Publication of A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol is a novella by Charles Dickens about Ebenezer Scrooge, a bitter and miserly London businessman who is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley, and by three spirits of Christmas past, present and yet to come. Shown the consequences of his selfishness, including the likely death of the poor child Tiny Tim, Scrooge is transformed into a generous man. Dickens wrote it in a few weeks in the autumn, partly to draw attention to poverty and child labour in industrial Britain. It sold well immediately and helped to shape the Victorian idea of Christmas as a time for family and charity. It has been adapted many times.

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