Mr. Dickens and His Carol: A Novel of Christmas Past

by Samantha Silva

For Charles Dickens, each Christmas has been better than the last. His novels are literary blockbusters, and he is famous on the streets of London, where avid fans sneak up on him to snip off pieces of his hair. He and his wife have five happy children, a sixth on the way, and a home filled with every comfort they could imagine. But when Dickens' newest book is a flop, the glorious life he has built for himself 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, he accepts, but with relatives hounding him for loans, his wife and children planning an excessively lavish holiday party, and jealous critics going in for the kil I, he is hardly feeling the Christmas spirit Increasingly frazzled and filled with self-doubt, Dickens seeks solace and inspiration in London itself, his great palace of thinking. And on one of his long walks, in a once-beloved square, he meets a young woman in a purple cloak, who might be just the muse he needs. Eleanor Lovejoy and her young son, Timothy, propel Dickens on a Scrooge-like journey through his Christmases past and present but with time running out, will he find the perfect new story to save him? In prose laced with humour, sumptuous Victorian detail, and charming winks to A Christmas Carol, Samantha Silva breathes new life into an adored classic. Perfect for fans of Dickens, for readers of immersive historical fiction, and for anyone looking for a dose of Christmas cheer, Mr. Dickens and His Carol is destined to become a perennial holiday favourite.

• ISBN13: 9781250154040
• Publish Date: 31 October 2017
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Flatiron Books
• Format: Hardcover
• 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.