The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits

What a lovely book. Its taken the best part of a lifetime for me to come to Dickens, but its been books like this- and the wonderful movie of the same name- that have finally brought me to understand the enduring appeal of Charles Dickens. I love the depiction of a young man struggling with his fame, desperate for inspiration and burdened by both his past and his present, and fearful of the future should his gift fail him. In creating one of the most beloved stories of all time Dickens not only touched the hearts of his contemporaries he reached across time to succeeding generations. Brilliant.

This little book promises much and has a good deal to recommend it. The title, I suspect comes from Ackroyd's 1990 biography which asserts early on that "...Dickens can be said to have almost single-handedly created the modern idea of Christmas" and, as another reviewer has pointed out, Standiford relies heavily on Ackroyd throughout.The author narrates the history of Dickens's writing of `A Christmas Carol' with pace and contextualizes the novella within the framework of its literary antecedents, Victorian origins and in the light of its impact on the present. As such it provides a useful quick guide to Dickens and his Christmas books and makes a good `stocking stuffer for the bookish' in the words of the New York Times Book Review quoted on the back cover.Sadly, the book is littered with errors, most of which might have been avoided through some careful proofing and editing. James Kay-Shuttleworth is presented as plain `James Kay'; Mervyn Johns who played Bob Cratchit to Alistair Sims' Scrooge in the 1951 film `Scrooge' is presented as Mervyn Jones.There are repeated references to Dickens's `divorce' whereas this was a separation. Standiford notes that Dickens began publication of Household Words in 1850 which would `continue until he died'. In fact it was discontinued in 1859 after Dickens fell out with Bradbury and Evans over his separation from his wife, Catherine, and Standiford makes this clear in the following chapter in which he discusses the publication of its replacement All the Year Round. A story is related in which Dickens invites his first love Maria Winter nee Beadnell to lunch with her husband when he actually contrived to have her call at his home alone at a time when he knew his wife would be away.Even in the superfluous recounting of the plot of `A Christmas Carol' there are glaring errors, such as that in which Scrooge meets `a do-gooder seeking donations for the poor' as he walks home from his counting house (erroneously presented here as an `accounting firm'). Actually he meets the `portly gentleman' raising money for the `poor and destitute' whilst still in his office.These minor mistakes serve to spoil what is otherwise a very pleasant and informative read.

Very enjoyable read in the build up to Christmas. Lots of information new to me about Dickens without being too much to take in.

Great thank you

This book wields a dramatic title which looks to be aimed at selling the book at Christmas-time. However the title overstates the content even in the author's view: the title comes from a line in the book where 'commentators have referred to Dickens as the man who invented Christmas'. The author then challenges this quite successfully by citing other origins including German and American sources. If the book were subtitled 'the Man who Restored Christmas', it would have been much closer to the author's message.It reads fairly well and easily as a part-general-biography, part-summary of Dickens' Christmas books, part-commentary on their impact and context. Oddly, the author states that summarising 'A Christmas Carol' would be superfluous as everybody knows the story, but then goes on to do just that, taking quite a few pages to re-tell the story without any commentary, explanation or added value. So for almost all of us we can skip those pages without loss of content. (However the brief summaries of the other less popular Dickens 'Christmas' books might be helpful for those unaware of them).The material felt too lightweight for the topic, with too much shifting of focus, and with the overall context spread too thinly for my liking. A better way to explore the impact of Dickens on Christmas may be to read the main Dickens biographies and get the story from that angle - Tomalin is my preference, though the author seems to refer mostly to Ackroyd.

Delivered with back page folded, terrible quality paper and most of it it just a Christmas carol!

This book wields a dramatic title which looks to be aimed at selling the book at Christmas-time. However the title overstates the content even in the author's view: the title comes from a line in the book where 'commentators have referred to Dickens as the man who invented Christmas'. The author then challenges this quite successfully by citing other origins including German and American sources. If the book were subtitled 'the Man who Restored Christmas', it would have been much closer to the author's message.It reads fairly well and easily as a part-general-biography, part-summary of Dickens' Christmas books, part-commentary on their impact and context. Oddly, the author states that summarising 'A Christmas Carol' would be superfluous as everybody knows the story, but then goes on to do just that, taking quite a few pages to re-tell the story without any commentary, explanation or added value. So for almost all of us we can skip those pages without loss of content. (However the brief summaries of the other less popular Dickens 'Christmas' books might be helpful for those unaware of them).The material felt too lightweight for the topic, with too much shifting of focus, and with the overall context spread too thinly for my liking. A better way to explore the impact of Dickens on Christmas may be to read the main Dickens biographies and get the story from that angle - Tomalin is my preference, though the author seems to refer mostly to Ackroyd.