Customer Reviews

The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A friend sent The Man Who Invented Christmas to me as a holiday gift. The title intrigued me as I had been told by Dickens scholar David Parker that the popular belief that Dickens revitalized Christmas is false. Parker had presented lots of information to back up his assertion. I glanced through the bibliography and saw that Standiford listed David Parker as one of his sources. He also listed two other Christmas Carol scholars I respect - Michael Patrick Hearn and Fred Guida. That was promising.

However when I read on page 24 about "the memorable scene of Oliver, gruel bowl in hand, innocently asking the poorhouse's Mr. Bumble for `more,'" and on page 28 about the misbegotten waif Nell Humphrey in Old Curiosity Shop, my hopes sank. (For those reading this with fuzzy memories, Oliver asked the workhouse master for "more" and Little Nell's last name is Trent.)

But the book was very readable. I soon found myself eagerly turning pages. Despite the title of his book, Standiford doesn't claim that Dickens invented Christmas though he does say Dickens re-invented it. Then he presents lots of evidence that prove the opposite. He points out the history of many Christmas icons have no relevance to Dickens's A Christmas Carol, such as Christmas trees, Christmas cards, Santa Claus and the giving of gifts. He does claim that the turkey replaced the goose as the center of Christmas dinners as a result of Scrooge choosing a turkey to send the Cratchits.

Most likely the title came from someone in the publisher's marketing department.

It is not a scholarly work, and it is clear that Standiford relied solely on the works listed in the bibliography and did no research from original sources, but since it is appearing in bookstore windows throughout Philadelphia I figure it is going to be a good seller, if not a best seller. And perhaps the more people who read The Man Who Invented Christmas, the more people who will be inspired to read Charles Dickens's works.

(And maybe Les Standiford will read them and learn that Little Nell's last name is Trent and that Bumble is not in the room when Oliver asks for more.)

Mr. Standiford's new book is a worthy contribution to the Dickens literature. In a concise way, we learn of the influences on Dickens' life and career. We join Dickens in the creation of the timeless CAROL. In the end, Dickens' achievement appears to be even more of an enduring miracle, This book should please all who read and love Dickens and who look forward to more visits with Scrooge and his immortal ghosts.

In this jewel of a book, Les Standiford gives us a true holiday gift. It's the perfect Christmas book--to give or simply to curl up with and sip a cup of eggnog. Fascinating facts told wonderfully. The highest recommendation.

In mid-December, I read Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, and The Cricket on the Hearth. I was very familiar with A Christmas Carol, but had never read the other two. Then I ran across Mr. Standiford's book The Man Who Invented Christmas. I thought that it would be particularly suitable for this time of year, and I was right.

However, I did not enjoy the book as much as I expected to. The book is small and not lengthy. Even so, I felt that it could have been reduced to being a long magazine article. Mr. Standiford's writing is fine, and the subject is interesting. I just found that I was being introduced to more information about the British publishing industry than I really wanted to know. You can get a good feel for Dickens himself in the book, i.e., his early years, his family life, his occupational and financial problems. You learn about the difficulties involved with publishing a book and making any money on it. I believe you will also become convinced to read more works by Dickens.

My problems with the book had to do with a few sections that just seemed to drag. I would have been grateful for more specific information about A Christmas Carol. For example, Mr. Standiford does point out that the British geese industry ran into hard times because Dickens had the big turkey sent to the Cratchits rather than buying a goose for them. I found that to be particularly interesting, and I would have enjoyed more tidbits like that.

I did find Mr. Standiford's brief discussions of The Chimes and The Cricket on the Hearth to be very useful. Having just read those stories for the first time ever, I was glad to read his summaries because those stories are fairly dense and not nearly as memorable as A Christmas Carol.

So Dickens called his "Christmas Carol," one of the most-read books in the English language, and he meant it in two senses.

First and foremost, he hoped that its publication would lift his sagging fortunes. Wildly popular a few years earlier but now seemingly on his way out as a celebrity author, Dickens hoped that his 1843 Christmas "ghost story" would fill his depleted bank account and return him to the public eye with the power of a sledge-hammer blow. But secondly, he also wanted to draw the public's attention to the want and squalor endured by so many of England's invisible poor, and to do it in a season which gave at least lip service to compassion and charity for all. This was the other hammer blow Dickens hoped to strike.*

Les Standiford's charming little book explores the story behind the "Christmas Carol" by describing in some detail the context of these two hammer blows. It's a well-written and articulately-presented tale. All those who (like myself) received the volume as a Christmas gift will find it a timely and enjoyable read. Moreover, the paper jacket is lovely, mimicking as it does the original "Christmas Carol's" hard cover. (Dickens financed the publication of the book himself, and spared no expense.)

But the book isn't without flaws. An earlier reviewer noted that Standiford pads his account. I don't know that I'd call it "padding," but it certainly is the case that the final 50 or so pages, in which Standiford explores the evolution of Christmas celebrations in England and the US as well as a breathless rundown of Dickens' post-"Carol" years--seem out of place. They tarnish the glow created by the first two-thirds of the book. There's also no original scholarship here. Standiford relies on secondary sources for all his information--even quotations. To give him his due, though, he makes no claim to breaking new ground.

Three and a half stars.
___________
* If Standiford is correct, Dickens hoped to exorcise some of his personal demons as well, those bred by his memories of his miserable childhood. His later David Copperfield apparently laid them to rest.

