11 Comments

Dickens' descriptions used to make me feel agitated to get through it, but reading them this way makes it much lot more relaxing! Genuinely loving the daily letters, I legit read them like a morning newspaper 😅 thanks so much for doing it!

Expand full comment

I agree with this! reading it this way lets us savor the descriptions, rather than just having to plow through them. such fun!

Expand full comment

Yes! I love this book so much, and I hoped that doing it a bit at a time would let us savour each part!

Expand full comment

I agree with everyone above. I'm curious: this doesn't seem abridged, but it must be, right?

Expand full comment

Nope! Dickens December is the whole book. It’s quite a short one!

Expand full comment

Ah, wonderful!

Expand full comment

I love how Dickens subtly conveys that the food isn't grant or even enough for such a big family. And that the Cratchits are, nonetheless, happy and would never dare complain about anything. It's quite a contrast to Scrooge, who is wealthy yet clearly unhappy.

Also, Bob is such a sweetheart, praising his wife's cooking to high heavens because he sees how worried she is, that it might not have turned out perfect. He deserves all the good that comes from the ghost visiting his employer.

Expand full comment

I love the in-text editorializing that Dickens uses to convey the general chatter among the family:

"Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of the copper. A smell like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastrycook's next door to each other, with a laundress's next door to that! That was the pudding!"

I can just hear a babble of young kids deliberating over what *exactly* they're smelling as they wait in excitement. It's really effective!

Expand full comment

This second spirit is making me love and admire food so much more this holiday season! I love the descriptions, though, I had to laugh at Bob telling Mrs Cratchit that this was the greatest success achieved by her since their marriage. Giving birth to their kids wasn’t a greater success than the pudding!? It just goes to show that when in the presence of good food, it’s hard to express one’s thanks 😆

Expand full comment

So full of love and warmth and truth. Life may not be easy but these beautiful souls seek pleasure from the simplest things. A joy to read.

Expand full comment

Iconic, to this day

Expand full comment