A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol Review

This is a review of the September 2010 paperback edition from ACTA Publications with an introduction by John Shea.
Though few have read the book, most people are familiar with A Christmas Carol, the Charles Dickens classic about Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. Author and Publisher Gregory Augustine Pierce numbers it among his favorites. Thus, when he was visiting a bed and breakfast, he was delighted to find a beautifully rendered edition that was in the public domain. That meant he didn't need permission to reproduce the version he had discovered. He called on friends and favorite artists to work on the book design, illustrations, and cover. Theologian John Shea agreed to write the introduction. The final touch was applied by the publisher's office manager who, Pierce says, "found a red ribbon, put it on A Christmas Carol, and it was complete," a beautiful Christmas gift.

Shea suggests that those approaching the book as a "must-read yawn," will be surprised at the connections to be drawn between Scrooge and ourselves, and the pull to consider our own past, present, and future. He characterizes the unconverted Scrooge as smoldering with anger, rationalizing against helping the needy, and choosing isolation over communion. Scrooge's conversion, Shea explains, is a result of "the unyielding work of grace, the theological atmosphere that envelopes the Christmas season."

The ghosts show Scrooge the opportunities he has missed, the isolation of his current life, and the promise of an un-mourned death. But conversion is still possible for Scrooge and for us, Shea writes, citing the end of A Christmas Carol. In the final paragraph, Dickens reveals that Scrooge had learned how to keep Christmas well and expresses the following hope: "May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!"

A Christmas Carol Overview

"The combined qualities of the realist and the idealist which Dickens possessed to a remarkable degree, together with his naturally jovial attitude toward life in general, seem to have given him a remarkably happy feeling toward Christmas, though the privations and hardships of his boyhood could have allowed him but little real experience with this day of days. "

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