Mr. Dickens and His Carol

by Samantha Silva

For Charles Dickens, each Christmas is been better than the last. His novels are literary blockbusters, avid fans litter the streets and he and his wife have five happy children and a sixth on the way. But when Dickens' latest book, Martin Chuzzlewit, is a flop, the glorious life threatens to collapse around him.
His publishers offer an ultimatum: either he writes a Christmas book in a month, or they will call in his debts, and he could lose everything. Grudgingly, and increasingly plagued by self-doubt, Dickens meets the muse he needs in Eleanor Lovejoy. With time running out, Dickens is propelled on a Scrooge-like journey through Christmases past and present.

• ISBN10: 1250154057
• ISBN13: 9781250154057
• Publish Date: 22 September 2020 (first published 31 October 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Flatiron Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

Truthfully this book just wasn't for me and I realized that about halfway through. I kept hoping though that it would live up to the hype that surrounded it for me, and sadly it just didn't. This is all about Charles Dickens and how he came to write the famous book A Christmas Carol.

We see his personal life, and how so many people relied on him. We also got to see all the people who helped inspire his characters rather it was something they briefly mentioned, their personality, or just them being them. This sounds rather cool, but after a while, it just got a bit repetitive and I felt like it didn't constantly need to be mentioned that he was going to save that and put it in a book one day. We already know that type of thing so it was just not needed.

I really started to lose interest in this book when Charles became obsessed with a woman in a cape. He followers her almost every night and they form a type of friendship that could have led to more but thankfully doesn't. I just didn't really care for it and I didn't like the whole creepy stalkerish vibes I was getting at times. We also see Charles start to get really possessive at times over her for no real reason, especially as people had valid worries about what was happening. These things just kind of left me feeling Meh about the book. Am I glad I finally read it? Kind of, but it's one that I could have also gone my whole life without reading.