Mr. Dickens and His Carol in Around the World in 80 Books

Nov 15, 2017 Laura rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2017, library-request, favorites, lib-has-audio, ill-request, on-new-pc, audio-avail-ill, library, christmas

To sum it up in one word: Magical. A magical first novel by Samantha Silva. I feel like I've stepped out of a Christmas snow globe where Bumble's Toy Shop and Furnival's Inn are real and snowflakes are softly swirling around me. I didn't want the story to end.

At times, the writing was quite lovely:

Christmas had been hiding in the streets all along. The Dickens children marched behind their father in obedient single file, but their eyes were bright and round as new pennies. ... The air smelle

To sum it up in one word: Magical. A magical first novel by Samantha Silva. I feel like I've stepped out of a Christmas snow globe where Bumble's Toy Shop and Furnival's Inn are real and snowflakes are softly swirling around me. I didn't want the story to end.

At times, the writing was quite lovely:

Christmas had been hiding in the streets all along. The Dickens children marched behind their father in obedient single file, but their eyes were bright and round as new pennies. ... The air smelled like it had hailed nutmeg and snowed cinnamon.

The night was an embroidery of stars on a taffeta sky so blue it bled all the black away. No more drab-colored December fringed with fog. The eve of Christmas week burst into the world, clear and dry, the streets one continuous blaze of ornament and show.

I love Charles Dickens in particular and Victorian novels in general, and so this book really called out to me. Although I loved the very beginning, a woman from Dickens's past is soon introduced, which made me cringe a bit, thinking this might go in a direction I hoped it wouldn't. But I read on and the book just got better and better. Once a young character (a young artist, actually) was introduced, he became quite important to the plot, and captured my heart so completely that it was hard to put the book down.

I'd settled on a four star rating, but ultimately decided to bump it to a five because I absolutely loved the ending and because I'm now determined to: 1) learn more about the life of Charles Dickens and 2) read all of his works, except I'm really thinking now about reading them all in the order in which they were written.

Looking at the author's note at the end, although many events in the story are based on actual events, she embellished and changed quite a bit as well. The thing is, this story felt right to me in the way it depicted Dickens as a father and husband, as well as a philanthropist. And so it kindled a desire to learn more about him. I think he'd be someone I'd really admire, and since I love his novels so much, all the more reason to get to that Tomalin bio of him that's been on my TBR for so long: Charles Dickens: A Life ETA: Here is a list of his works, in chronological order: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charl...

I alternated between the audio and paper book, and I just loved the audio performance by Euan Morton. The pacing was perfect and he changed voices such that I felt totally immersed in the story. A five-star audio performance, for sure. The one thing missing from the audio (and this is common) was the author's note. Since this is a work of historical fiction, I find it fairly important for the reader to understand where the line between fact and fiction was drawn. I hope more author's notes will be included in audiobooks in the future.

Apparently this book was first written as a screenplay and almost made the cut to be made into a film. I would absolutely love to see this on the big screen. I think it would be wonderful. Hopefully the success of the paper book will drive this to reality. We need more books and films like this. We've already bought our Toys for Tots gifts this season, but I'm about to triple our purchases after reading this book.

Quite a journey this book was, and one I hope to repeat each Christmas season. ...more

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Jan 06, 2018 Diane rated it it was amazing

Shelves: st-peters-book-club

I give this a 4.5. This is a charming, magical, sentimental telling of the creation of a Christmas Carol, which unsentimentally was borne out of financial need and a writing crisis. I found it slow starting, but warmed up to it gradually, until I was so charmed I didn’t want it to end . This is a fitting tribute to the story itself- clever and a perfect holiday read. Hard to believe this a debut novel. Looking forward to more by Samantha Silva.

Audiobook was well read, and a nice production. Wish ...more

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Jan 01, 2021 Astrid Lim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, classic, british, xmas-holidays, homage, magical-realism

3,5 stars- rounded it up because of its beautiful and detailed descriptions of London in Dickens era.

This is such a sweet homage to Dickens and one of his best creations- Christmas Carol. The writer took us to the days when Dickens almost lost everything- his family, his money, his fame, and even his creativity- and he thought that he would never write another book in his life. But weird circumstances pushed him to write another book, specifically a Christmas book- but how could he write about C ...more

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Nov 29, 2021 Ellen Librarian rated it really liked it

I'm not much of a Dickens fan but I found this book mostly charming and heartwarming, similar to the way I feel about one of my favorite movies, which also involves Christmas, The Shop Around The Corner. But unlike the movie, there are parts of this book that just seemed a bit ridiculous. But if you're in the mood for something gentle and cozy, with a good amount of humor, to keep you warm in the winter, this could be the book for you. ...more

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