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The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Chritmas Carol, by Charles Dickens This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: A Chritmas Carol
Author: Charles Dickens
Illustrator: George Alfred Williams
Release Date: September 20, 2006 [EBook #19337]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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A CHRISTMAS CAROL
By CHARLES DICKENS
ILLUSTRATED BY GEORGE ALFRED WILLIAMS
New York THE PLATT & PECK CO.
Copyright, 1905, by THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY
[Illustration: "He had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church."]
INTRODUCTION
The combined qualities of the realist and the idealist which Dickens possessed to a remarkable degree, together with his naturally jovial attitude toward life in general, seem to have given him a remarkably happy feeling toward Christmas, though the privations and hardships of his boyhood could have allowed him but little real experience with this day of days.
Dickens gave his first formal expression to his Christmas thoughts in his series of small books, the first of which was the famous "Christmas Carol," the one perfect chrysolite. The success of the book was immediate. Thackeray wrote of it: "Who can listen to objections regarding