From Charles Dickens' "ghost of an idea" to the current film version starring Jim Carrey, "A Christmas Carol" has been a literary staple for 166 Christmas seasons.
Here are 10 reasons why it has endured.
1. Like other novels by Dickens, much of "A Christmas Carol" focuses on poverty, which 19th-century London had in great measure.
Dickens was no stranger to it. He was 12 when, in 1824, his father, John, a naval clerk, was sent to a debtor's prison for three months. It was a rolex replica terrible time for the boy. Forced to pawn his books and take lodgings on his own, he left school and went to work in a factory that made shoe polish.
The experience humiliated the boy, whom the other workers referred to as "the young gentleman." For a time, he gave up on ever regaining his former life. Even when he managed to do so, he was disturbed periodically with memories of life in the factory.
2. Owing to his own early experiences, Dickens spent much of his life concerned about the poor. Ironically, when he wrote "A Christmas Carol" and introduced the world's most famous miser, he was in desperate need of money himself.
He and his wife, Catherine, had recently returned from America, a trip that nearly wiped out their savings. His bills were mounting and included a large mortgage on his house. He spent a great deal of time walking at night and wondering how to extricate himself from his financial crisis. The more he worried, however, the more depressed he became.
His previous novel, "Martin Chuzzlewit," had not been the financial success he had anticipated. Moreover, Catherine was expecting a child, their sixth. She would have 10. He could think of only one way out of his crisis. He needed an idea for a story, a plot that would bring him financial success.
3. The only thing remotely close to an idea was Dickens' concept of a pamphlet with the ponderous title "An Appeal to the People of England, on Behalf of the Poor Man's Child." Likely, it would have been as unpopular then as it would today.
In October, the idea came to him at last: a story about a miser to whom Christmas meant nothing. It was a timely theme. Christmas, by then, had lost its earlier sentimentality. Its decline in popularity had begun under the 17th-century rule of Oliver Cromwell. Detesting Christmas, Cromwell ordered the seizure of traditional Christmas foods, especially geese and mince pies, which were easy for soldiers to smell while making their law-enforcement rounds.
Talking to himself
4. Dickens fake rolex began "A Christmas Carol" in October and finished it a few days before Christmas, producing the memorable story in six weeks. Anyone passing his door during the writing knew he was embarked on a literary enterprise since it was his practice to speak aloud the lines he had selected for some of his characters. Published only a week before the great holiday, with the publishing costs paid by the author, the book was an instant best-seller.
5. A month after "A Christmas Carol" was published, it was pirated by a publication called "Parley's Illuminated Library." Dickens filed suit and won his case. To avoid paying a settlement, Parley's declared bankruptcy. Dickens was left to pay $700 in costs, and while the sales of the novel were good - 6,000 copies in the first week - he initially lost money on the venture because he had it lavishly illustrated by one of England's finest artists.
Dickens apparently was crushed by the lawsuit, es
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