A Christmas Carol - by Charles Dickens

I was going to do this blog on one of Dicken's lesser known novellas about Christmas, such as The Cricket on the Hearth (UK edition) (Deutsch edition), but I had to speak about A Christmas Carol (UK edition) (Deutsch edition). 

"It is required of every man, that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death."

And so it is I am compelled every December to take down this short book and read again how Scrooge's life was transformed in just one night.  It was truly an ultimate makeover from the man who begrudges coal for the fire to the man who giggles and flings money out the window for the purchase of a Christmas goose to be given away!

Go with Scrooge on his ghostly tour as he eavesdrops on his past, the present and even his own death.  It is one of the gifts of this book that it is not so much about the holiday as something larger.  The case is made for why Scrooge is the way he is, a product of choice, but also circumstance, and yet at an advanced age he totally remakes himself.

Dickens remade Christmas too.  In urging that Scrooge keep the day, it seems he spurred his readers to celebrate Christmas Day with a festive meal and family and friends and charity to strangers.  A Christmas Carol is not about exchanging gifts and shopping.  That seems to have been added later.  We could do worse that revisit Christmas Past.

This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 

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For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

US readers may go to this Amazon link

Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

No, I am not going to quote the famous first line.  You will just have to download Pride and Prejudice and read it for yourself!  (Free UK edition)  (Free Deutsch edition)

I do not know how many times I have read this favorite of mine, first published in 1813.  It is always wonderful to realize how much we have in common with those who lived 200 years ago.  If we can laugh at the same things, how different can we be?  

There are few characters in literature as funny as Mr. Collins who fancies himself a skilled flatterer - adept at correcting any misstep. 

"The dinner too in its turn was highly admired; and [Mr. Collins] begged to know to which of his fair cousins the excellence of its cookery was owing. But here he was set right by Mrs. Bennet, who assured him with some asperity that they were very well able to keep a good cook, and that her daughters had nothing to do in the kitchen. He begged pardon for having displeased her. In a softened tone she declared herself not at all offended; but he continued to apologise for about a quarter of an hour."

Mr. Collins brings me as much pleasure as he does Mr. Bennet!

So immerse yourself once again in the society of the Bennet girls with their interest in balls and the activities of the regiment.  And if you are reading this book for the first time, I envy you the pleasure of discovering one of the world's great novels.  Great because it is funny, surprising, romantic and up-to-date, all at the same time.

A reader in 1813 said:

I have finished the novel called Pride and Prejudice, which I think a very superior work. It depends not on any of the common resources of novel writers, no drownings, no conflagrations, nor runaway horses, nor lap-dogs and parrots, nor chambermaids and milliners, nor rencontres and disguises. I really think it is the most probable I have ever read.

Still probable after all these years . . . 

This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 

Join me on Twitter, FaceBook, or Pinterest.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

US readers may go to this Amazon link

Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.