1-158-840 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Scene from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843. The irascible, curmudgeonly Ebenezer Scrooge with the Ghost of Christmas Present, the third of the four apparitions that visit him on Christmjas Eve. He has already received the ghost of Marley, his late business partner, and the ghost of Christmas Past. The revelations cause him to wake on Christmas Day a changed man. He sends a turkey to Bob Cratchit his clerk, thoroughly enjoys the festivities and becomes a kindly, jolly old man. From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. (London, 1843). This was the first in the series of five Christmas books Dickens published.