Finished reading "A Christmas Carol" recently .

I had previously read a simplified english version of it as a kid and have also seen the animated film with Jim Carrey. Still, the story felt as charming as ever .

This is one of those stories where, despite dealing with poverty and suffering, it creates a world that one would prefer to live in, rather than the one we currently occupy. People are poor but there's almost always some form of community to help them find solace. I think the story benefits from not portraying being poor in a more realistic manner. Characters are overworked, lack wealth, live in cramped communities but thankfully we are spared of the shit, filth, disease(outside of Tiny Tim) and other grotesque suffering that was probably commonplace in a poorcels existence back then. It has just enough suffering to make the happy moments feel more cathartic .

Some stuff I didn't like.

1. The Flirting in these stories is a bit cringe. Especially, involving that "plump" girl in the party.

2. Really wish they showed a bit more of the reactions of other characters to Scrooge's change. It felt like that part went by a bit too quickly. The film has these little moments where the characters look shocked and then go on feeling hopeful which makes it more affecting.

These aren't particularly issues with the work itself but stuff I had trouble with. I couldn't get a lot of the references, some vocabulary and jokes considering the novel is from the victorian era. So I was constantly googling shit which was annoying but I came across some interesting trivia as a result. Like this one:

three days after sight of this First of Exchange pay to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge or his order,” and so forth, would have become a mere United States' security if there were no days to count by.

Apparently, US securities were seen as extremely risky in Britian. I don't know if this was accurate or if Peepeeens was just making empty potshots at the US.

https://literature.stackexchange.com/questions/9600/what-exactly-does-peepeeens-mean-to-say-here

Another interesting one is that a lot of poor people didn't have ovens (or even kitchens) and often relied on Baker Shops' already hot ovens if they wanted to cook certain meals, especially meat based dishes .

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2021/12/cooking-the-cratchits-goose#:~:text=Through the magic of the,good deal of the cooking.

Apparently, some pious christians wanted to close baker shops on weekends and holidays through legislation and this made Peepeeens seethe. Interesting stuff.

Overall this was a pretty fun read .