A Christmas Carol

'Bah,'said Scrooge, 'Humbug.' But that was before he was presented with visions of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come, which gave him a whole new lease of life: 'I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the World!' Old Ebenezer Scrooge is too mean to spend money on coals for the fire in his counting-house, where his clerk Bob Cratchit shivers in the winter cold. Declining an invitation to his nephew Fred's Christmas party, and refusing to give money to charity, he is ready for his usual miserly Christmas in his cold, dingy apartment. But that night, the ghost of his dead partner Jacob Marley appears, in chains, and tells him to expect a visit from three spirits over the next three nights. Sure enough, the Ghost of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come lead Scrooge through his early years, the meagre Christmas about to happen in Bob Cratchit's family and the jolly Christmas party at his nephew's home, and finally a vision of his own death as a wealthy but avaricious and unhappy miser. Waking from these visions, Scrooge is given a chance to redeem himself, attending Fred's party and lavishing gifts on the Cratchit family and learning that kindness and generosity to others lead to his own happiness.

Born in 1812, Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.