A Christmas Carol: Being a Ghost Story of Christmas (Cambridge Library Collection - Fiction and Poetry) - Hardcover

Dickens, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1108060404 ISBN 13: 9781108060400

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2013

Synopsis

Charles Dickens (1812-70) was an established novelist when he decided to produce a Christmas story, which was written in only six weeks and published at the end of 1843. The book was an immediate bestseller, and had it not been for the very high production costs of the specially commissioned illustrations and the decorative binding, it would have been a great commercial success. This strategic error meant that Dickens did not make the profits he expected, which contributed to his falling out with the publishers, Chapman and Hall. The story, however, has endured to this day as a classic and remains Dickens' best-known and most adapted work. This reissue of the first edition, with its famous illustrations by Punch caricaturist John Leech (1817-64), is printed in black and white, but the four colour illustrations found in the original can be viewed at http://www.cambridge.org/9781108060400.

About this title

Book Description:

Charles Dickens (1812-70) was an established novelist when he wrote the most famous Christmas story in English literature in only six weeks. This reissue of the first edition allows readers to enjoy the story as Dickens had intended, and as its first readers experienced it during Christmas 1843.

About the Author:

CHARLES DICKENS was born in Hampshire on February 7, 1812. His father was a clerk in the navy pay office, who was well paid but often ended up in financial troubles. When Dickens was twelve years old he was sent to work in a shoe polish factory because his family had be taken to the debtors' prison. His career as a writer of fiction started in 1833 when his short stories and essays began to appear in periodicals. The Pickwick Papers, his first commercial success, was published in 1836. In the same year he married the daughter of his friend George Hogarth, Catherine Hogarth. The serialisation of Oliver Twist began in 1837 while The Pickwick Papers was still running. Many other novels followed and The Old Curiosity Shop brought Dickens international fame and he became a celebrity in America as well as Britain. He separated from his wife in 1858. Charles Dickens died on June 9, 1870, leaving his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1108060404
• ISBN 13: 9781108060400
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 186