Introduction to

Charles Dickens’ classic novella

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens1812-1870

Take a guess as to how many film and television adaptations of Charles Dickens’ novels, novellas, and short stories there have been in the 200 years since he wrote.

Charles Dickens1812-1870 Take a guess as to how many film

and television adaptations of Charles Dickens’ novels, novellas, and short stories there have been in the 200 years since he wrote.

200!

Charles Dickens1812-1870

One of the most widely-read and beloved writers of his time

His works have never gone out of print

Selected as #41 in a 2003 BBC list of “100 Greatest Britons”

5 of his novels are in the Top 100 Novels list currently out by the BBC

Finish the Dickens quote…(I bet you can!)

“It was the best of times…”

Finish the Dickens quote…(I bet you can!)

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

Dickens’ most famous novel, A Tale of Two Cities, is the best selling novel of all time.

A Tale of Two Cities

Other Notable Dickens Works

The Pervasive Theme  "Virtue shows quite as

well in rags and patches as she does in purple and fine linen."

Take a look at this famous Charles Dickens quote, said in New York City on one of his trips to the United States.

What do you think he meant by that? What issue do you think he dedicated his literary works to addressing and solving?

Poverty&

Social Inequalit

y

Poverty&

Social Inequalit

yOliver Twist:

Oliver is a poor orphan boy who suffers the

outrageous conditions of a orphanage – no food,

no heat, nothing more to wear than rags – before getting sucked into a life

of crime.

Oliver Twist shocked readers by showing the middle class – people who read novels – the true face of crime: sometimes people had to resort to it in order to survive.

Poverty&

Social Inequalit

yOliver Twist:

Oliver is a poor orphan boy who suffers the

outrageous conditions of a orphanage – no food,

no heat, nothing more to wear than rags – before getting sucked into a life

of crime.

Oliver Twist shocked readers by showing the middle class – people who read novels – the true face of crime: sometimes people had to resort to it in order to survive.

Great Expectations:Pip is a poor orphan (shocker!) living with

his much older sister and her husband who is given an anonymous gift that propels him

into a new social class.

Great Expectations shows that social class is never what it seems and that being rich isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Poverty&

Social Inequalit

yOliver Twist:

Oliver is a poor orphan boy who suffers the

outrageous conditions of a orphanage – no food,

no heat, nothing more to wear than rags – before getting sucked into a life

of crime.

Oliver Twist shocked readers by showing the middle class – people who read novels – the true face of crime: sometimes people had to resort to it in order to survive.

Great Expectations:Pip is a poor orphan (shocker!) living with

his much older sister and her husband who is given an anonymous gift that propels him

into a new social class.

Great Expectations shows that social class is never what it seems and that being rich isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

A Christmas Carol:Scrooge has all the money in the world

but no friends or family to speak of.

Why Poverty?

http://www.biography.com/people/charles-dickens-9274087

Dickens was known to use autobiographical elements in his literature.

Dickens’ birthplace is a museum now! In Portsmouth, England – the same town where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle hails from.

Social and Historical Context

1843:

A Christmas Carol is published

1837:

Queen Victoria crowned at the age of

19. She would reign for 64 years.

Social and Historical Context

1843:

A Christmas Carol is published

1837:

Queen Victoria crowned at the age of

19. She would reign for 64 years.

1882:

“Married Women’s Property Act” passed: women have the right to buy, sell, and own

property.

Social and Historical Context

1843:

A Christmas Carol is published

1837:

Queen Victoria crowned at the age of

19. She would reign for 64 years.

1882:

“Married Women’s Property Act” passed: women have the right to buy, sell, and own

property.

1834:New Poor Law:

“Prisons for the Poor” Workhouses

Living Conditions

Social and Historical Context

1843:

A Christmas Carol is published

1837:

Queen Victoria crowned at the age of

19. She would reign for 64 years.

1882:

“Married Women’s Property Act” passed: women have the right to buy, sell, and own

property.

1834:New Poor Law:

“Prisons for the Poor” Workhouses

Living Conditions

1833:Factory Act

Attempts to regulate child work laws and help the conditions

Social and Historical Context

1843:

A Christmas Carol is published

1837:

Queen Victoria crowned at the age of

19. She would reign for 64 years.

1882:

“Married Women’s Property Act” passed: women have the right to buy, sell, and own

property.

1834:New Poor Law:

“Prisons for the Poor” Workhouses

Living Conditions

1833:Factory Act

Attempts to regulate child work laws and help the conditions

1898-1902

Spanish-American War&

Boer War

Social and Historical Context

1843:

A Christmas Carol is published

1837:

Queen Victoria crowned at the age of

19. She would reign for 64 years.

1882:

“Married Women’s Property Act” passed: women have the right to buy, sell, and own

property.

1834:New Poor Law:

“Prisons for the Poor” Workhouses

Living Conditions

1833:Factory Act

Attempts to regulate child work laws and help the conditions

1898-1902

Spanish-American War&

Boer War

1901Death of Victoria

1870Death of Dickens

Queen Victoria

Victoria’s reign is most commonly associated with:

1. Industrial Expansion

2. Economic Progress

3. Empire and Colonization

Queen Victoria

Victoria’s reign is most commonly associated with:

1. Industrial Expansion

2. Economic Progress

3. Empire and Colonization

Between 1840 and 1882, there were seven attempts made on

Victoria’s life. (She rarely appeared in public toward the end of her rule.)

Queen Victoria

Victoria’s reign is most commonly associated with:

1. Industrial Expansion

2. Economic Progress

3. Empire and Colonization

Between 1840 and 1882, there were seven attempts made on

Victoria’s life. (She rarely appeared in public toward the end of her rule.)

Fairly conservative for the time: she opposed giving

women the right to vote.

Queen Victoria

Victoria’s reign is most commonly associated with:

1. Industrial Expansion

2. Economic Progress

3. Empire and Colonization

Between 1840 and 1882, there were seven attempts made on

Victoria’s life. (She rarely appeared in public toward the end of her rule.)

Fairly conservative for the time: she opposed giving

women the right to vote.

Passed a lot of acts and

measures to try and help

the poor.