This is a fascinating book about both Dickens, and the development of Christmas traditions. Here are some quotations from the book:

"Faced with bankruptcy, (Dickens) was contemplating giving up on writing fiction altogether. Instead, he pulled himself together and, in six short weeks, wrote a book that not only restored him in the eyes of the public but began the transformation of what was then a second-tier holiday into the most significant celebration of the Christian calendar." (Pg. 6)
"And so, as he walked the streets that night, a new story began to form. His nightly walks continued... until bit by bit his tale took shape, and ... He wept over it, laughed, and then wept again, as bits and pieces swam up before him... those ... creatures who would, with Tiny Tim and Bob Crachit and Scrooge and Marley and all the rest, stamp themselves on Dickens's imagination, and that of the rest of the world, forever." (Pg. 70)
"For all his calculations regarding the undertaking, Dickens was apparently consumed by the emotional power of his own creation." (Pg. 84)
"Dickens had ... good reasons to be apprehensive as publication day for his story approached... Christmas in 1843 was not at all the premier occasion that it is today, when Christmas stories and their Grinches and elves and Santas abound... There were no Christmas cards in 1843 England, no Christmas trees at royal residences or White Houses, no Christmas turkeys... the holiday was a relatively minor affair that ranked far below Easter." (Pg. 103-104)
"...he had in six feverish weeks produced a book ... pointing to the possibility of change, and in such a way that readers everywhere embraced his words and praised him for acknowledging their shortcomings and encouraging them to become more generous and loving." (Pg. 161)
"Indeed, the resonance of the story has remained so strong through the generations that commentators have referred to Dickens as the man who invented Christmas." (Pg. 175)
"Prior to this small moment at the end of Dickens's tale, the traditional bird for the well-provisioned Christmas table in England was the goose, and the impact of 'A Christmas Carol' was said to have sent the nation's goose-raising industry to near ruin." (Pg. 185)
"It is likewise difficult to imagine a true Victorian Christmas without a Christmas tree, though no such object appears in either the text or the illustrations of 'A Christmas Carol.'" (Pg. 188)
"If Dickens did not invent Christmas, he certainly reinvented it." (Pg. 193)

The book is a very quick read, seems like it would be a good holiday gift for someone interested in history/literature. Funny subtitle though, since the author shows that due to financial arrangements Dickens made with the printers, the book really did not "rescue" his career. And as the author shows, Dickens did not "invent Christmas at all.

"The Man who Invented Christmas" was quite a different book than I thought it was going to be, but enjoyable nonetheless. The book has much less to do with the history of Christmas than with the history of Charles Dickens and the events in his life that lead up to the creation and publication of "A Christmas Carol."

After a brief scene setting in 1824 of a small boy forced by his father's debt to work in a factory filling bottles with boot-blacking, the story begins in 1843 at a low point in Charles Dickens' life. After souring to the heights of popularity, he learned how fickle fame can be when currently serialized book "Martin Chuzzlewit" is failing to find an audience, and Dickens' financial affairs are looking grim as a result. Dickens desperately needs a hit, and some cash infusion, but he is lost and unconfident. Wandering the streets of Manchester in the early hours, the idea for Scrooge and the Ghosts hits him like lightning, and he knows something special is brewing in his brain.

"The Man who Invented Christmas" goes deep into the facts and figures of Dickens' debt, of the publishing practices of the day and how accounts were tabulated for authors and publishers, how books were bought and sold in Victorian London, the considerations of book-piracy and international copyright laws and all the sundry business points that turn an idea like "A Christmas Carol" into an actual object that can be sold. Dickens paid close attention to every aspect of the book, from the size and shape to the page colors and illustrations.

I was hoping for more of a book about how "The Christmas Carol" revived the holiday of Christmas, at the time a relatively unimportant holiday about on the same scale as Memorial Day is now, something we are vaguely aware of but not really actively celebrating. Author Les Standiford points out that this story is already well-covered in the book The Battle for Christmas, and he didn't want to retread that beaten path. Instead he focused on Dickens the man, and the circumstances in his life before and after "The Christmas Carol," and how the publication of that book affected him as a writer and a man.

The presentation of this book, it must be said, is beautiful. This is absolutely a "present-ready" book that could be slipped into someone's stocking or just put under the tree with a ribbon for accompaniment. You learn much more about Charles Dickens than Christmas, but that isn't a bad thing at all.

While I'm not fully conversant with the gift publishing genre, this has to be a first. Les Standiford and Crown have created something special. The paper, its weight, texture and overall quality as well as the print and general layout appear to be of gift book quality. The text is substantive, and just deep enough for a gift book "ideal".

While not a polemic or a research piece (though it is nicely referenced)the author builds a case, not so much for Dickens' invention of Christmas, but that much of today's Christmas symbolism results from "A Christmas Carol". In doing this he tells the general life of Dickens and how he came to self publish this work under time and financial pressures.

Last year my gift book was Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter's, which I don't think was designed as a gift book, but I made it one. I wasn't aware of this volume, but my receipients will enjoy it next year. I expect it will be in print for years to come, so while I missed it last year, I believe that, like Dickens' works, it will be in print for years to come and I will be one among many gifting it.

Have you ever wondered how some of your favorite books came to be written? Les Standiford gives us a fascinating glimpse into the mind of Charles Dickens, and details the circumstances that led him to produce the world's most beloved and well-known Christmas story A Christmas Carol, while at the same time helping change the way the holiday is celebrated. This book is filled with enough fun facts to delight Dickens fans, trivia buffs, or folks who are just plain crazy about Christmas, there is something here for everyone.

The book is not without it's flaws however, at 256 pages, it still feels padded, the author uses long block quotes from Dickens works, the writing is repetitive at times, and at one point he actually spends 3 or 4 pages summarizing the Carol for the reader, when he says at several points throughout the book that the story is so well known that if all the copies were destroyed, everyone would still know it by heart. Well, which is it? One gets the feeling that when all the padding is stripped away that this material was probably better suited for a magazine article than a full-length book.

Still, Christmas is the season of forgiveness and good cheer, in that spirit, I urge readers to embrace this book as they have the original Carol.