A Christmas Carol / DELUXE (Tiny Tim)

Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to pout his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

So begins Charles Dickens's timeless tale of brotherly love, charity, and redemption. A Christmas Carol has transcended generations, captivating new readers and rekindling hearts 160 years after its first publication. With an unforgettable cast of characters, it beautifully recounts Ebenezer Scrooge's life-changing encounters with four ghostly visitors. Traveling through Christmases Past, Present, and Yet To Come, he is transformed in one night from a hard-hearted and insensitive miser to a generous and caring man.

Featuring stunning full-page, full-color artwork by award-winning illustrator Mark Summers, this gift edition also includes a selection of the artist's original pencil sketches and an introduction by Mitch Glazer, a Dickens enthusiast and screenwriter for the films Scrooged (1988) and Great Expectations (1998). An appendix containing a chronology of Dickens's life and a list of terms and phrases provide background information that places both Dickens and A Christmas Carol within the context of their era.

For many, A Christmas Carol is as much a part of the holiday season as gift giving, mistletoe, and caroling; now this richly illustrated edition brings this most beloved of Christmas tales vividly to life.

Mark Summers is an award-winning illustrator whose work appears regularly in The New York Times Book Review, The Atlantic Monthly, and Time magazine. Recipient of the prestigious Hamilton King Award, he is also the illustrator for Barnes & Noble's illustrated editions of Moby-Dick and Gulliver's Travels. He currently lives in Ontario with his wife and daughter.

Note to Adobe Customers: The Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader version is printable, but there is a known problem printing to printers that do not use the PostScript page description language. This problem occurs with some HP LaserJet, Epson Stylus inkjet, and Epson impact printers. Consult your printer’s documentation to find out if it is PostScript compatible. This does not affect your ability to read the book on screen.

Charles Dickens

Biography

In 1824, young Charles was withdrawn from school and forced to work at a boot-blacking factory when his improvident father, accompanied by his mother and siblings, was sentenced to three months in a debtor's prison. Once they were released, Charles attended a private school for three years. The young man then became a solicitor's clerk, mastered shorthand, and before long was employed as a Parliamentary reporter. When he was in his early twenties, Dickens began to publish stories and sketches of London life in a variety of periodicals.

It was the publication of Pickwick Papers (1836-1837) that catapulted the twenty-five-year-old author to national renown. Dickens wrote with unequaled speed and often worked on several novels at a time, publishing them first in monthly installments and then as books. His early novels Oliver Twist (1837-1838), Nicholas Nickleby (1838-1839), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1841), and A Christmas Carol (1843) solidified his enormous, ongoing popularity. As Dickens matured, his social criticism became increasingly biting, his humor dark, and his view of poverty darker still. David Copperfield (1849-1850), Bleak House (1852-1853), Hard Times (1854), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1860-1861), and Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865) are the great works of his masterful and prolific period.

In 1858 Dickens's twenty-three-year marriage to Catherine Hogarth dissolved when he fell in love with Ellen Ternan, a young actress. The last years of his life were filled with intense activity: writing, managing amateur theatricals, and undertaking several reading tours that reinforced the public's favorable view of his work but took an enormous toll on his health. Working feverishly to the last, Dickens collapsed and died on June 8, 1870, leaving The Mystery of Edwin Drood uncompleted.

Author biography from the Barnes & Noble Classics edition of David Copperfield.