Up until that
point, Dickens had worked in serial form, writing sections at a time, planning almost as the chapter before appeared in print.
Even as he
scribbled away, bringing Scrooge into life, he was struggling with Martin Chuzzlewit, his American novel, and with fears about his own
popularity as an author.
Dickens wanted
A Christmas Carol to be seen as his book.
He commissioned Chapman &
Hall as his publishers and then chose the look of his new book. He wanted a handsome
red cloth binding and a gold design on the cover while the gilt-edged pages would
include four black-and-white woodcuts set within the text itself and four full-colour
etchings by the artist John Leech.
A Christmas Carol was published on 19th
December 1843, reasonably priced at five shillings, and became the most popular
book of the season. By Christmas Eve,
every one of the six thousand copies had been sold. Dickens must have been delighted.
The
novella quickly became a “national benefit”, according to Thackeray and, with
its outspoken attack upon those who ignore the poorest in society, was seen as
a piece of radical literature. Yet, at the same time, the story also celebrates
family and food and fun alongside the Christian themes of mercy and love.
The story
certainly feels haunted, in more ways than one. Even before their appearance in
his story, Dickens recognised those two awful children, Ignorance and Want. He had
become a friend of Miss Burdett-Coutts, a rich philanthropist with a deep
purse, and so had been visiting Ragged Schools - schools set up by Evangelicals
to save souls - so he could make practical suggestions to guide her charitable
work.
However, when
Dickens visited the Field Lane Ragged School, he had to walk through Saffron Hill, an area
of London which
had haunted him since his childhood: he had used it for some of the scenes with
Fagin in Oliver Twist.
Once inside
the school, Dickens found “a sickening
atmosphere, in the midst of taint and dirt and pestilence, with all the deadly
sins let loose and howling at the doors”. His companion left hastily while
the unruly children, for their part, mocked Dickens stylish white trousers and
bright boots.
Just as awful
was the knowledge that Field Lane
school was close to where he, as a boy, worked in a blacking factory. Dickens
had been sent there by his bankrupt father, while his sister was sent to
music lessons. The young Dickens was utterly ashamed of his fall from
respectability, especially when he was placed in public view in the window, a
disgrace that he felt so deeply that he kept it secret until almost the end of
his life.
Revisiting
the area, witnessing again all the filth, disease and vice of that “doomed
childhood”, and the hopeless sense of destitution must surely have fed into the
darkness of his Christmas Carol.
Dickens
brought jollity to the story, of course. He was someone who loved parties and
celebrations and surprises and plays and conjuring tricks and the playful side
of his character is very much there in the joyful scenes and resolution of A
Christmas Carol.
Yet even
the plenty is ambiguous. Dickens, the self-made man, knew that it was his pen that
brought in the good things that he and his extended family enjoyed and the
money they spent.
Yet, a
little like Scrooge, Dickens was a man for whom money and time were almost
everything. He was cautious about his household expenditure, and spent phenomenal
time and energy visiting or lecturing or going on long night-walks where he plotted
his stories. Dickens, like many who have known poverty, was haunted by the fact
that he had to be successful.
Furthermore,
his worries were increasing: his wife was about to have another baby, another
child that he had to keep fed and clothed and out of the gutter. Dickens
enjoyed being with children, although very noticeably on his own terms, but he
was worried about the cost of them. At the same time, he was growing far less
fond of his poor, low-spirited wife Catherine and rather more sentimental about
pretty young ladies that reminded him of his youth.
Scrooge’s
memories of his own childhood echo those of his creator: does his miser draw on
the ambivalence and shadow within Dickens?
Sadly, within
two weeks of publication, Dickens had reason to feel even more ungenerous and
suspicious. A simplified version of A Christmas
Carol was issued by a pirate publisher and though Dickens immediately sued
and won the case, the publisher also immediately declared bankruptcy and
Dickens was forced to pay the court costs himself and felt he had been almost
ruined by the whole venture. Moreover, errors in production costs meant that
Dickens made hardly any money from that first beautiful edition. God Bless Us Everyone
indeed!
Six years
afterwards, however, in 1849, Dickens started to give public readings of A Christmas Carol. These proved so richly
popular and rewarding that Dickens kept telling his strange, enigmatic Christmas
ghost story until his own death, performing at the Bradford Alhambra, in 1870.
And,
probably, if you look around locally, someone will be continuing that same
tradition, and reading Dickens Christmas
Carol this winter too – a tale that’s still, sadly, just as apt for our own age.
A Happy Christmas to you all.
Penny Dolan
Note: In this post, I’ve
drawn on my own reading of Peter Ackroyd’s impressive biography of DICKENS, first published in 1990.
As a matter of fact, yes, I do know someone who does the Dickens-one-man-Christmas Carol, an old schoolfriend of mine. I saw him perform it brilliantly a few years ago. Problem is, it's summer here at Christmas and he was wearing heavy Victorian costume in a tent outside the Melbourne Arts Centre. It was rather too warm in there, but he did an amazing job.
ReplyDeleteThey have a first edition of A Christmas Carol on show at the SS Great Britain at the moment - will send you a picture.
ReplyDeleteI do like your account of that bold fellow, Sue B. That reading must be a strangely over-heated experience for him and for his audience. Hooray for him - a good way to celebrate the season! Oh, I've now spotted that Simon Callow's C.C. reading is being shown again on tv here.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sue P. (I'm intending to put SS GB into my travel plans for next year.)
Loved this, Penny. A Christmas Carol is one of the few things by Dickens I've read but I didn't know much of the background. I'm surprised that Dickens, the son, was sent out to work while his sister had music lessons - was it hoped to marry the sister off profitably if she was taught the usual accomplishments?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if some of Dickens' shame about the blacking family was a feeling of abandonment by his family, that he was thrown out while his sister was protected.
Dickens was very complicated, both as boy and as a man. His father was the model for Mr Micawber and his lack of concern for his son during yet another impecunious period certainly marked Charles for life. I, too, am sure the piano lessons were intended to improve his sister's chances(and income/marriage opportunities)but Charles certainly felt unjustly abandoned and cast out of the family circle.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how life was much more grey and not so black and white for Dickens, always felt A Christmas Carole was a tale of how you should be, more 'do what I say, than what I do' type of story, but never knew how his own life was so hard at the same time. His own hidden and not mentioned past colours so much of his writing, I love reading Dickens at any time of the year but traditionally I read the dark is rising in the run-up to Christmas by Susan Cooper.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, Penny! Six weeks ... phew!
ReplyDelete