ideologyhunter
Contributor
Penguin has announced the impending publication of a variant text of Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' which invites a reappraisal of Dickens' original conception of the work. The manuscript was in the care of the descendants of Dickens son, Walter, and exists in the original longhand. It follows the familiar text up to Stave 4, the appearance of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, and then skews wildly from the familiar plot, adding a scene in Stave 5 that extends the length of the piece by several thousand words.
Dickens lovers will be stunned to learn that the author intended the story to stand as a tale of gothic horror equal to the murder of Nancy by Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist. The new manuscript presents an unreformed Ebenezer Scrooge, whom Dickens saw as a spiritual twin to Jonas in Martin Chuzzlewit, which he wrote contemporaneously with 'Carol'.
In a letter to his close friend John Forster, Dickens wrote, "I can see Scrooge in all his humours and I am ready to strike home with all (my) powers & effects to bring him to the round...It may horrify my readers but he will step forth as the Evil they read about in their Holy Writ. He is beyond the power of Man or Providence to reform."
It was Forster who urged Dickens to abandon this conception and replace the original ending with the rewritten scenes that won the book the love of generations of readers, who consider the tale to be the ultimate Christmas classic.
Spoilers: Changes from the familiar canonized 'Christmas Carol':
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge his own gravestone and, in the first of the unfamiliar lines, tells him he will be forgotten in the grave. Scrooge recoils from the thought, draws himself to his full height, and shouts down the ghost, calling him a fantasy fit for a diseased brain. The Ghost begins to fade, and Dickens describes him as dissipating in the air, to reappear as a stone face carved in the lintel above the entrance to the graveyard.
A restored Scrooge strides back to his house and prepares for a contented sleep. The next morning, Christmas Day, he shouts for his chambermaid, Emmy Snipes, and sends her on a mad quest to hire and equip two coaches, to be in ready at the end of the street. As the poor woman hurries off, Scrooge contentedly dresses himself and sings a merry air.
Out on the street, Scrooge strides with an air of command to the first coach, in which Emmy is waiting with several heavy bushel bags of half-penny sweets. They set off in a roughly rectangular pattern through the city streets, which Scrooge tells her is a route in the shape of a coffin. As they drive, he merrily throws handfuls of sweets out the windows of the coach, and orders Emmy to do the same. They stop outside an orphanage and "from the open hatch poured a wonderful freshet of sweets, raining on the pavement in every assortment of coloured wrappers and twists, until the clatter was general and was shortly answered by the cries of the young inhabitants of the grey-walled building."
Scrooge drives off and transfers to the second coach. Now, with Emmy at his side, he sets off at a mad pace, opening several oblong boxes stocked with muskets and fowling pieces. Here Dickens writes the first known description of a drive-by shooting, as Scrooge fires out the window at London's underclass children. He keeps up a steady stream of dialogue, telling Emmy that he is eliminating the condition of poverty from the city and ordering her to reload each gun after he fires it, lest she should "get her ears boxed with a cartridge that drills her from ear to ear." Firing away, Scrooge begins to utter the eccentric phrase, "Potto, oh pot-pot-potto!" and his laughter grows to a pitch and loudness that terrifies Emmy. Tiny Tim appears, and his crutches are splintered by musket shot. He falls to the pavement in terror. Scrooge's last shot just misses him, but careens off a wall and strikes Tim in the back of his head. The coach completes the coffin-shaped route and Scrooge orders it to be brought up in an alley. Here he rapidly shoots the driver and Emmy, shouts another merry "Potto!" and runs off, vanishing into a gentle snow that falls on the suddenly hushed city.
"Ever afterwards, it was always said of him, that no man possessed the knowledge to keep Christmas as did Ebenezer Scrooge, and that no man since has ever marked the day as had old Scrooge on that snowy morning."
Dickens lovers will be stunned to learn that the author intended the story to stand as a tale of gothic horror equal to the murder of Nancy by Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist. The new manuscript presents an unreformed Ebenezer Scrooge, whom Dickens saw as a spiritual twin to Jonas in Martin Chuzzlewit, which he wrote contemporaneously with 'Carol'.
In a letter to his close friend John Forster, Dickens wrote, "I can see Scrooge in all his humours and I am ready to strike home with all (my) powers & effects to bring him to the round...It may horrify my readers but he will step forth as the Evil they read about in their Holy Writ. He is beyond the power of Man or Providence to reform."
It was Forster who urged Dickens to abandon this conception and replace the original ending with the rewritten scenes that won the book the love of generations of readers, who consider the tale to be the ultimate Christmas classic.
Spoilers: Changes from the familiar canonized 'Christmas Carol':
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge his own gravestone and, in the first of the unfamiliar lines, tells him he will be forgotten in the grave. Scrooge recoils from the thought, draws himself to his full height, and shouts down the ghost, calling him a fantasy fit for a diseased brain. The Ghost begins to fade, and Dickens describes him as dissipating in the air, to reappear as a stone face carved in the lintel above the entrance to the graveyard.
A restored Scrooge strides back to his house and prepares for a contented sleep. The next morning, Christmas Day, he shouts for his chambermaid, Emmy Snipes, and sends her on a mad quest to hire and equip two coaches, to be in ready at the end of the street. As the poor woman hurries off, Scrooge contentedly dresses himself and sings a merry air.
Out on the street, Scrooge strides with an air of command to the first coach, in which Emmy is waiting with several heavy bushel bags of half-penny sweets. They set off in a roughly rectangular pattern through the city streets, which Scrooge tells her is a route in the shape of a coffin. As they drive, he merrily throws handfuls of sweets out the windows of the coach, and orders Emmy to do the same. They stop outside an orphanage and "from the open hatch poured a wonderful freshet of sweets, raining on the pavement in every assortment of coloured wrappers and twists, until the clatter was general and was shortly answered by the cries of the young inhabitants of the grey-walled building."
Scrooge drives off and transfers to the second coach. Now, with Emmy at his side, he sets off at a mad pace, opening several oblong boxes stocked with muskets and fowling pieces. Here Dickens writes the first known description of a drive-by shooting, as Scrooge fires out the window at London's underclass children. He keeps up a steady stream of dialogue, telling Emmy that he is eliminating the condition of poverty from the city and ordering her to reload each gun after he fires it, lest she should "get her ears boxed with a cartridge that drills her from ear to ear." Firing away, Scrooge begins to utter the eccentric phrase, "Potto, oh pot-pot-potto!" and his laughter grows to a pitch and loudness that terrifies Emmy. Tiny Tim appears, and his crutches are splintered by musket shot. He falls to the pavement in terror. Scrooge's last shot just misses him, but careens off a wall and strikes Tim in the back of his head. The coach completes the coffin-shaped route and Scrooge orders it to be brought up in an alley. Here he rapidly shoots the driver and Emmy, shouts another merry "Potto!" and runs off, vanishing into a gentle snow that falls on the suddenly hushed city.
"Ever afterwards, it was always said of him, that no man possessed the knowledge to keep Christmas as did Ebenezer Scrooge, and that no man since has ever marked the day as had old Scrooge on that snowy morning."
