Rõ ràng Scrooger chẳng có ý định tận hưởng mùa lễ và, như mọi khi, lão về nhà - một mình. Tại nhà, Scrooger bắt gặp hồn ma của Joseph Marley, đối tác kinh doanh đã chết của lão. Marley, kẻ đang trả giá cho sự nhẫn tâm của bản thân lúc còn sống, hy vọng có thể giúp Scrooger không phải chịu chung một kết cục như mình và cảnh báo lão sẽ được viếng thăm bởi ba hồn ma khác. Và khi những hồn ma của Giáng sinh Quá khứ, Hiện tại và Tương lai đưa Scrooger qua. | A CHRISTMAS CAROL By CHARLES DICKENS ILLUSTRATED BY GEORGE ALFRED WILLIAMS New York THE PLATT PECK CO. Copyright 1905 by The Baker Taylor Company Prepared and published by Ebd INTRODUCTION The combined qualities of the realist and the idealist which Dickens possessed to a remarkable degree together with his naturally jovial attitude toward life in general seem to have given him a remarkably happy feeling toward Christmas though the privations and hardships of his boyhood could have allowed him but little real experience with this day of days. Dickens gave his first formal expression to his Christmas thoughts in his series of small books the first of which was the famous Christmas Carol the one perfect chrysolite. The success of the book was immediate. Thackeray wrote of it Who can listen to objections regarding such a book as this It seems to me a national benefit and to every man or woman who reads it a personal kindness. This volume was put forth in a very attractive manner with illustrations by John Leech who was the first artist to make these characters live and his drawings were varied and spirited. There followed upon this four others The Chimes The Cricket on the Hearth The Battle of Life and The Haunted Man with illustrations on their first appearance by Doyle Maclise and others. The five are known to-day as the Christmas Books. Of them all the Carol is the best known and loved and The Cricket on the Hearth although third in the series is perhaps next in point of popularity and is especially familiar to Americans through Joseph Jefferson s characterisation of Caleb Plummer. Dickens seems to have put his whole self into these glowing little stories. Whoever sees but a clever ghost story in the Christmas Carol misses its chief charm and lesson for there is a different meaning in the movements of Scrooge and his attendant spirits. A new life is brought to Scrooge when he running to his window opened it and put out his head. No fog no mist
