A Christmas Carol in Prose

The story opens a foggy Christmas Eve in "a sharp, piercing cold," exactly seven years after the death of Jacob Marley, Ebenezer Scrooge's associate, that "stingy old sinner" who knew how to grasp strongly , wrench, twist, press, scratch, do not let go! Hard and sharp like a flintlock whose steel has never brought forth a generous spark, secret, enclosed in itself and lonely like an oyster ". Scrooge knows neither kindness, nor benevolence, nor charity, and he hates Christmas, which he describes as "hogwash" (humbug). Always seated at his desk, the fire reduced to a few embers, it does not cure the cold that forces yet his employee Bob Cratchit, as overworked as poorly paid, to warm his fingers to the flame of the candle. Its icy appearance chills the poor clerk more than the elements do; Besides, did he not just refuse his nephew's invitation to dinner, chase a young boy who came to sing a hymn at his door, and then get rid of two gentlemen soliciting a gift for a feast for the poor? , those useless whose death would solve the problem of overpopulation...

Dettagli