  Charles Dicken's Christmas Books