Oh it's the festive season! Happy holidays and happy #BookReview day! I am loving my seasonal reading list this December, and today's review is another one from my list!
A couple of years ago, a friend was aghast I hadn't seen the 2017 film "The Man Who Invented Christmas". A Christmas movie about the writer of a beloved story? Sign me up!
And of course I loved it.
It wasn't super festive... definitely not the stuff of Hallmark Christmas movies. But it was very interesting and I even got a little teary-eyed. Because of course I did.
I love stories about the writers behind famous pieces, and this certainly qualifies. So of course when I stumbled across the book, I had to give that one a go, too.
"Just before Christmas in 1843, a debt-ridden and dispirited Charles Dickens wrote a small book he hoped would keep his creditors at bay. His publisher turned it down, so Dickens used what little money he had to put out A Christmas Carol himself. He worried it might be the end of his career as a novelist."
Yeah, it didn't end his career at all.
Instead, it completely shifted the way society approached Christmas. I mean, it even became an adjective: A Dickensian Christmas.
Part mini-biography, part mini-history, part mini-essay, this book is based on the same background as the film mentioned above. But while the film got to play with visuals and let us inside Dickens' mind as he dealt with his own history in an effort to give the world the Carol, this book focuses instead on the facts. This is a crash course on the background of the story, and it is perfectly... fine.
It is an interesting history, and if you don't know much about this time, or about Dickens, or about the writing of A Christmas Carol, I do recommend it. The focus in The Man Who Invented Christmas is more a biographical look at Dickens himself, rather than the writing and effect of A Christmas Carol. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of that in there too, but it isn't quite the focus. And that is okay; just be aware of what to expect.
This is a short read, but I found I was able to set it down and walk away for days; that rarely happens with such short pieces. There were parts where my attention lapsed. However, I don't blame the book for this; I think I was in a fiction or at least narrative nonfiction mood, not quite informational nonfiction, and I probably should have gravitated toward something else instead.
All in all, a good, quick, informative read. If you are interested in Dickens and history, read it. If you want warm fuzzies, pick something else.
(I will say, this book did inspire me to reread A Christmas Carol this year, and "for that I say, bless it.")
And check out the trailer for the film version, here:
Are you more of a fiction or nonfiction fan? Do you like to know the stories behind beloved stories, or would you rather have the work stand on its own? I'd love to read your thoughts, below, or via my contact page, here. And don't forget to subscribe to me (very occasional) newsletter while you're there.
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