Mr Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva

Started and finished this in a morning because it is so good! If you’re looking for a Christmas read, this is definitely it.

Mr. Dickens and His Carol is a fictionalised account of how Charles Dickens came up with his famous story A Christmas Carol. While it’s true that the story before that, Martin Chuzzlewit, was a flop and that Dickens was in financial difficulties at the time, the rest of the book takes great liberties with the truth. But what an enjoyable read this was.

In this account, Charles Dickens loses the spirit of Christmas, driving away even his wife and children. But even though he cannot think of and doesn’t want to write a story, his publishers have promised a Christmas Tale and they are insistent that he must deliver. It’s not until Dickens meets an enigmatic young woman named Eleanor Lovejoy and her young son Timothy that he is able to write again.

Charles Dickens is definitely the star of the story. The author did a great job in creating sympathy for him, so much so that I was annoyed with his family for spending so much money without a care. While he was definitely a Scrooge, his stress over his finances made him a likeable Scrooge.

There are also a lot of fun, literary cameos in the book. More than a few Victorian-era authors appear, and there are many references to Dickens’ other works (including a character named David Copperfield who would like to be in Dickens’ book).

I’m so glad that I picked this up. I wasn’t even thinking of it, but it was in the “new books” section of the library and I remembered hearing about it before (from Wendy, so thank you very much!) so I borrowed it and now I’m in a Christmas mood. If you’re still looking for a book to read over Christmas, I would recommend this one.