A Christmas Carol (Illustrated) [Kindle Edition]

Charles Dickens (Author), Jesse Kornbluth (Editor), Paige Peterson (Illustrator)

Book Description

One evening, just before Christmas, I started to read “A Christmas Carol” to my young daughter. “I’m bored,” she cried, after five minutes, so I stopped. I wasn’t mad at her. She was right --- “A Christmas Carol” wasn’t fun to listen to.

The problem was time. Dickens wrote the story in 1843, and viewed from the distance of more than 170 years, his language is dense and over-wrought. And long? 28,000 words long.

Because I really wanted my daughter to hear this story, I sat down and started cutting the text. Nothing important is gone. I added only a few words of my own, just to make some connections. And then Paige Peterson produced 15 beautiful and spooky illustrations.

This version of “A Christmas Carol” comes in at 13,000 words. As much as possible, it’s pure story. I’m going to read it to my daughter at Christmas, and I bet --- this time --- she’ll like it. It’s my hope that many other kids and their parents will agree.



--- Jesse Kornbluth

Product Details

• File Size: 1094 KB
• Print Length: 98 pages
• Publisher: Head Butler, Inc. (September 12, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005NRFR62
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #501,929 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Please tell me this is a joke December 9, 2011

By K. Gilbert

Format:Kindle Edition

Well, I'm sure this is great for children with ADD or other special needs, but otherwise, really?? If a child can't (won't) concentrate on Dickens and his masterful use of the English language, then give them a few years. If they still don't get it by, say, high school, it's time to reconsider your child's education rather than to dumb down a classic of literature. Are you going to tell her high school English teacher that she would have done better on her Jane Austen paper if only Austen had a little more action (maybe some sex scenes would help!)and less talk? It's OK for children not to like adult classics. Let them grow into them. Don't nuture the idea that if something is too hard or time consuming or, God forbid, boring, the solution is to dumb it down rather than work harder, spend more time or, God forbid, concentrate for more than 10 minutes at a time.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars This is a hack, giving his"edit" of Dickens December 8, 2011

By WiscActor

Format:Kindle Edition

Save your money.. This is an outright butchery of Dickens' masterwork. The author posted a defense of this work in The Huffington Post, where he states he is "saving Dickens"... I wasn't aware Dickens needed to be saved.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Wow, you killed Dickens's writing! December 21, 2011

By Fireshark

Format:Kindle Edition

A Christmas Carol is not a story for young children. It is a story for people who can read it. You are trying to pander to an audience which does not exist, by butchering Dickens's original writing, and selling your bad edit-job. Shorter =/= better. Any person of appropriate age and education can read A Christmas Carol the way it was meant to be read. And if you're bored by it, you probably shouldn't be selling it.

Also, don't let the illustrator draw any more front covers. No, it's not meaningful or avant-garde, it's just stupid and poorly done.

More About the Author

Hi.

I edited and abridged "A Christmas Carol" because my daughter --- a big reader --- balked when I started to read it to her. I was an English major with a big interest in English writers, especially Dickens, so I was as careful and respectful as I could be when I reduced 28,000 words to 13,000. And I had a great experience working with Paige Peterson, who did the illustrations. So...there will be more e-books coming out of this computer.

There are many ways you might know me...

As a magazine journalist, I've been a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, New York, Architectural Digest, Reader's Digest, The Los Angeles Times Magazine and Departures, and a contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times, etc.

As an author, my books include Airborne: The Triumph and Struggle of Michael Jordan; Highly Confident: The Crime and Punishment of Michael Milken; Pre-Pop Warhol and The Other Guy Blinked (with Roger Enrico). Most recently, I helped Twyla Tharp on The Collaborative Habit.

On the Web, I co-founded Bookreporter.com, now the hub of the Internet's most successful non-commercial book network. From 1997 to 2002, I was Editorial Director of America Online. In 2004, I launched HeadButler.com.