Tells the story of the solitary miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught the true meaning of Christmas by the three ghosts of Christmas. This title also includes: "The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton", and the short story from "The Pickwick Papers" on which "A Christmas Carol" was based.

'Every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas" on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding'

Dickens's story of solitary miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught the true meaning of Christmas by a series of ghostly visitors, has had an enduring influence on the way we think about the season. Dickens's other Christmas writings collected here include 'The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton'; 'The Haunted Man'; and shorter pieces, some drawn from the 'Christmas Stories' that Dickens wrote annually for his weekly journals. In all of them Dickens celebrates Christmas as a time of geniality, charity and remembrance.


Edited with an introduction by MICHAEL SLATER

After reading the Christmas Carol, the notoriously reclusive Thomas Carlyle was "seized with a perfect convulsion of hospitality" and threw not one but two Christmas dinner parties. The impact of the story may not always have been so dramatic but, along with Dickens other Christmas writings, it has had a lasting and significant influence upon our ideas about the Christmas spirit, and about the season as a time for celebration, charity and memory.