A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens – An Audio Book Review

Blurb:

Ebenezer Scrooge is not a fan of Christmas. In fact, he dislikes most things, but especially people. Bah humbug!

But one Christmas Eve he is visited by the spirits of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come, and so begins a transformational evening for the mean and miserly man.

Author: Charles Dickens

Narrator: Hugh Grant

Genre: Historical Fiction

Running Time: 2hrs 44 mins

Audio Release Date: 21/12/2020

Publisher: Audible Studios

My Rating of ‘A Christmas Carol’: 5 out of 5

Purchase: Audible, Amazon

Review:

At the ripe old age of thirty two I have finally taken the plunge and read my first ever work by Charles Dickens. He’s an author I had wanted to try for a good long time and I can honestly say that it was well worth the wait.

A Christmas Carol is THE Christmas story that pretty much everyone, whether they’ve read it or not, is familiar with. Familiar though I was, I was still pleasantly surprised by how well-written it was and how much of it I didn’t actually know from my pop-culture education of this story.

Dickens wit is wonderful and the way he brings not only characters, but places to life through his vivid descriptions and lovely turns of phrase left me absolutely miserable that this was so short a piece. His wit was not the only high point, that was shared by how much of a tear-jerker he can turn a piece of writing into. He did a good job of making the reader, myself at least, feel a whole range of emotions across the length of the story.

More Dickens in my future, I hope.

Hugh Grant did a wonderful job as narrator, so good in fact that, at times, I forgot there was only one person doing the narration. His vocal range is brilliant and he really served to add a new dimension to the already well-fleshed out characters in A Christmas Carol.

I’m either a week late in reading this or fifty-one weeks early. Regardless of how you view it, I’m glad that my first read/listen of the year was such an enjoyable one. Long may that trend continue.