A Christmas Carol, 11 months early

Okay, maybe I was actually just late with this one. I STARTED reading it Christmas Eve, but then family stuff got in the way (don't worry, that was supposed to happen- the book told me so!).

Everybody knows the story of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. If you haven't read the book, and you probably haven't, then you've seen a movie version, or a modern retelling with Bill Murray.

At the very least, you've seen the Muppet Christmas Carol.

It was under this supposition of familiarity that I crafted (crafted is a strong word... briefly thought up) a prequel story for A Christmas Carol. It was my thought that, if Scrooge was getting this second chance to lead his life for the betterment of mankind and avoid that afterlife in shackles, then Jacob Marley must have gotten just such a chance, only to reject it. Fair is fair, right?

I still think telling that story would be an interesting addition to the Scrooge world, but after actually reading the story, it looks like that would run counter to something Dickens wrote.

(Sidenote: word 'story' and 'story' in the same line, and wanted to use 'actually' again too. The stylistic portion of my brain is almost entirely out the window right now.)

It seems Marley has a line where he specifically states that he had to somehow pull some spiritual strings to get this intervention for Scrooge. How that was done was left up to the readers imagination, but I imagine that would ALSO be quite the tale to tell, given that we're told how all the human ghosts wandering the Earth are people who lived selfishly, and must now not only wander the Earth, but do so with a tremendous desire to help their fellow man. To want to do in death what they never did, but could have so easily done, in life. That being the case, there would almost certainly be constant spiritual petitions from ghosts to whomever is listening to intercede on people's behalf...s?

Behalfs.

All the peoples behalf.

So Marley must have made an extra strong case for why Scrooge should get the help.

Therefore, telling a story about Marley getting an intervention would be a little out of line with how Dickens told this originally. It'd be cool though.

The version of A Christmas Carol I picked up had an extra neat-o feature: some dude wrote about Dickens giving a reading of the 'Carol, how into it he was, all the different voices and whatnot. It sounds like Dickens was pretty cool.

I already thought he was, but this is just another side of that coolness I suppose.