{"product_id":"2940012041036","title":"A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens","description":"A Ghost Story of Christmas\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eby Charles Dickens\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePREFACE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI HAVE endeavoured in this Ghostly little book,\u003cbr\u003eto raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my\u003cbr\u003ereaders out of humour with themselves, with each other,\u003cbr\u003ewith the season, or with me.  May it haunt their houses\u003cbr\u003epleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTheir faithful Friend and Servant,\u003cbr\u003e                                   C. D.\u003cbr\u003eDecember, 1843.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStave   I: Marley's Ghost\u003cbr\u003eStave  II: The First of the Three Spirits\u003cbr\u003eStave III: The Second of the Three Spirits\u003cbr\u003eStave  IV: The Last of the Spirits\u003cbr\u003eStave   V: The End of It\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSTAVE I:  MARLEY'S GHOST\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMARLEY was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt\u003cbr\u003ewhatever about that. The register of his burial was\u003cbr\u003esigned by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker,\u003cbr\u003eand the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and\u003cbr\u003eScrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he\u003cbr\u003echose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a\u003cbr\u003edoor-nail.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my\u003cbr\u003eown knowledge, what there is particularly dead about\u003cbr\u003ea door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to\u003cbr\u003eregard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery\u003cbr\u003ein the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors\u003cbr\u003eis in the simile; and my unhallowed hands\u003cbr\u003eshall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You\u003cbr\u003ewill therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that\u003cbr\u003eMarley was as dead as a door-nail.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eScrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did.\u003cbr\u003eHow could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were\u003cbr\u003epartners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge\u003cbr\u003ewas his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole\u003cbr\u003eassign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and\u003cbr\u003esole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully\u003cbr\u003ecut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent\u003cbr\u003eman of business on the very day of the funeral,\u003cbr\u003eand solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to\u003cbr\u003ethe point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley\u003cbr\u003ewas dead. This must be distinctly understood, or\u003cbr\u003enothing wonderful can come of the story I am going\u003cbr\u003eto relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that\u003cbr\u003eHamlet's Father died before the play began, there\u003cbr\u003ewould be nothing more remarkable in his taking a\u003cbr\u003estroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts,\u003cbr\u003ethan there would be in any other middle-aged\u003cbr\u003egentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy\u003cbr\u003espot--say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance--\u003cbr\u003eliterally to astonish his son's weak mind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eScrooge never painted out Old Marley's name.\u003cbr\u003eThere it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse\u003cbr\u003edoor: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as\u003cbr\u003eScrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the\u003cbr\u003ebusiness called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley,\u003cbr\u003ebut he answered to both names. It was all the\u003cbr\u003esame to him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone,\u003cbr\u003eScrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping,\u003cbr\u003eclutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint,\u003cbr\u003efrom which no steel had ever struck out generous fire;\u003cbr\u003esecret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The\u003cbr\u003ecold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed\u003cbr\u003enose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his\u003cbr\u003eeyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his\u003cbr\u003egrating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his\u003cbr\u003eeyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low\u003cbr\u003etemperature always about with him; he iced his office in\u003cbr\u003ethe dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExternal heat and cold had little influence on\u003cbr\u003eScrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather\u003cbr\u003echill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he,\u003cbr\u003eno falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no\u003cbr\u003epelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't\u003cbr\u003eknow where to have him. The heaviest rain, and\u003cbr\u003esnow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage\u003cbr\u003eover him in only one respect. They often \"came down\"\u003cbr\u003ehandsomely, and Scrooge never did.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with\u003cbr\u003egladsome looks, \"My dear Scrooge, how are you?\u003cbr\u003eWhen will you come to see me?\" No beggars implored\u003cbr\u003ehim to bestow a trifle, no children asked him\u003cbr\u003ewhat it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all\u003cbr\u003ehis life inquired the way to such and such a place, of\u003cbr\u003eScrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to\u003cbr\u003eknow him; and when they saw him coming on, would\u003cbr\u003etug their owners into doorways and up courts; and\u003cbr\u003ethen would wag their tails as though they said, \"No\u003cbr\u003eeye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!\"","brand":"public domain","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47120929095920,"sku":"2940012041036","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012041036","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}