Has anyone read 'A Christmas Carol'?

[Pickles89]

Clear something up for me... I'm just watching the animated Disney version now, and Marley tells Scrooge the 3 spirits will visit on 3 consecutive nights. Is this true to the book? How's that supposed to fit in with it being Christmas Eve when the first comes, but he wakes on Christmas day morning after the third has left? I can't remember how other film versions explain it.

Changing tack slightly, which is your favourite film version and why?

No, they all come in one night in the book IIRC.

And the Muppets

Quite from Stave 1
"You will be haunted," resumed the Ghost, "by Three Spirits."

Scrooge's countenance fell almost as low as the Ghost's had done.

"Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob?" he demanded, in a faltering voice.

"It is."

"I -- I think I'd rather not," said Scrooge.

"Without their visits," said the Ghost, "you cannot hope to shun the path I tread. Expect the first tomorrow, when the bell tolls one."

"Couldn't I take `em all at once, and have it over, Jacob?" hinted Scrooge.

"Expect the second on the next night at the same hour. The third upon the next night when the last stroke of twelve has ceased to vibrate. Look to see me no more; and look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between us!"

He is told that they will come over 3 nights but I think at the end he says that they “did it all in one night”

Oh, and Muppets version, definitely

Definitely all one night. And then he wakes up a changed man in the morning.
The Muppets is brilliant and surprisingly true to the book!

This inconsistency is sort of addressed at the very end:

"It's Christmas Day!" said Scrooge to himself. "I haven't missed it. The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can.

Not sure why they say three consecutive nights at the beginning though, it doesn't seem relevent except to give Scrooge the unexpected pleasure of being able to start his redemption journey immediately (instead of presumably waiting a whole year until the next Christmas).

Any my favourite version is the Alistair Sim one.

Thanks to @countdowntonap I've just got this... When he talks about the next night he means Christmas eve, not three consecutive nights. It's written ambiguously!

I have this version: www.amazon.co.uk/Guinea-Pig-Christmas-Carol-Classics/dp/1526601451?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

It’s much better than the original

I've read it. It's quite a short book. A novella in fact. The spirits all come in one night.
My favourite version is Muppets Christmas Carol.

He’s told he will be visited on three consecutive nights, but when he wakes on Christmas morning, relieved, puts his head out the window and asks a passing boy what day it is, he says ‘It’s Christmas Day! [...] I haven’t missed it. The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like...’

X-post with everyone.

Marley tells Scrooge that he will be visited by three spirits on consecutive nights.

Scrooge is visited by three spirits, but they all manage to get to him in one night and he awakes on Christmas morning a changed man.

Muppet films are very true to the original stories - see also Muppet Treasure Island.

to be getting along with.

There is a 1999 film starring Patrick Stewart, that's quite good too.

He thinks he sleeps and wakes and loses hours and that it happens over several days, but actually it is all one night.

It’s magic innit. It feels to Scrooge like it’s lasted three nights but in reality it was just one. Such a good book and very relevant to politics today! You can just imagine certain members of the current government wondering why we can’t send starving children to the workhouse...

I like all of the films and also The Man Who Invented Christmas which is a fictionalised film about Dickens writing it. It's a magical story and lends itself well to all interpretations whether its Muppets or the fairly dark version the BBC did last year.0

I have tried and failed to read a load of dickens over the years but just absolutely cannot stick with any of them.

Love the muppets. And Scrooged as well, the first two ghosts are hilarious then the third is genuinely terrifying

I hated the bbc version last year, wtf was all that putting in historic child abuse/coercing mrs cratchit into getting nekkid???? Absolutely no need! But i did quite like how they put in the factory fire, i thought it was good to give a bit of background on how truly awful he and marley were, because most versions it’s just a bit like ‘oh he’s just a bit tight and grumpy’

I'm still confused! How can Scrooge not remember that he hasn't been awake/been to work/bullied Crachit some more inbetween sleeps? You'd surely assume it was just the next day if you didn't remember anything different! I don't want to find fault with Mr Dickens but I think it would have been better if he'd made them all going to be coming in one night to start with!

Dickens stuff is so long winded he’d probably forgotten what he put at the start of his books by the time he’d finished em tbf

Question number 2: What's Tiny Tim supposed to be at risk of dying from? Something to do with his leg, or just some generic childhood illness that they can't afford medical care for?

I heard somewhere (can’t remember where!) that there is only one draft copy of a Christmas Carol, and that Dickens was very poor at the time of writing and needed the money so published it quickly! Could explain the inconsistency about the three nights that might have been ironed out, if he had had the chance to re-draft and correct? It’s worth a read over Christmas, it’s pretty short. The first chapter is gorgeously descriptive.

I believe he published in installations. A section each week in a paper. No chance to edit backwards.

Tiny Tim was malnourished

Bloody hell. Its magic innit, as already noted. If you're not a bit less critical you'll soon be thinking there is no Father Christmas because you've never seen a flying reindeer. Suspend your disbelief. Happy Christmas

Dickens didn't sit down intending to write a novel that would be still read and pondered over a hundred years later. He was a jobbing writer who mostly wrote for the "light relief" section of newspapers, and a lot of his work was published a chapter at a time as soon as it was written and he probably didn't know exactly what chapter 19 would say when chapter 3 was printed. So yes there are inconsistencies and irrational bits bit it never got the coherent editing that would have given the author a chance to iron out these wrinkles - assuming that he would have cared enough to make such edits if he'd had the chance.

It reads exactly as Countdown has posted.

Marley's ghost says it will be over three nights, but the powers that be (not Marley) ensure it all takes place over one night. That way Scrooge doesn't miss Christmas day.

Tiny tim- I assumed malnourishment - maybe something like rickets, since he was lame. But there were lots of nasty diseases that wiped children out in those days, especially if already undernourished.