A Christmas Carol (Scholastic Classics)

Dickens, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1407143646 ISBN 13: 9781407143644

Publisher: Scholastic, 2013

Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly and mean-spirited old man. He treats family, coworkers, and strangers alike with distaste. But on Christmas Eve he receives a visit from the ghost of his dead business partner, Jacob Marley., Marley warns Scrooge that unless he learns to be less greedy and self-serving that Scrooge will be condemned to wander Earth weighed down with heavy chains, as Marley has been. Marley tells Scrooge that three spirits will visit him. First, the Ghost of Christmas Past visits and shows Scrooge his own Christmases past, including the Christmas when his fiance left him for being obsessed with money., Second, the Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge all the happiness occurring at the various Christmas festivities around the city. Finally, The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge what will happen after his own death, and Scrooge is horrified to find that everyone will celebrate it. Distraught, Scrooge begs for another chance, and suddenly wakes in his own bed., Forever after he honours the spirit of Christmas with kindness, generosity and warmth.

Review:

"It has it all: a spooky ghost story, a heartwarming redemption and a great plot with a satisfyingly ending" (The Times)

"A story which, perhaps more than any other, sums up the spirit of the British Christmas" (Sunday Telegraph)

"A little masterpiece...irresistible" (Sunday Express)

"Marley's ghostly face on the knocker of Scrooge's door still gives me the shivers" (Michael Morpurgo Independent)

"So what makes these different to any other set of classics? In a moment of inspiration Random House had the bright idea of actually asking Key stage 2 children what extra ingredients they could add to make children want to read. And does it work? Well, put it this way...my 13-year-old daughter announced that she had to read a book over the summer holiday and, without any prompting, spotted The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas...and proceeded to read it! Now, if you knew my 13-year-old daughter, you would realise that this is quite remarkable. She reads texts, blogs and tags by the thousand - but this is the first book she has read since going to high school, so all hail Vintage Classics!" (National Association for the Teaching of English)

From the Publisher:

The Broadview Editions series is an effort to represent the ever-changing canon of literature in English by bringing together texts long regarded as classics with valuable, lesser-known literature. Newly type-set and produced on high-quality paper in trade paperback format, the Broadview Editions series is a delight to handle as well as to read.

Each volume includes a full introduction, chronology, bibliography, and explanatory notes along with a variety of documents from the period, giving readers a rich sense of the world from which the work emerged.