The Ghost of London's Past
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The Ghost of London’s Past rime Minister Lord such as prostitutes, pickpockets, from the gutters into the Thames— Melbourne (1779- murderers and houses of ill repute. your main water supply. If you 1848) did not care Dickens’ vivid London was a place were a common laborer, your av- for Charles Dickens from which the good Prime Minis- erage weekly wage was 3 shillings, (1812-70). By the ter wished to shield his Queen. 9 pence—that’s approximately $4. mid-1800s, Dickens Imagine yourself in London With a loaf of bread costing about had achieved widespread fame with in Charles Dickens’ time. Nearly 2 pence a day and rent for the year the publications of The Pickwick two million Londoners, rich and costing £25 (about $47), you are Papers, Oliver Twist and The Life poor alike, spill into the city streets still extraordinarily poor; however, and Adventures of Nicholas Nickle- and try to navigate around the this was a luckier existence than the by. Lord Melbourne advised Queen manure left by literally thousands very destitute, who would receive Victoria against reading the work of horse-drawn carriages. Smoke aid in the form of employment in a of Her Majesty’s famous subject, swarms out of chimney pots and workhouse. due to the fact that Dickens’ books soot coats all that it falls upon. In From this dank and vile re- were full of “unpleasant subjects” parts of the city, raw sewage pours ality came countless Romantic London (Dudley Street in Seven Dials) by Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Doré (1872). P4 • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • A Christmas Carol literary offerings, including Dickens’ A Christ- mas Carol. His account of mean old Ebene- zer Scrooge changing his ways became essen- tial reading during Christmastime in London, Other Voices at Christmas and indeed, throughout the world. Romanti- There are several film versions of cism revolted against aristocratic, social and po- A Christmas Carol — have you seen them all? litical norms, stressing in their place the won- der experienced in nature. Dickens’ work de- Scrooge (1935), starring Albert Finney nounced the moving forward of industry and starring Sir Seymour Hicks and Alec Guinness lauded those unfortunate souls who fell victim A Christmas Carol (1938), A Christmas Carol (1971), to it. Those “unpleasant subjects” that Prime starring Reginald Owen an animated Oscar-winning Minister Melbourne was so quick to cover A Christmas Carol (1951), short film, with Alastair Sim up became the heroes of Dickens’ stories. starring Alastair Sim A Christmas Carol (1984), Melbourne’s efforts were successful, at A Christmas Carol (1954), a TV movie, starring George least to a point. At first the Queen seemingly a TV movie, starring C. Scott turned a blind eye to the rampant pollution, Fredric March A Christmas Carol (1999), severe sanitation problems and insurmountable Scrooge (1970), a TV movie, starring Patrick poverty that plagued her urban subjects. Tuber- a musical film adaptation, Stewart culosis, typhoid fever and, finally, the dreaded cholera epidemic would ravage the streets of the Not quite enough Ebenezer for you? destitute and the opulent alike. Although Queen What about these adaptations? Victoria would continue to have her sights set on Mister Magoo’s The Muppet Christmas trade and commerce and Lord Melbourne would Christmas Carol (1962) Carol (1992), starring resign his duties twice, the workers of London Rich Little’s Christmas Michael Caine and the attempted to solve the greatest issue of their day. Carol (1978) Muppets Toward the end of the 1850s, English engineers The Stingiest Man in Town Ebbie (1995), the first version to finally brought forth a water filtering system that (1979), animated, with the imagine Scrooge as a woman, would end the cholera epidemic. Although the voices of Walter Matthau and starring Susan Lucci extreme indigence of London’s common man Tom Bosley Ebenezer (1997), a Canadian, would continue for years, even after Queen Vic- An American Christmas western-themed adaptation, toria’s death, the age would be remembered as a Carol (1979), starring Henry starring Jack Palance time of progress. Winkler A Diva’s Christmas Carol The Victorian Age was, in many ways, a Bugs Bunny’s Christmas (2000), starring time of profound sadness and deprivation for or- Carol (1979) Vanessa Williams dinary people. But it also was a time of discovery Mickey’s Christmas Carol A Sesame Street and expectation. It was a time that infuriated and (1983), starring Scrooge Christmas Carol (2006), inspired its people. While royalty guarded trade McDuck featuring Oscar the Grouch, of agreements and sought to expand their empires, Scrooged (1988), starring Bill course, as Scrooge everyday Londoners were searching for everyday Murray chances and small kindnesses. That was Charles Dickens’ London. Dickens made sure the voices of the unfor- Other Dickens Christmas stories: tunate were heard in his work, along with huge A Christmas Carol was a bestseller when it was published doses of good humor and myriad evocations of in 1843, and it created an insatiable demand in the public the joys of home and hearth. He continues to do for more Christmas stories. Dickens obliged by writing the same for us today. In all of his stories, we re- one Christmas novella a year for four years, they were: member that there are those less fortunate than ourselves. We remember that there are those will- The Chimes The Battle of Life ing to change. Most importantly, we remember The Cricket on the Hearth The Haunted Man that there is hope. After all, Dickens observed, “It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, If you are interested in reading any of these works or that while there is infection in disease and sor- more on Charles Dickens, try these websites: row, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly literature.org/authors/dickens-charles/ contagious as laughter and good-humour.” charlesdickenspage.com/ A Christmas Carol • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • P5 A Miser’s Miser h! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeez- ing wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self- Hal Landon, Jr. as contained, and solitary as an oyster. The Ebenezer Scrooge. cold within him froze his old features, Photo by Henry nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his DiRocco. cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He car- ried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas. External heat and cold had little in- fluence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelt- ing rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn’t know where to have him. The heavi- est rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often “Came down” hand- somely, and Scrooge never did. Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, “My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?” No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blindmen’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, “No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!” But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowd- ed paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call “nuts” to Scrooge. – Excerpted from A Christmas Carol P6 • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • A Christmas Carol Who Was Charles Dickens? He was a sympathizer with the poor, the suffering and came the writing or publication of a major work. In the oppressed; and by his death, one of England’s great- 1837, with the birth of his first son, Charles Jr., came est writers is lost to the world. Oliver Twist. In 1838, with the arrival of Mary, Nicholas ~Inscription on Dickens’ tombstone Nickleby was begun. In 1843, just prior to the birth at Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey of Francis Jeffrey, A Christmas Carol was created. he eldest son The first of his Christmas of John and books, A Christmas Carol Elizabeth quickly became a favorite Dickens, of the people. It would Charles be followed by The Huff- Chimes, Dombey and man Dickens was Son and Christmas born in Landport Stories. (now part of Shortly after Portsmouth), the publication England, Feb. 7, of A Christmas 1812. In 1824, Carol, Dickens he was given moved his fam- his first posi- ily from their tion in busi- London home ness in the to settle, brief- employ of ly, in Genoa, Warren’s Black- Italy, and later ing Factory, moved on to Chatham. For Switzerland and six months, Paris. During young Dickens these years away adhered labels from London, his to containers of best-known works blacking, and per- included Cricket haps unknowingly, on the Hearth, The collected material for Battle of Life and the what would become first installments of world famous portray- David Copperfield.