“I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year”—so promises Ebenezer Scrooge at the close of Charles Dickens’ 1843 story A Christmas Carol. Apart from celebrating the holiday, its plot highlights the stark contrast in Victorian society between the wealthy and the impoverished and emphasizes the need for compassion and social reform.
Historian Julie Taddeo places Dickens and Christmas within the larger social dynamic of 19th century Britain, examining if the author’s story was indeed a challenge to the cruel class structure of the period; why Dickens has been credited with the “invention” of Christmas; and how this holiday became a distinctly Victorian tradition that influences how it is celebrated today.
Taking a cue from the Ghost of Christmas Past, Taddeo returns to the age of workhouses, plum puddings, the queen who gave her name to an era, and an author whose holiday story has become timeless.
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