iTeenextensive reading

A Christmas Carol – A Ghost Story of Christmas by Charles Dickens

Carla Ribeiro

Maria Emília GonçalvesMargarida CoelhoAlexandra GonçalvesRevisão Científica e Linguística: David A. Davis

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Answer these questions individually.

Then share your answers with the whole class.

1 How much do you usually read for pleasure?

a) A lot. It’s my favourite pastime. b) As much as I can, but I don’t have much time. c) Not much – just magazines and comic books

occasionally. d) Nothing.

2 Are you currently reading a book?

a) Yes. Which one? b) No.

3 Where do you usually read?

a) In my bedroom. b) In the living room. c) In the park. d) In the library. e) At school. f) Other (Where?)

4 Where do you get the books you read?

a) From the school library. b) From the town library. c) From a bookshop. d) From a family member/friend.

My Reading Habits

Let’s StartLet’s Start

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6 What are your favourite reading topics?

a) Science b) Fashion c) Sports d) Politics e) Music f) Youth problems g) Religion

h) History i) Science fiction/Fantasy j) Technology k) Crime l) Adventure/Action m) Other (What?)

7 Do you use a dictionary to check the meaning of new words in a book?

a) Always. b) Usually. c) Sometimes.

d) Rarely. e) Never.

8 Do you have a favourite writer?

a) No. b) Yes. Who?/Why?

5 Do you like ghost stories and tales of the supernatural? Explain and give examples.

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About Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens (Charles John Huffam Dickens) is a famous English writer. People all over the world enjoy his stories.

He was born in Landport, Portsmouth, on 7th February, 1812 and was the second of eight children born to John Dickens, a clerk for the Navy, and his wife Elizabeth Dickens.

The Dickens family moved to London in 1814 and two years later to Chatham, Kent, where Charles spent the early years of his childhood.

Due to financial difficulties they moved back to London in 1822, where they settled in Camden Town, a poor neighbourhood of London.

When Charles was 12 years old, his father, who was constantly in debt, was sent to prison and Charles was forced to work in a dirty old factory to help support the family.

Dickens never forgot this unhappy time of poverty and it made him the most vigorous and influential voice of the working classes in his age.

After his father was released from prison, Charles went back to school and, at fifteen, he got a job at a lawyer’s office, which he hated.

In 1836, he married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of the editor of the Evening Chronicle and started publishing his funny stories called The Pickwick Papers. They were a success and he suddenly became famous.

Oliver Twist came out in 1837. It was a grim tale about an orphan boy and it shocked people. It showed that life for poor children in Victorian times was very hard because they worked in coal mines and factories or became thieves and street children, like Oliver. It was followed by other novels intended to reform society: Nicolas Nickleby (1839); Barnaby Rudge (1840); The Old Curiosity Shop (1841); Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-4).

Dickens became so famous that people recognized him as he walked about London. He also loved to give public readings from his books.

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A Christmas Carol

In 1843, Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, the first of a series of five short Christmas books. It is one of his most famous stories.

Each year (apart from 1847) he wrote a new one: The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846), and The Haunted Man (1848). Then he continued his success with great novels such as Dombey and Son (1848), the largely autobiographical David Copperfield (1849-50), Bleak House (1852-53), Hard Times (1854), Little Dorrit (1857), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1861) and Our Mutual Friend (1864).

Charles Dickens died at home on 9th June, 1870 after suffering a stroke, leaving his last novel, Edwin Drood, unfinished. He was buried in the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey.

http://www.dickens-online.info/charles-dickens-biography.htm(abridged and adapted)

Read the text about Charles Dickens carefully. Are the following sentences Right (R) or Wrong (W)? If there is not enough information to answer Right or Wrong,

choose Doesn’t Say (DS).1 Charles Dickens was born in the 18th century.

a) R b) W c) DS

2 Due to his parents’ financial problems, Dickens had to work in a factory.

a) R b) W c) DS

3 After publishing The Pickwick Papers, he became rich.

a) R b) W c) DS

4 In Oliver Twist Dickens denounces the terrible situation in which poor children lived during the Victorian period.

a) R b) W c) DS

5 In 1843 he wrote A Christmas Carol, which is about a miser.

a) R b) W c) DS

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A Christmas Carol is set in London in the early Victorian industrial era. The new fac tor ie s enr iched t heir owners but impoverished the traditional artisans, who made things by hand at home.

The Victorian age in British history is named after Queen Victoria, who was Britain’s queen from 1837 until 1901.

Above all, A Christmas Carol celebrates Christmas and the good it inspires, but it also criticizes 19th century Victorian England’s division between rich and poor. London was a great world power, rich from industry (the Industrial Revolution) and colonial influence, yet poverty ran uncontrollably through its streets and factories and many children went to work, not to school, or became thieves, like Oliver Twist.

http://www.gradesaver.com/a-christmas-carol/study-guide/about (abridged and adapted)

BEFORE READINGBEFORE READING

Queen Victoria

Victorian London

thief, thieves – people who steal things

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Early Victorian Age Facts

Read the sentences below and match them with the corresponding pictures.

a) Men, women and children worked in coal mines. b) Poor people lived in slums.* c) Railways were built all over the country.* d) The first postage stamps (Penny Post) came into use. e) New ideas such as Father Christmas, decorated Christmas

trees and crackers were added to the celebrations. f) Factories and machines were built.

