A Christmas Carol [Hardcover]

Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound pocket-sized gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

WhenA Christmas Carolwas first published in 1843 it was an overnight success, and set a precedent that was to be followed by other Christmas books, includingThe Chimes(1844) andThe Cricket(1845). Each book was published at the same time of year, in the same format, and extolled similar values about the virtues of love, charity and the family unit. But none would achieve the cult status ofA Christmas Carol, a book so popular it has become part of the landscape of the traditional Christmas, or produce a character as extraordinarily memorable. A celebration of Christmas, a tale of redemption and a critique on Victorian society, Dickens atmospheric novella follows the miserly, penny-pinching Ebenezer Scrooge who views Christmas as humbug. It is only through a series of eerie, life-changing visits from the ghost of his deceased business partner Marley and the spirits of Christmas past, present and future that he begins to see the error of his ways. With heart-rending characters, rich imagery and evocative language, the message ofA Christmas Carolremains as significant today as when it was first published.

Original illustrations by John Leech, with an afterword by Anna South.

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 near Portsmouth, where his father worked as a clerk. Living in London in 1824, Dickens was sent by his family to work in a blacking-warehouse, and his father was arrested and imprisoned for debt. Fortunes improved and Dickens returned to school, eventually becoming a parliamentary reporter. His first piece of fiction was published by a magazine in December 1832, and by 1836 he had begun his first nlm