The Man Who Invented Christmas

How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits

By: Les Standiford

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

As uplifting as the tale of Scrooge itself, this is the story of how Charles Dickens revived the signal holiday of the Western world.

Just before Christmas in 1843, a debt-ridden and dispirited Charles Dickens wrote a small book he hoped would keep his creditors at bay. His publisher turned it down, so Dickens used what little money he had to put out A Christmas Carol himself. He worried it might be the end of his career as a novelist.

The book immediately caused a sensation. And it breathed new life into a holiday that had fallen into disfavor, undermined by lingering Puritanism and the cold modernity of the Industrial Revolution. It was a harsh and dreary age, in desperate need of spiritual renewal, ready to embrace a book that ended with blessings for one and all.

With warmth, wit, and an infusion of Christmas cheer, Les Standiford whisks us back to Victorian England, its most beloved storyteller, and the birth of the Christmas we know best. The Man Who Invented Christmas is a rich and satisfying listen for Scrooges and sentimentalists alike.

©2008 Les Standiford (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Interesting history of a great author

I'm a fan of history and of Charles Dickens so this was a very interesting story about the author's life and the way things were back then. I love the movie so having more backstory is great.

Getting to know Dickens

I very much enjoyed this background work on The Christmas Carol. However, the story of Dickens own redemption is so well woven in with "the Carol's" origin it is hard to see where one ends and the other begins. To me, that was a joy in listening to this. I commute about an hour for work; so during the holidays it was nice to have a scholarly yet holiday related work to listen to. If you've ever wanted to as the Ghost of Christmas Present states " ...come here and know me better man." This book will do the job.

Great Story with a few audio issues.

I liked this story well enough, as it is basically an account of Charles Dicken's life and how he came to make A Christmas Carol, and how it influenced so many people in and after his lifetime.

Yet, I did have some problems with the production. For the first time I have encountered, this audible production had issues such as pieces of audio that you can tell were added later. I cannot tell if this is because they made a mistake while recording one day and had to re-record lines, or what, but there are times when the narrator speaks one or two sentences with a noticeably different audio quality to them. This does bring it down for me.

Overall, this was a good book if you want to know more about Dicken's famous tale.

Better Than the Movie that I fell Asleep During

A quick but enjoyable listen. For those looking for more of the history surrounding and context to the creation of Dickens's beloved Holiday classic; this is your book!

If you are simply looking for a novelization of the Hollywood film, then you might want to go elsewhere...then again, I fell asleep while watching the movie, so maybe I am not the best judge of how close it follows the book.

But let's be serious. if you're actually reading this, you're the type of person that knows that the book is better.

Enjoyable Book

I learned a lot about both Christmas and Charles Dickens. The first hour and a half was a little slow, but necessary for the rest of the book. The performance was good, and I enjoyed it. For me, it was wonderful to hear how Dickens wrote, and understood his Christmas Carol. So much of our culture changed as a consequence of this book, and this author. Wonderful opportunity to learn about this holiday and us.