Produced by Jose Menendez

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

IN PROSE BEING A Ghost Story of Christmas

by Charles Dickens

PREFACE

I HAVE endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.

Their faithful Friend and Servant, C. D. December, 1843.

CONTENTS

Stave I: Marley's Ghost Stave II: The First of the Three Spirits Stave III: The Second of the Three Spirits Stave IV: The Last of the Spirits Stave V: The End of It

STAVE I: MARLEY'S GHOST

MARLEY was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.

The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot--say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance-- literally to astonish his son's weak mind.

Scrooge never painted out Old Marley's name. There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names. It was all the same to him.

Table of contents (by pages)

• 1: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
• 2: External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge
• 3: Scrooge said that he would see him yes
• 4: Marley has been dead these seven years
• 5: Some labourers were repairing the gas pipes
• 6: For nobody lived in it but Scrooge
• 7: As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon
• 8: Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels
• 9: Scrooge could not feel it himself
• 10: Scrooge trembled more and more
• 11: It beckoned Scrooge to approach
• 12: Scrooge followed to the window desperate in his curiosity
• 13: The curtains of his bed were drawn aside
• 14: Scrooge expressed himself much obliged
• 15: Scrooge recognising every gate
• 16: And Scrooge sat down upon a form
• 17: Scrooge knew no more than you do
• 18: In came the three Miss Fezziwigs
• 19: Fezziwig had gone all through the dance
• 20: This was not addressed to Scrooge
• 21: Than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count
• 22: Said Scrooge in a broken voice
• 23: Without venturing for Scrooge quite as hardily as this
• 24: He was not the dogged Scrooge he had been
• 25: Sprinkled incense on their dinners from his torch
• 26: Scrooge promised that he would
• 27: These young Cratchits danced about the table
• 28: Excited by the two young Cratchits
• 29: In what Bob Cratchit called a circle
• 30: Scrooge was the Ogre of the family
• 31: But bade Scrooge hold his robe
• 32: It was a great surprise to Scrooge
• 33: I can assure you especially Topper
• 34: Where the Ghost and Scrooge were close behind her
• 35: Scrooge had observed this change
• 36: Scrooge bent down upon his knee
• 37: As Scrooge had seen them often
• 38: Where Scrooge had never penetrated before
• 39: Let the laundress alone to be the second
• 40: They were severally examined and appraised by old Joe
• 41: Scrooge glanced towards the Phantom
• 42: The only emotion that the Ghost could show him
• 43: Then the two young Cratchits got upon his knees and laid
• 44: The two young Cratchits kissed him
• 45: And dwindled down into a bedpost
• 46: A merry Christmas to everybody
• 47: And Scrooge said often afterwards
• 48: His niece looked just the same
• 49: And catch Bob Cratchit coming late