A Christmas Carol in Prose; Being a Ghost Story of Christmas

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

Dickens's ghost story of Christmas, first published in 1843 and never out of print since. Ebenezer Scrooge, a miser so cold that Christmas is 'humbug' to him, is visited one night by the chain-bound ghost of his partner Marley and then by three Spirits — of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come — who walk him through the boy he was, the good he might do now, and the unmourned death that awaits him. By morning he is another man. A short book that invented the modern Christmas, and still the best case ever made that it is never too late to change.

Text sourced from Project Gutenberg (public domain in the United States); the Project Gutenberg trademark and license text have been removed on import. Public-domain status determined by the author's death year + 50 years rule.