Rare Finds - A Guide to Rare Book Collecting

“The One Great Christmas Myth of Modern Literature”

Drawing on his childhood memories of extreme poverty and his indignation at society’s neglect of the destitute, Charles Dickens conceived A Christmas Carol during a solitary evening walk through the streets of Manchester in October 1843. Writing at a frantic pace, he completed in six weeks what would become his most famous work, creating characters, scenes and sentiments that would engender an entirely new concept of Christmas.

Dickens supervised every aspect of the book’s elaborate production, resulting in a beautiful volume in cloth-gilt with John Leech’s hand-colored illustrations. A resounding success from the time of its publication, the entire first edition of 6000 copies sold out by the end of Christmas Day in 1843.

The other titles in this series quickly followed: The Chimes, 1845; The Cricket on the Hearth, 1846; The Battle of Life, 1846; The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain, 1848.

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