Great Reviews in History: The Christmas Carol HatchetJob

The year was 1843. The month was December. Christmas was on the brain.

And whambam, like a firecracker, ol Chuckie Dick dropped a ghostly tale on everyone and said “have fun!”

And most people did! Not only is A Christmas Carol one of Dickens’ best known stories, but it was almost instantly adored by the masses, selling out its first run in no time at all.

But haters have existed since time immemorial, so that said, let’s dig into the one review that “just didn’t really get it, I guess.”

The Morning Post, Tuesday, December 26, 1843

On a day when the Post reports that the Queen enjoyed a 180 lb. roast beef, they also covered, with far less acclaim, this new book by Charles Dickens. And it gets strange from the very first lines, where the author describes the physical book itself:

The review then goes on to describe the mishmash of genres and themes - “not comedy, nor tragedy, nor simple narrative, nor pure allegory, nor sermon, nor political treatise, nor historical sketch; but… a strange jumbling of all of these.” It also picks nits with Dickens’ writing style, and says of his humor, well: “there are also some little bits of jokes - something trembling on the verge of puns… of which the less said the better.”

So not exactly the resounding praise we’ve come to expect.

What follows is a short summation of the plot - miserly old man with a nice nephew and clerk is visited by ghosts, has a change of heart, buys a turkey, gives a raise, and so on. But it critiques that most of the book is spent with the ghosts, which it describes as “incomprehensible.”

There’s one note about how a rejuvenated Scrooge pokes Bob Cratchit in the ribs, as if this is a normal act of benevolence, and I can’t say I disagree. It’s more of an old man move, but Scrooge IS an old man.

In the end, they seem to say, “his ideas are wonky, but if this gets people in the spirit and they can’t get that spirit anywhere else OKAY!”

And maybe that’s for the best, it’s better that they don’t have many real good points. If you want to read the review yourself, you can find it on the British Newspaper Archive HERE, though you will need an account.