The Books of Charles Dickens

Perhaps the second most famous Christmas story of all time (after the one about that baby, wossisname, and the stable). I'm sure you know this, but this book is the tale of Ebeneezer Scrooge, a heartless money-grubbing man who is visited by spirits tasked with saving his soul from a dark and miserable afterlife. The spirits show him Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future, each one revealing something about Scrooge and those around him. Ulitmately, this book is one of the chief archetypes of an immortal story; it is about redemption. Few of us are as cruel as Scrooge, but this book allows us to hope that perhaps we too can escape our past mistakes and make a better future. That effect on the reader is 'A Christmas Carol's best element. In technical terms, this book can be a little awkward to read due to it's 19th Century terminology and prose style, but it's less than 100 pages long, so you won't struggle for long (if, indeed, you do at all). Why have I not given this genuine classic full marks? Simply, and this isn't Dickens' fault, because I saw four different movie versions of the book in the month before reading it and their individual interpretations all vied against my own imagination, making me enjoy the book less than I should have done. (Oddly enough, it was 'The Muppets Christmas Carol' which had the most of the original text in it!)