History Book: 180 years of A Christmas Carol

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, December 18th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, the WORLD History Book. Last week we told the story behind a well-loved Christmas carol. Today the story of A Christmas Carol—by Charles Dickens, published in London for the first time 180 years ago this week. WORLD Radio executive producer Paul Butler has our story.

PAUL BUTLER: In the 2017 film: The Man who Invented Christmas, we meet a world famous author in a bit of a dry spell. He’s had a few flops.

MOVIE CLIP: It's about a businessman or a factory owner, a miser. His partner dies, he doesn't shed a tear. And on Christmas Eve, on Christmas Eve he meets some kind of supernatural guides or spirits.

He’s expecting a fifth child, and borrowing money in the hopes of future success. According to the movie, that’s when Charles Dickens decides to write a Christmas book in hopes of making a comeback…

MOVIE CLIP: It's a short book. Short and sharp. It’s a comedy.

It’s an entertaining premise for a film to be sure, but unfortunately it’s as fictitious as Scrooge himself.

The story of A Christmas Carol begins long before 1843 London. It starts in Charles Dickens’ troubled youth. When he’s 12 years old his father is thrown into debtors' prison—forcing Charles into child labor at a shoe-blacking factory. A few months later, the family is reunited, but his time in the poor house casts a long shadow over the rest of his life.

As a young man, Dickens’ first job is as a clerk:

MOVIE CLIP: “You’ll want all day tomorrow, I suppose?”/“If quite convenient, sir.”/“It’s not convenient, and it’s not fair.”

Dickens goes on to work as a reporter, and even as an actor before his writing career takes off. He becomes a literary celebrity after the release of Oliver Twist and The Pickwick Papers. His notoriety grows through live readings of his works. In 1842 Dickens heads to America for a reading tour. During the trip he meets a handful of influential Unitarians—including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Raised a nominal Anglican, Dickens readily embraces the non-trinitarian faith and its commitment to societal improvement.

Upon returning home he reads a devastating report on unsafe working conditions for children in mines and factories. Dickens is deeply moved by the account. He begins planning a protest pamphlet but comes to believe a novella might have greater effect. The idea for A Christmas Carol is born.

MOVIE CLIP: A few of us are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the poor, some meat and drink and means of warmth.

By the time Dickens settles in on his plan, he only has six weeks to write and publish the story if he wants it out before Christmas. His publisher says it’s not enough time, so he arranges to publish it himself independently—printing 6000 copies.

One of the most important scenes in the short story occurs in the third stave. In his final moments with the spirit of Christmas present, Scrooge observes something under the giant’s robe. When he lifts it back, two starving children stare up at Scrooge:

MOVIE CLIP: “Spirit, are they yours?” Scrooge could say no more. “They are Man's,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree.”

For all the moments of levity and humor throughout the short story, it is with these two forlorn characters that Dickens strikes his hammer blow. To address the needs of the poor, society must start with neglected and forgotten children.

With Jacob Marley’s warning and the spirits’ guidance, Scrooge has a dramatic change of heart.

MOVIE CLIP: Before I draw nearer that stone, answer me one question…are these the shadows that must be, or are they only shadows of what might be?

Dickens’ Christmas Carol has its intended effect. Charitable giving increases after its publication. And together with Dickens’ many other stories, it begins to change societal perspectives on poverty and child labor.

Within a year of its first release, A Christmas Carol is republished 11 times—twice by the end of 1843. In an essay on Dickens’ first Christmas story, Catholic author GK Chesteron explains why it is so popular:

CHESTERTON: The Christmas Carol is a happy story first because it describes an abrupt and dramatic change. It is not only the story of a conversion, but of a sudden conversion, as sudden as the conversion of a man at a Salvation Army meeting.

But what kind of conversion is it? Dickens’ unitarian convictions believe that man is basically good and can redeem himself. That is exactly what we see in Scrooge. It mimics conversion, but the transformation is man-made—not new life from the Holy Spirit. Society is changed for the better, but Christmas becomes about generosity and doing good deeds instead of celebrating God made flesh.

In the years after publishing A Christmas Carol, Dickens authors a book for his children—a retelling of the life of Christ. It reveals his Unitarian view of Jesus: a good man who God loves as His own son. Which also shapes his view of Christianity. Here’s his great, great grandson reading from the book in 2017:

MARK DICKENS: It is Christianity to do good always, even to those who do evil unto us. It is Christianity to love our neighbor as ourself and to do to all men as we would have them do to us. It is Christianity to be gentle, merciful and forgiving and to keep these qualities quiet in our own hearts and never make a boast of them…

These are certainly all things that Christ teaches ought to characterize a Christian…but these things a Christian does not make. Scrooge has a change of heart…and lives by Dickens’ motto. But ultimately, Scrooge is the source of his own goodness. Rather than the righteousness of the eternal, pre-existent son of God.

The Christmas Carol audio clips included in today’s feature are from the 1951 Renown Pictures version of the story.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

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