Sources: www.achistoryunits.edu.au www.gutsandgore.co.uk

tada07.wordpress.com en.wikipedia.org

www.mtholyoke.edu www.bbc.co.uk

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* slum – an overcrowded urban street or district inhabited by very poor people* The first passenger train pulled by a steam locomotive ran between Stockton and Darlington in 1825. By 1900 there were about 23,000 miles (37,000 kilometres) of railway track and trains could do 100 miles per hour.

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Carol (title) – a traditional Christmas song that usually refers either to the nativity story or to festivities and acts of kindness, benevolence and charity. Ghost (title) – the spirit of a dead person that living people think they can see or hear, like the ghost of Jacob Marley, who had died exactly seven years before the story begins. What Dickens often calls the ‘ghosts’ of Christmases past, present and future, we usually call ‘spirits’, except in the case of the last spirit, which has a rather ‘ghostly’ appearance and manner.

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A Christmas CarolA Ghost Story of

Christmasby Charles Dickens

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Chapter 1Marley’s Ghost

Marley was dead, to begin with – there’s no doubt about that. He was as dead as a doornail.

Marley and Scrooge were business partners for many years. But then Marley died and now their firm belonged to Scrooge, who was a tight-fisted, cold and bitter old man. Seven years to the day after Marley’s death, on Christmas Eve, old Scrooge sat busy in his office – keeping the door open, so that he could keep an eye on his clerk, who was copying letters. It was foggy, dark and very cold outside and in Scrooge’s office it was not much warmer either. Suddenly, a cheerful person entered the office. It was Scrooge’s nephew.

“A Merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!” Fred said.“Bah!” said Scrooge, “Humbug!”“Christmas a humbug, uncle!” said Scrooge’s nephew.

“You don’t mean that, do you?”“I do,” said Scrooge. “What’s Christmastime to you but a

time for paying bills without getting any money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer? Nephew, keep Christmas in your way, and let me keep it in mine.”

“Keep it? But you don’t keep it,” said Scrooge’s nephew. He tried to show his uncle the magic of Christmas, that it was a season of good cheer, and even invited him for dinner on Christmas Day. But Scrooge refused and sent him out.

dead as a doornail (l. 2) – obviously deadtight-fisted (l. 5) – not willing to spend or give much money; miserly; mean; stingyhumbug (l. 13) – nonsense; hypocrisykeep Christmas (l. 19) – celebrate Christmas; maintain the Christmas tradition

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A Christmas Carol

When Scrooge’s nephew left, two gentlemen came in to collect money for the homeless people. Stingy as Scrooge was, he didn’t give the gentlemen any money.

“I help to support the prisons and the workhouses and those who are badly off must go there,” he growled. Then he told them to leave the office.

When it was time to close the office, Scrooge talked to his clerk, Bob Cratchit.

“You want all day off tomorrow, don’t you?” said Scrooge.“If that is all right, Sir,” answered the clerk.“It’s not all right,” said Scrooge, “and it is not fair. After

all, I have to pay you for the day although you don’t work. But if it must be, it must be; however, I want you to start work even earlier the following morning.”

The clerk promised that he would; and the two went home.Scrooge lived all alone in an old house. The yard was very

dark and scary that night and when Scrooge inserted his key to unlock the door, he saw Marley’s face on the doorknocker. This was rather spooky, but Scrooge was not frightened easily. He opened the door, walked in and closed it with a bang. He double-locked himself in, which he usually didn’t do. But then he felt safe again, went upstairs and sat down before the small coal fire in his dark and cheerless living room.

stingy (l. 25) – tight-fisted; unwilling to spend, give or use money; ungenerousworkhouse (l. 27) – (in the UK) a public institution in which the sick, aged, poor and destitute of a parish received food and shelter in return for workbadly off (l. 28) – poor (opposite of well off, fairly rich)growled (l. 28) – said in a low, threatening voice, like an unfriendly dogdoorknocker (l. 41) – a metal ring, bar, or hammer attached to a door by a hingespooky (l. 42) – frightening in a supernatural way

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Suddenly, Scrooge heard a noise, deep down below, as if somebody was dragging a heavy chain. The noise came nearer and nearer, and then Scrooge saw a ghost coming right through the heavy door. It was Marley’s ghost, and his chains were long; they were made of cash-boxes, keys and heavy purses.

“Who are you?” said Scrooge.“In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley.”“But why do you come to me now?”“I must wander through the world and I wear these chains

because I was so stingy in life. I only cared about business but not about the people around me. I haunt this place where I lived such a mean life. I see lots of poor people and I feel sorry for them, but I am dead, so I can’t help them. Because of this, I am desperately sad. Now, I am here to warn you. You still have a chance, Ebenezer. You will be visited by Three Spirits. Expect the First tomorrow night, when the clock strikes one. Expect the Second on the next night at the same hour. The Third, upon the next night at twelve.”

When he had said these words, Marley’s ghost disappeared and Scrooge went straight to bed, without undressing, and fell asleep immediately.

drag (l. 48) – to pull (someone or something) along forcefully, roughly, or with difficultywander (l. 56) – to move about without a definite destination or purposehaunt (l. 58) – to appear in the form of a ghost or other supernatural beingthe clock strikes (ll. 63, 64) – the bell of the clock rings

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