Tuesday, December 27

A little bit of literature

“Once upon a time—of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve—old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already—it had not been light all day—and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale.”

Vocabulary build-up

The adverb withal means “together with this; with it all; as well; besides.”

The intransitive verb wheeze means “to breathe with difficulty, producing a hoarse whistling sound.”

The noun neighbour is written in its British form. If you write as an American, the correct form is neighbor.

The adjective ruddy means “coloured red or pink; of a color at the end of the color spectrum (next to orange); resembling the color of blood or cherries or tomatoes or rubies.” Close synonyms are “reddish” and “sanguine”.

The noun smear means “a dirty mark or smudge; a stain, spot, or mark made by such a substance.” Close synonyms are “smudge”, “daub”, and “blotch”.

Comments

Charles Dickens was a notorious English writer and social critic in the 19th century. Labeled as a Romantic novelist, he created unforgettable characters that marked Victorian literature, such as Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Sam Weller, and the old Scrooge. Dickens was influenced by the picaresque novel tradition (a genre of prose fiction), melodrama, and sentimental novel. But William Shakespeare's literary work was the most important influence on Dickens’ novels. His writings were so important to posterity that critics created the term Dickensian to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social or working conditions, or comically repulsive characters. The book “A Christmas Carol” tells an affectionate Christmas tale, which quickens the impulses of tender and thoughtful charity. As you turn its pages, you hear the midnight moaning of the winter wind and feel the softness of the falling snow. This magical book should find an enduring place in the affectionate admiration of mankind and is the inevitable result of the highest moral and mental excellence of its author. In essence, “A Christmas Carol” captured the zeitgeist of the mid-Victorian revival of the Christmas holiday.